American Idol Auditions: Orlando

Orlando, Florida. Disney World. The place where wishes come true. Unfortunately based on the last two nights of auditions, I think most of us are wishing we can skip right to Hollywood week. I've had enough of the heartbreaking back stories (some of which are starting to border on ridiculous) and people who can win screeching contest not a singing contest.

The guest judges have for the most part been an improvement over Paula and last night was no exception. First let me say this about Kristen Chenoweth. The first time I saw her was as Glinda when Wicked first opened on Broadway in 2003. She was absolutely amazing then. The funny thing is now, I keep picking up on that perky kind of attitude, and it's a little annoying. However she did give some of the most constructive criticism out of any of the guest judges we've seen so far.

On to the singers worthy of mention in this post (of which there weren't many):

My Favorite Performances of the Night


Jermaine Purifoy: Really enjoyed the song choice. He has a good range.


Matt Lawrence: Best performance of the night. No questions asked. Loved his voice. Great song choice. He really has that whole Ray LaMontagne gruff thing going on with his voice except he has a lot more power than LaMontagne. Looking forward to seeing more of him.

I also liked the three girls they looked at really quickly: Janell Wheeler, Brittany Starr James, and Kasi Bedford but they didn't focus on them long enough for me to really hear their voices.

Quick mentionings on others who won: Seth Rollins was okay. Like Randy said, he needed more energy. I didn't think it was such an easy yes. I felt like his back story won more than he did. Same thing with Shelby Dressel. She was imitating Norah Jones but not comparable to her at all. I don't know why they liked her. Jay Stone was just weird--I've had enough of the Beat-boxing from Blake Lewis and he didn't have a good voice. I think he'll be more annoying than entertaining.

And finally the moment of the night that almost made me yell at the t.v.: Amanda and Bernadette DiSimone. Noooo!! What's with these people from Jersey?!  We're not like that!! It makes me so sad. The girls weren't bad singers, but I just don't want to see that Jersey stereotype on tv anymore. Just for the normal jersey girl's sake--I hope they don't make it very far.


Mitch's Thoughts:

I thought Wednesday's episode was a lot better than Tuesday's. Maybe there weren't a lot of contestants who jumped out as being shoo-ins for the final 24, but it was a pretty entertaining hour.


Matthew Lawrence- I agree that Mattew Lawrence was the best of the night. He also seems to have a charming personality that makes it hard to root against him. So what if he once robbed a bank. Who hasn't tried it once in their life? He didn't even use a real gun as a weapon. That just shows how sweet and harmless he really is. He might have to change his name the same way David Bowie did since his real name, Davey Jones, was the same as one of the Monkees.

Jermaine Purifoy- I thought she was really good. Randy agrees since he gave a two bizillion percent yes to him.

For comedy sake, I actually enjoyed the DiSimone sisters. I thought it was hilarious when the first sister was swaying to the second one's audition. They won't make it past Hollywood week, so I won't bother learning which one was which.

I agree with Christina that Shelby Dressel was overrated. I also think for someone who is trying to get over an insecurity it must be horrifying to hear Randy say at first he was kind of afraid of her.

Seth Rollins was ok, but it seemed like American Idol is ready to give him his own half-hour special. Did you notice how they pulled out all these unique camera angles during his performance? They also made sure to highlight the judges' reactions even more than usual.

Jay Stone- Please don't put on another beatboxer on the show. I had forgotten about Blake until tonight. Lots of bad memories are coming back now.