My favorite part about her was that she said, “You don’t have to spend a lot of money to look expensive.” Honey, you were wearing clothes that were 5 sizes too small and from that one ghetto store in the mall I avoid like the plague. That stretchy material looks good on NO ONE. And $5 earrings? Just because you are wearing 10 pair, doesn’t make them expensive.
(for the record, I buy lots of cheap stuff. I love me some sales. $1.96 shirt anyone? But, don’t talk about how “expensive” you look, when you are wearing the tackiest, cheapest thing from the mall!)
I think Simon must have been burned really bad by a model or something when he was younger. Seems like, when a truly beautiful woman can sing, he votes against her, on the grounds that she is beautiful.
Constantine is pretty tasty. Probably won’t make it past the Hollywood round, though. He seems too confident to agree to play by TPTB’s rules, and will be cut a la Lisa Leuschner.
Looking forward to seeing more of the pink-hat-wearing girl. Also the guy with the dreads.
I’m not convinced that Regina’s husband is bad news, based on the behavior of their little girl. She seemed very affectionate with him, not withdrawn or trying to squirm out of his arms. Not sure her mom is quite that well-adjusted, though. If she doesn’t get to the semis, and she very well may not, I shudder to imagine how she’ll react.
I missed this guy (hello? Amazing Race!!), but according to my friends, we saw him perform in “Rent” in Chicago last year. I vaguely remember him hitting on my friends and asking us to come see his band play.
I’m gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that: I don’t think it’s Schadenfreude when we’re watching someone be burned by his own hubris. (E.g., the guy who claimed to be Tony (Toni?) Braxton’s cousin.)
Fox really hit a new low w/ Scary Mary, IMO. They had a perfect chance to make good on an object lesson in the evils of so-called white lies; instead they mocked her. Others, like Braxton, are so arrogant that one has trouble separating their hubris from the foundation of lies on which their arrogance rests. With Scary Mary, she very visibly came to the train wreck caused by white lies meeting headlong with industry experts who weren’t going to lie to make her feel good. It’s a shame Fox doesn’t have the moral wherewithall to do the right thing.
I’m not being snarky or anything, I’m really not understanding what you’re saying. AI had a chance to teach on object lesson in white lies? Especially to those who are not arrogant?
Please elaborate for those of us (o.K., those of me) who are having comprehension problems.
Wasn’t the “Sunny Side of the Street” guy the dancing janitor? He broke my heart when he took the judges’ “No” so well, shouldered his backpack, and went out on the street to beg for money.
He doesn’t have a great voice, but he was definitely good enough for the next round.
My sympathy assumes, of course, that this was all for real.
You’re right, someone else said “no” and he didn’t make it. There was another one where a girl (I think) sang an old pop standard and Randy was the only no.
I agree, I think she also made a comment about choosing which was more important. If she had seemed more like it was a hard decision or remorseful about it it may not have made me so easy but she made it seem like it was no contest.
Scary Mary and the overweight “expensive looking” chick both sounded like they were trying to do a combo of several other singers. Singers with rather unique voices that work for them and should not be copied. I think I heard a little Rickie Lee Jones in there.
The fact that they said no to dancing janitor and let Constantine go to Hollywood bugged me. They each had good vocal qualities but they also each had some problems. I would have liked to hear dancing janitor do something more recent other than judging him as old-fashioned because he sang an old-fashioned song. I guess that just goes to show that song choice is everything.
And yeah, Mark McGrath is a hottie.
I get the overwhelming impression that many of the horrible singers who come to audition honestly believe that they can sing well enough to be pop stars, and that the people in their lives have been telling them that they can make it and to follow their dreams and all that jazz.
I honestly think that Simon may be the first person in many of their lives to actually tell them the truth: they’re never going to be singers.
Personally, I think it is cruel to make people think that they can do it when they obviously can’t, and to send them into the rest of their lives thinking could have been when they couldn’t have. To me it is cruel to let Braxton waste his life when some other fulfilling art may be within his reach.
Sure she is a war criminal, but Condi Rice is a good example. She knew that she would never make it as a concert pianist, so she moved into something else. Whatever one’s feelings about the woman, it would be hard to argue that she hasn’t had a fulfilling career. We can’t all end up being Secretary of State; however, I sincerely hope that none of us have to live in a fool’s paradise. I forgot to say that I’m rooting for Constantine. I don’t think he has to tow the bubblegum line to succeed. I doubt he’ll make it.
