I liked the girl in pink. She had a sweetness to her and she wasn’t afraid to be different.
The football player was likable too but I don’t think he really had outstanding talent.
How about the little person? she sang pretty well and she shows a lot of determination. I liked that she made her high school cheerleading team despite having to overcome some obvious prejudice. She could be a sentimental favorite.
The Cambodian kid who sang “Desperado” was good too and he also had the sentimental backstory about his parents coming to US as refugees. We could have shades of Dat Phan from “Last Comic standing” with this kid.
I agree with Lib that the “Isn’t She Lovely” guy was borderline. He could carry a tune but they were looking for something in his personality to put him over the top. Simon was pretty clearly put off by the kid’s cockiness and the bullshit Miss America answer to his question. I don’t think Simon likes phoniness.
As to the cheerleader, I think she was the type of person who can make herself pretty good at most anything but she just didn’t have a real stand-out talent. She isn’t likely to be one of those two or three contestants who separate themselves from the field like a Clay or a Kelly. Like Simon said, she may be comopetent enough to make it to the final ten but she isn’t going to knock anybody’s socks off once she’s there.
Can’t believe I forgot the “little person”; I liked her too! By the way, what’s the PC term? I told my daughter she was a dwarf, but that’s probably not it.
“Dwarf” is technically correct but “little people” is preferred. “Midget” is considered offensive.
I once had a working acquaintance with a little guy who said that ideally they just prefer to be called by their names and acknowledged as individuals. They don’t want to be defined by their size. he also said that little people will call each other midget in the same way that black people will use the “N” word, gay people might use “faggot,” etc. so there may be some inconsistency there.
I totally agreed with you until after he left the audition. When he got out there holding his yellow card, he just started belting out an operatic rendition of “O Holy Night” that totally blew me away. If he can make his pop singing as good as his opera singing, he’ll go far.
Plus, people like a jock (he played in a fricken’ Rose Bowl, for chrissakes) who shows he has a talent besides smashing things.
Between that episode of American Idol and a fantastic Real World episode, reality TV was very good to me last night.
There was the black girl waaaay back in the beginning who sang Proud Mary. She was a natural singer, unlike most of the others who made it. They strained so much to sound “good” I could almost hear the tendons in their necks snapping.
I thought Jasmine had a pretty good voice, but she seemed very, very nervous and stiff. I’m also a cynical beeyotch who thinks that Randy and Simon put her through so they wouldn’t look completely heartless and so that AI could claim diversity.
I really liked Jasmine and would love to see her move on, admittedly in part because of the diversity aspect. I do think she sang as well as at least half of the people who were sent to Hollywood, so she didn’t just get a pity vote. Simon in particular was very deferential (condescending?) to her – he called her “sweetheart” twice. I loved when she came out of the audition and told her mother how nice Simon was to her – I think she would still have gotten through if she were taller, but I doubt she would have called Simon “nice.”
In addition to Jasmine, I liked Bao Viet and the football player very much. I’ve seen some online speculation that pink Thunderbird girl got some points for promoting a Ford car, since Ford is a major AI sponsor. I wouldn’t put it past the show to do something like that, or even for a contestant to play that angle.
This was the first AI episode this year that I really enjoyed, I think because there was a better mix of good and bad auditions.
Watching Access Hollywood now reminded me of one guy who gets the prize, for leaving Simon speechless:
“I’m gonna shimmy til my garter breaks”
What WAS that song? :eek:
I LOVE the “She Bangs” Dude. Too much. “You know i never had any professional training in singing or anything|!” He seemed so nice. And Paula said something like, “You have a great day!” To tell you the truth, I thought to myself, “Not likely, but I hope so too.”
I could believe this of Randy or Paula (especially Paula) but I don’t think Simon has a sentimental bone in his body and certainly no pity on those who can’t sing. I’ve got to believe that if she had sucked he would have had no problem telling her so.
He was nice to her but he’s often nice to the ones who can sing.
Is it me, or are Randy & Simon totally and unnecessarily hyperbolic? There were a few singers who weren’t any worse than mediocre (certainly not “Idol” quality, American or otherwise, but not terrible) that they just mercilessly panned and adjudged talentless and self-deluded.
I understand that Simon can’t stand Ryan Seacrest* (in his book he said Seacrest reminds him of Odie from Garfield), which may explain the total snub during the “why are you late” session, but I wasn’t aware he hated Aiken. No big surprise; Clay Aiken has always struck me as being fake as well.
*Not to be too cryptic, but Seacrest needs to remember that many people in Atlanta have perfectly functional memories before he denies too many things too strenuously.
OMG, in the previews for the next show Scooter Girl has ditched the scooter and replaced it by a plush toy. Very cute ~ not. Will she always need a prop?
They played Skat Girl again. I honestly think she’s an all-time classic. Absolutely my favourite.
Wow! Hawaiians seem like such warm wonderful people. Great group of families and friends. That was very nice to see.
I thought the “Big Girls Rock” girl should have gotten in.
Matthew Motter ~ aka “I’m here to get a girlfriend”… wow, how low do you have to go? Poor guy. And just before he embarrassed himself like that, he gave a “shout out” to all the people who said he couldn’t make it. Yikes.
I think Randy is snippier this season. Could it be the weight loss? More confidence? He seems more Simon-esque.
And speaking of Simon (who’s my future husband btw), why do people say he’s gay? They showed a preview of the next show. Some chick must have been told she sucks. Then she turned around and said, “I guess the rumours about you are true and you are gay.” Isn’t he engaged to some British woman?
That number seems about right to me, but I don’t know for sure.
After they go to Hollywood, they go through some more trials in which they are first broken into singing trios and then do some more solo auditions. IIRC, one of the tests also involves being given a set of lyrics and being told to compose their own melody for it. The judges are just as brutal during this time as at the initial auditions.
Anyway, the judges then pare it down to something like thirty and send the rest home. The last thirty all perform solo for the judges and they knock it down to ten (I think they then throw in a couple of wild cards to make it 12).
Also, it’s still a capella for all this stuff. I don’t think they get backing music until at least the final 30 and maybe it’s the final ten.
Matthew Motter gave me the creeps. I think he hurt himself more than he helped himself in his attempt to get a girlfriend via appearing on AI; that kind of pathetic desperation tends to be a turn-off for a lot of women.
‘They’ being people voting in. The judges narrow it down to 32 (IIRC), and then they are broken up into 4 groups of 8. All 8 perform and then people at home vote. The top two from every group make it to the final round (8), and then the judges add wildcard singers (2 from AI 1 and 4 from AI 2). Then in the final round one person gets kicked off every week as they do themed singing.
I watched him several times (Tivo) and I feel like he might have been somewhat “special”. He had some mongoloid facial characteristics and I was offended that Simon was so rude to him. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I really felt like he might be borderline special. BTW, he’s a civil engineering student at UC Berkley, so he’ll be just fine without American Idol. It made me sad, regardless.
Yeah, “She Bangs” gave me a sort of feeling that he didn’t really know what it was all about and someone was playing a mean trick on him. A nice kid, though.
