I think the audition aspect of the show loses its appeal a little more after each season. We know that the auditions are heavily dramatized. Really, how many deluded singers can we see and buy the fact that they’re all clueless? Especially when they walk in singing a Whitney, Mariah, or (God forbid!) Minnie Riperton song.
The guitar guy revealed himself to be a complete asshole. Telling your mom “don’t touch me!” after you bombed the audition when she came out there to support you? Not the most sensitive move, dick.
I agree that the “get a persona” girl storyline was weak. We knew she was good enough to get to Hollywood, and it was dumb to make it look as if she was a borderline case.
Ryan Seacrest, who I’ve always liked, went up another notch in my book when he dressed down whiny guitar guy on camera. “That’s your mother. You don’t treat her like that.” It struck me as very honest and spontaneous. Good on him.
“Second Chance Girl” was the standout of the evening. I’ve already forgotten the rest of them.
“Loving You” girl cracked me up: “But I hit the note good that time!”
I wish they’d made the “Imagine” guy sing it again, but straightforwardly. But then I wonder if he’d have been able to… If I were a judge, and had to listen to talented people sliming melisma all over everything, I’d ask them to sing Happy Birthday as written before I’d let them through.
Yeah, Cara can go now. She adds nothing to the show. She’s a total bitch famous for writing top-40 tripe. Dare I say it, but I like Paula better.
As far as the show last night, they really concentrated again on the bad auditions. I don’t get at the end of the show we see tons of people with golden tickets that we only see 2 or 3, but we see 5-8 morons.
I do like Seacrest and the scene that Sam Stone mentioned above, but as far as this year goes, I don’t have anyone I’ll be looking for in the Hollywood round.
I think they sent the Second Chance girl out because it’s (relatively) easy to imitate someone and sound pretty good (as she was doing with Cara), but when you’re asked to be “yourself” it can reveal a lot of vocal issues. They did that last year with the girl they sent out to learn a Dolly Parton song- she clearly had a decent voice, but everything she sang sounded exactly like the artist who performed the original song. When she only had a few hours to learn something, she sounded more like “herself” (which wasn’t so bad either).
When I did HS/College/Community theater, I was famous for this- my own singing voice is okay-ish, but give me a fairly well-known role, and I can typically knock it out of the park (ended up getting the role of the Phantom that way- the guy they’d chosen wasn’t doing well at all and I finally lost it and demonstrated what it should sound like; the director thought it was amusing and ended up doing an all-female PotO show, which certainly makes the dynamics somewhat odd). I think this is part of what gets a lot of folks cut during Hollywood week- they’re great in the audition because it’s something they’ve practiced endlessly and is in their comfort zone, but it takes a LOT of talent to work outside that.
Seconding the kudos to Ryan for slapping down Guitar Boy. Nearly makes up for trying to high-five Blind Guy.
So far the only one I’ll be rooting for is Stevie. Maybe the girl who Cara recognized- the one who went to Hollywood at 16 and realized what a horrible place it is for a kid- as well.
That always reminds me of the scene in “Family Ties” where Meredith BB’s character goes into labour while singing on the fundraiser, and she screams in pain just as she’s trying to sing a note she couldn’t get before; the stage hand tells her - “You really nailed it that time!”
Happy Birthday is hard! When my family gets together and sings it, it sounds like a pack of dogs howling along. So yeah, good plan.
You mean not everybody’s family breaks into 4-part harmony when singing it? Then again, it’s not like it’s news that my family is filled with a bunch of freaks…
I think they knew she could give a great audition and wanted to see if they could draw out an ASTOUNDING audition (not sure it reached that level). The most memorable grade I ever got on a paper in college read “A+ excellent” and under that “You can do better !” *. I got the feeling that they wanted her to do her best and not just be good enough to go to Hollywood.
Drain Bead: One would think so, unless they want all their billions of relatives to “make it on their own.” I think he deserves a chance more than the already-failed-record-deal girl they put through (even though I like her), or Michael/Carly from last year.
What happened to bunny guy? Our electric went out for a few minutes. We liked him, but not the actual bunny. (Not that he’s a winner, but we want to see him one more time.)
