American Idol
On Our TV

Tonight found us back in Los Angeles— land of the bizarre (perhaps even stranger than Seattle). L.A. people simply could not take “no” for an answer. I guess they’re accustomed to begging for opportunities. Olivia Newton John joined Simon, Paula and Randy. She seems like she would be far too sweet to be a guest judge. She really seemed to not enjoy the whole experience of telling people that they were not good. Tonight’s show was only an hour and out of that hour, we only got to see three people who made it through to Hollywood, so that pretty much sums up what the show was like tonight.

Alaina Alexander is a frustrated L.A. singer who was ready to give up singing and go to school. Her American Idol audition was her last effort to make a career of singing. It looks like she’ll be sticking with the music career for the moment, since she got a ticket to Hollywood.

This seems to be the year of background singers. I don’t really remember hearing of any in past years (although certainly maybe they just didn’t make the show or get camera time). This year there have been two background singers, Melinda Doolittle and now Brandon Rogers. Simon felt like he was one of the few LA auditions who could make the finals. Olivia Newton-John said he was the best she had heard. Needless to say, he made it through.

Brian Miller became the second person who made it through to Hollywood last year to return. He and Nicholas Pedro will have to fight it out to see if either one of them will make it past Hollywood this year. I really liked his voice. Unfortunately, Simon may be right about him being forgettable.

I don’t normally post on those who don’t make it through, but I had to mention two singers tonight who didn’t stand a chance of making it through to Hollywood. The first was Sherman Pore. In spite of the fact that he was quite a bit older than the cut off (almost twice as old, actually), he successfully petitioned to be able to sing. His lady love passed away from cancer two days before the auditions. To keep her spirits up while she was ill, he came up with this idea to petition American Idol to allow him to audition. He wasn’t a bad singer, but clearly he wasn’t planning to ever make it past the initial audition. He seemed very pleased that he had been allowed to sing and honor her memory.

The second person was Eric Mueller. This was just one more bad audition UNTIL… Simon noticed that Eric had been training himself using Paula and Randy’s “Sing Like the Stars” video to train himself to sing. I’ve never seen his eyes light up so much— at least not since last year when some horrible singer said he’d been using the same video. He went chasing after Eric, who had already left. Paula and Randy went chasing after Simon. I think they actually scared the poor guy away.

In any case, that was the final audition of the evening. There were 19 singers from the Los Angeles auditions who made it through to Hollywood. Next week’s auditions are in San Antonio, in my home state. It looks like we may see some big talent. Until then, check back with us for more videos, websites and more about your favorites, thus far.

Here it is— laughs and all.

This is Katie Bernard (of the Minnie Mouse voice) singing at the Hardrock Live Orlando. I think it’s better if you just listen, instead of watching it. Just my opinion.

This is an American Idol 6 contestant who made it through to Hollywood but wasn’t one of the auditions shown on television.

Chris has a couple of blogs here and here if you want to read more about his thoughts on life, in general. One of the blogs chronicles part of his American Idol journey. He also has a myspace, which includes music from his band.

Three American Idols have come from Alabama, so American Idol finally went there to try to find the next Idol.

Katie Bernard has Paris Bennett’s voice. Like Paris, her singing voice doesn’t sound anything like her little Minnie Mouse baby voice. Simon said no and begged the others to do the same. I thought we were going to see the first case where Paula was the deciding no. In the end, though, since Simon was so annoyed by her, Paula put her through.

17 year old Tatiana McConnico seemed to overwork the song a little bit, in my opinion, although she did have a good voice. She was through to Hollywood with hardly even any discussion.

Birmingham native Bernard Williams II hopes to prove Simon wrong (Simon said the next American Idol would not come from Birmingham). Simon really liked him and immediately said yes. For the first time I can recall Paula actually said no when Randy and Simon said yes. She said she thought the song was out of tune.

Kellie Pickler’s “twin sister” Jamie Lynn Ward shared a hard luck story with Kellie Pickler, as well as her looks. Her father is paralyzed from the chest down after shooting himself when he discovered his wife cheating on him. Anyway, she had a very sweet voice, although it wasn’t necessarily the best performance of the day. Randy and Paula gave her a golden ticket to Hollywood.

If Chris Sligh doesn’t become the next American Idol, perhaps he can go on Last Comic Standing. He was really funny. If he fails at both of those careers, he can probably get a job as a Jack Osbourne look alike. He also did an excellent job singing. I’d like to see him make it to the twelve, simply for the entertainment factor, if not for his singing.

Poor Birmingham had the misfortune to lose Paula on the second day when she returned to California for a family obligation. That left them to deal with Simon and Randy. Southerners showed their manners in a clip of very polite people saying “thank you” to the gruesome twosome as they were shown the door.

Although we saw some close calls on day two, we didn’t see anyone actually make it through. We did, however, get to see Randy almost throw down with one very annoyed young lady.

In total, twenty people made it through from Birmingham. Tomorrow night it’s back to Los Angeles.

If you can’t wait for tonight, you can head over to AmericanIdol.com and get a little preview of the Birmingham auditions. No actual singing, just talking to people in line. See if you see any of them sing tonight.

This was one of those auditions that I thought was okay, but I was frankly surprised that he made it through.

Armed and Famous will be going off the air. The producers have cited competition from American Idol as one of the reasons. Or maybe it was just a terrible idea for a show— Cops meets The Surreal Life.

Armed and Famous will be going off the air. The producers have cited competition from American Idol as one of the reasons. Or maybe it was just a terrible idea for a show— Cops meets The Surreal Life.

I wonder how that phone call would have gone if she hadn’t made it, and they’d still televised the footage?

American Idol’s very own Rocky.

Have dreams of going to American Idol auditions and standing before Paula, Simon and Randy? Not everyone gets that chance. For most of the 10,000 or so who audition, it’s just a long tedious day with hardly a thank you very much at the end. You can read one person’s experience here.

Do you think these people are at a disadvantage if they make it to the part where America starts to vote? Remember Melissa McGhee last year? The first time we ever saw her was when she first sang for votes. Well, sometimes I do find the names of people who made it through to Hollywood, but who didn’t make the television cut. Here’s one.

Melissa Sgambelluri from Albany, New York. I saw her name mentioned in an article that discussed Jenry Bejarano making it through. So, I did a little digging. She has some music that you can listen to. She sounds pretty good.

Here Nicholas Pedro explain in his own words why he left American Idol last year. Also, see his audition.