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.
