The Dallas auditions were broadcast tonight, and they were, well, weird. Let’s completely ignore the fact that someone gave birth waiting for their audition. Let’s toss out the guy who wrote a song giving tribute to Simon. It was still a bit weird. Not that there wasn’t some talent, I was just really surprised at who made it through and who didn’t.
Perhaps this year we can expect that the first audition will be someone good, since we now have a two night precedent. Jessica Brown is a former meth user who is now a stay at home Mom in Longview, Texas. She sang “I’ll Stand By You” and was quite good.
Alaina Whitaker sure sounded like she was going to be horrible. She had all the earmarks— cocky, said she could sing anything, you know we’ve seen them sing before, only to be shot down. But, as they say, “It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true”. Simon didn’t think she was as good as she thought she was, but she was good enough to make it to Hollywood. I do have to say that perhaps she’s not cocky. She is only 16 (the youngest we’ve seen so far), and sometimes youth make mistakes in how they present themselves.
Bruce Dickson was my first surprise of the night. He’s a 19 year old who’s never kissed a girl because he’s saving that first kiss for his wedding. Personally, I think it’s a sweet idea. His audition wasn’t fabulous, but it was okay and, because of the build up, I had already written down his name and was taking notes, thinking he would be going on to Hollywood. But, no, he wasn’t. When he asked for advice, Randy’s only words that made it to air were “Go kiss some girls”. I hope the rest of the judges’ advice made it to the cutting room floor because I’d hate to think that he was kept from Hollywood because he hadn’t kissed anyone.
Pia “Zpia” Easley was up next. She’s a background singer and model and sang quite well. Frankly, I was too busy still mulling over Bruce to really pay a lot of attention. I couldn’t find out any information about Pia’s background singing and modeling, so at least she’s not another “ringer”.
One of the grossest things tonight was Brandon Green’s ziplock bag of peeled fingernails, which he’s been collecting for years. Ewww. Fortunately, his singing was better than his hobby. Simon dubbed him forgettable. Randy and Paula were ready to put him through, but then he almost talked himself out of a ticket by talking about how great Simon was. They didn’t hold it against him for too long, though, and ultimately gave him his trip to Hollywood.
Kayla Hatfield was my next surprise of the evening. She was the survivor of a horrible accident when she was 18, losing the sight in one eye and suffering severe damage to one side of her face. Despite these hardships, she was perhaps the happiest contestant ever. She had a tiny baby doll voice but sang Janice Joplin with a gravelly, raspy voice. She wasn’t great, in my opinion, but Simon was so impressed with her attitude that he sent her to Hollywood. Paula said no, but Simon appealed to Randy to give her a chance. I couldn’t believe she was heading to the next round.
Katie Malloy had a slightly strange audition, as well. She does singing impersonations (quite good ones, actually). She sang Brittany Spears and then was supposed to sing as herself. But her version of a Carrie Underwood song sounded like, well, Carrie Underwood. When she switched to a song by a male (“Unchained Melody”) she sounded like herself and got the compliment from Simon that she was the best they’ve seen this season.
Kyle Ensley was another surprise. So much so that I fast forwarded through his audition because, from the intro, I was so convinced that it was going to be horrible. Then I saw him walking out with a yellow piece of paper and had to rewind and watch it again. I didn’t think he was fabulous, but Simon was clearly in a good or perverse mood. I’m not honestly sure which. He convinced the others to send Kyle through.
Colton Swon was quite good, I thought, but the judges seemed ho hum about him. I thought, “you put Kyle through, but not this guy?” But then they decided to send him to Hollywood, too, so I guess that’s okay.
I really liked Drew Poppelreiter. Okay, maybe not his singing (it was okay), but he sure seemed super nice and awfully decent. The farmer boy sang country decently, but I’m concerned he would struggle with anything else.
The final contestant of the night that we saw was Nina Shaw. She was very tall and looked like a model. She started with a Whitney Houston song and was immediately told she was too old fashioned by Simon (funny, I thought her legs were long enough for him to overlook any minor issues with her singing). She sang a second song and even though it still didn’t convince Simon, it was good enough to convince Randy and Paula.
So, those are the contestants from Dallas. In all, 24 made it through. Next week we’ll see the San Diego contestants. Check back in the meantime for any news that comes up during the week and interesting videos of contestants.
