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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > January > 15
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
1/16: Welcome to season seven of American Idol!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Idol” chose Philadelphia as its season launching pad - although chronologically it was their last city. Early on, they showed more good singers than they did last year, a possible way to address criticism that it had become TOO much of a trainwreck. I sense we’re more likely to see more of the final 50 than we did last year at this stage. (Kristy Cook and Chris Watson are the standouts.) But don’t worry, lovers of bad singers. There’s more than enough of that.
Joey Catalano, the former fat dude (down 204 pounds!), started the season singing Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning” and he’s actually pretty good. “Quite excellent dude,” says Randy. And he’s through. It’s interesting they chose a solid singer to open the show. “He looks hungry,” SImon says.
Uka, the gap-toothed happy Bee Gees fan from Egypt, signaled “BAD SINGER” in every way. He’s a Paula fan and Simon rolled his eyes. He’s the next William Hung. He’s awful but he sure likes to sing. “I’m very impressed with you phonetically learned the songs,” she said. “I appreciate the work you put into it. I do not think this is the competition.” Okay, her incoherence is back! Go Paula! “Singing is not your thing,” Randy said.
Melanie Nyema sang backup for Taylor Hicks. She’s chipper but her vocals are just okay. “I’m completely neither there or there,” said an unimpressed Simon. But Paula and Randy let her through.
Then there’s James Lewis, the Philly tour guide, who thinks he’s auditioning to be the new lead singer of Crash Test Dummies. Wow, he’s comically bad and Paula and Randy can’t stop laughing. And Simon even giggles.
Nick Stano goes overboard on “Unchained Melody” and Sybill White is just loud. ZhengZhou shows the charisma of a salad fork. Junot Joyner does an oldie from Elton John with soul and he goes through. Jose Candeleria blows away “Unbreak My Heart.” Jonathan Baines is also a good one.
Temptress Browne is a middle linebacker, a 16 year old gal, probably 100 pounds overweight. She said she tried out because of her mom, who is really ill. She had a good backstory but she’s an awful singer, which is too bad. “You are a sweetheart and I like you,” Simon said. “The not so good news is you’re not a great singer, sweetheart. You took on one of the biggest songs in the world.” She starts crying. Group hug! (Except Simon, of course.)
Mark Hayes does a dismal version of “White Christmas.” Then there’s Udgeet “Udi” Sampat, who tries to inspire people at the office with music and enjoys doing the MC Hammer dance (Michael Scott from “The Office” would be proud!). Udi’s terrible - naturally. “Did you honestly think you had any chance of getting through and winning?” Simon asked. “Yes, I did.” he said. “You’re nuts. It was completely tuneless. Slightly disturbing,” Simon added.
The song they had everyone do is “I Love Rock n’ Roll.” The judges actually never see anyone singing this song. But the editors make it seem as if they are reacting to the contestants.
Glittery tomboyish Alexis Cohen, who is from Allentown (which she believes is a song sung by Bon Jovi, ahem), gets some major backstory and if she’s any good, I would be shocked. She said her vocals are comparable to Grace Slick, Pat Benatar and Janis Joplis. Well, I’m shocked. She actually does a passable Grace Slick, though her mannerisms are bizarre. “I don’t think this is the route for you,” Simon said. “A 60s, 70s cover band, something like that,” Randy said. Then she goes off on him afterwards as Simon compares her to William Defoe. “Why do I feel like giving the camera the finger?” she asked. Then she does. “I’m going to go actressing!” she yelped.
The second half hour had a whopping zero singers who go to Hollywood.
Angela Martin, a 26-year-old Chicagoan who has a daughter with Rett Syndrome, is one of those heartwarming stories “Idol” embraces. She’s charming and looks like a winner She’s a wedding singer. “The corny adlibs are a bit oldfashioned. You need to lose that,” Simon said. You have a good voice. You need to de-wedding-ize.” And she’s off to the West Coast.
Alyse Wojciechowski is very, um, loud. “It’s exactly identical to a nightmare I had last week,” Simon said. Teresa Anello was almost as loud. Brandi Park is offkey AND loud. Milo Turk is a dorky 39-year-old social worker who sang his self-penned “No Sex Allowed,” looks about 49 and wastes a few minutes of airtime.
It’s now back story time: An adorable cage fight trainer and horseback trainer from Oregon named Kristy Lee Cook sings a soulful “Amazing Grace.” She’s got the look and the sound to make it to the final 12. “You remind me like someone singing in the ’60s,” Simon said. “I like you and you are very sincere.” She’s got a country feel and the show needs her badly! I anticipate we’ll be seeing a lot more of her. She’s on the spoiler top 50 and has what appears to be a recording past that “Idol” conveniently did not mention..
Pedro Rivera and Shekhina Bathyehudah sweep by. Creepy stalker-ish Paul Marturano bemuses Paula and Simon ousts him. Speaking of stalker, Beth Stalker is old school singing “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” “You’re not a bad singer but I think you’ll have a problem” standing out, Simon said. But Paula and Randy say yes.
Ben Haar is such a farce, he only got a couple of notes of “Don’tcha” out before being booted, even after his chest hair was removed. Chris Watson does an R&B version of Uncle Kracker’s relatively easy-to-sing “Follow Me” and Simon says, “You look like a star. Confident. You look good. You may have an interesting recording voice.” He could be in the final 50 if he has some range.
Christina Tolisano looks like a nutty Princess Leia and she’s perfectly adequate for karaoke bars but not quite for Hollywood. “I’m a goofball,” she said. But she gets no’s across the board.
“Idol” will often end on a high note and the finished with a nanny named Brooke White from Van Nuys, Calif. who never saw an R-rated movie. There’s some texture to her voice. “Something sort of pure,” Randy said. “I think you are sincere. You have a nice voice.. we can bring you to the dark side,” Simon said. She’s on the spoiler 50 and has a MySpace page..
The count: 13 bad singers, 10 good singers were featured. 29 made it through overall. They showed most of the other 19 but not singing.
I don’t think I’ll be necessarily live blogging the rest of the audition episodes. But I’ll leave a blog entry open if you want to live comment.