I liked British-Parents Girl, if only because I was expecting her to be awful and she wasn’t. I liked how Simon said that she’s pretty and sometimes it is better to dress down.
It was also heartbreaking to see the dancing janitor get the axe. I agree that he was good enough to make it to the next round.
I don’t think Boxer Girl really appreciated what the judges said to her. I think they basically said, “Come back next year!” I didn’t get the impression that she took it that way.
Also, I thought that it was really tacky when what’s-his-face said to God Girl that she was so hot. Granted, she was, and her choice of outfit was fantastic—but it was just tacky.
Like ShirleyUjest, last night was my first American Idol.
The cute 17-year-old who didn’t move on – I was glad the judges suggested she keep trying.
Some of these people, you get the feeling that singing lessons might help. Why not develop your own natural voice instead of trying to sound like popular singers?
Poor Mary Roach. (Whoever said she looked like Roseanne’s first blond daughter was spot on. )
The guy with all the different voices was truly fun to watch, and the one with all the jerks in his voice.
I was suprised that Constantine moved on – guys in local bands sound better (and they’re cuter). And by “local”, I mean Eagle Grove, Iowa.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I didn’t think he sounded very good at all. Well, not nearly as bad as the horrible ones, but not good enough to make the cut.
They gave Constantine a chance because he was a so-so singer (his performance was shaky, but there were spots that showed that he can sing with a little training…he’s not tone deaf, like so many who try out) but he has different enough to bring a little spice to the bland parade of Britney-wannabes.
He’ll almost definitely wash out in the first or second round of eliminations. No matter how much personality he has, he just doesn’t have the chops to compete in this sort of competition.
He may make if much further than people think, especially if they seperate the males from the females.
And what was that with Simon and the super fine, great looking black guy with the smooth soulful voice and the girl who sang “Aretha Franklin’s” Rescue Me? He said no to both. Granted, the girl who sang Rescue Me is an idiot who knows not what she is singing but she had a great voice and she was hot. Isn’t that what they look for in an American Idol?
After some reflection, I’m looking at Scary Mary and Mr. Braxton from a slightly different perspective.
I’ve heard from more than one person who went to this year’s auditions, and they all said it was hell, waiting to get to the judges. And not like previous years. Now, it has always been a matter of, “If you really want to do this, you should be willing to make that initial sacrifice of waiting in line for up to three days.” It’s a way of winnowing out the people who don’t have enough drive even to do that.
But this year, I’m told, was different. People were not allowed to bring in outside food. They were charged for water. They weren’t allowed inside to use the bathroom, for crissakes, and they were disqualified if they spent too much time away from the location. Okay, I may be slightly off on some of the details, but what I read all added up to an endurance test, beyond what’s been required in the past. People were close to breaking down before they even got to the singing-scales round of elimination.
So Mary and Braxton may be quick-tempered even in normal circumstances, but perhaps the go-offs we saw weren’t typical for them. They’d been physically pushed to their limits, and their boiling points were closer than other peoples’. Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re psychotic.
The ones I feel most sorry for are the ones who have some talent but no training, or who have just a modicum of talent that ten years of training wouldn’t improve. As js_africanus pointed out, people with ambition and drive can channel that into arenas where they have a chance of success. Braxton and Mary presented themselves with an awful lot of chutzpah. It wasn’t justified by their singing talent, but when/if they do find their niche, their confidence should serve them well.
Whereas, two of the women in the “America the Beautiful” montage just made me sad. I got the impression that they’d been good, average, school- or church-choir singers, praised by teachers who didn’t know how to spot or nurture talent. Now they’ve found out that that’s as far as they’ll ever go, and that’s gotta hurt.
AuntiePam: IIRC, they won’t be singing with backup until they get to the semi-finals: the stage at which the audience gets to vote. I think that at some times in the Hollywood round they get a backing track or a drum machine, but there’s no band.
Ok I loved Mr 5.9% who didn’t know he could sing until a couple of weeks ago. It takes talent to do ALL the Temptation’s voices
Mr. Braxton was just plain wrong and he and Ms Roach were a matched pair.
The two very pretty girls acted like they had never been told no in their lives. Both of them tried flirting, sucking up and crying before showing their true selves and acting out. Shameless.
