Season 9 auditions aired last night and I have to say it appears that AI has gone back to basics…back to the thing that made the show great in the first place. What impressed me the most was that this season, they concentrated more on showing the good singers as opposed to the bad ones and the freaks. A lot of my friends have stopped watching the audition shows and waited until Hollywood week to watch because the audition shows had become a freak show. Last night’s show was a good mix of both, but mostly the good singers and that made it enjoyable to watch.
The very skinny Victoria Beckham was the guest judge and she did a pretty decent job. Randy looks like he’s had a face lift. First I thought he lost a lot of weight because he face was so tight and thin, but then I saw that he hadn’t. So, I’m thinking face lift!
It was very funny how several of the contestants called Kara “Paula” and that ticked her off to the max. Janet McNamara, the human jumping bean, kept callng her “Paula” and then later on referred to her as “The Kara girl on the left.” Great way to start off the show, I’m sure Paula was GLOATING.
There were a lot of really good singers who came out of New York and with NY being my home state, I was glad to see it!!! There were a couple of 16 year old girls who were unbelievably talented, one of which was Maddy Curtiss. She’s #9 of 12 kids, and she had a bitter sweet story attached to her that I hope AI won’t try to ram down our throats this season and ruin her chances to win like they did with Danny Gokey last year. I was so hoping she would be good and she was better than good, she shined.
Likewise with Justin Williams who is a cancer survivor. He was a great singer and I’m hoping AI doesn’t jump all over his sob story like they tried to do with David Cook’s brother. I’m really rooting for a revamped improved AI this season!
There was Amodeo Diricci, the lovable Italian guy who actually said “I want to thank all yous”. Loved it. They showed his family at home at dinner and all I can say is I want to go to his house on Sundays!! And there was Derek Hilton, the peacenik landscaper that made me cringe when he “sang”. He was so bad that my son went and got his nerf gun and shot himself with it!
There was Kimono Girl whose own mother rolled her eyes at her. Her teeth were so yellow, it put me off my food. But the weirdest contestant was Andrew Fenlon in his superfly eyeglasses. He had such a prissy hissy fit about having had to wait so long that by the time he got into the room, he filled the room with bad energy, sassed back very rudely to the judges and completely ruined his chances of ever getting on the show. Kara hated him and told him so. The thing was his voice wasn’t all that bad. But his attitude made him a clown. He was completely shocked that they didn’t send him to Hollywood. Big surprise there.
Kara and Simon didn’t get along through 2/3 of the show and it is apparent to me that Simon doesn’t care for her. It’s almost as if he doesn’t like her because she replaced Paula. Yes, that’s right, I said it. SHE replaced Paula, not Ellen Degeneres. I firmly believe that they brought her in last year to set the stage to force Paula out only it blew up in their faces because she was just as bad as Paula only not as likable.
I can go on forever with everyone’s names and the songs they sang and the usual delusionals, but there’s not enough space. Suffice it to say that Idol is back and in a good way. Simon is still his acerbic self with the sometimes hilarious comments. The best of the night? When he told Roberto Guerrero that he sang like a 3 year old girl and dressed like Latoya Jackson.
If tonight is an indication of how Season 9 is going to be, then it’s going to be a good watch this year. Here’s hoping Ellen can bring it on and not behave like she did when she was a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance. I hope she is like she is on her own show. She loves her audience and I think she can bring that compassion to the contestants on Idol.
