First I must admit that I am an American Idol-aholic. I’ve watched the show religiously since season 1, I regularly call and text in my votes (sometimes for hours), I see the Idols in concert every summer (sometimes in multiple cities), I’ve been to live tapings of the show in Hollywood, I’ve met the judges, the contestants, Ryan Seacrest… I’m genuinely obsessed.
With that said, I HATE the American Idol auditions. Unlike some viewers, I take no pleasure in watching people make fools of themselves. The delusional, belligerent, obnoxious contestants are in no way entertaining to me. I’d rather listen to singers who can actually SING. Granted, I love “Pants on the Ground” as much as anyone (it’s the highlight of the season so far), but I would be perfectly satisfied enduring only one night of auditions before moving swiftly on to the real competition.
In general this season’s auditions have been lackluster, at best, and the Los Angeles episode was no exception. Only one singer truly impressed me: Tasha Layton, the personal assistant/minister who sang Joss Stone’s “Baby Baby Baby.” Also of note were Andrew Garcia (“Sunday Morning”) and Chris Golightly (“Stand By Me”), neither of whom blew me away with their initial auditions but might be contestants to keep an eye on in the future. Outside of these three performers, the only person to even remotely interest me was the infamous “crying girl” of season 6, and said interest was purely sadistic. I appreciated guest judge Katy Perry’s “Don’t put someone through because you feel bad… this is not a Lifetime movie” attitude, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me from yawning throughout the Los Angeles auditions.
Fortunately the Dallas auditions were a little more entertaining, from the quality of the contestants to guest judge Neil Patrick Harris. NPH’s feisty attitude and honest criticism were a welcome change to many guest judges’ tame, passive feedback. I wish he had been on for the whole hour! Perhaps next year NPH can make some room in his HIMYM schedule to take over for Simon? Several promising Dallas auditioners stood out as having the potential to go pretty far in the competition: Kimberly Carver, the school teacher who sang an original jazz song; Dave Pittman, who has Tourette Syndrome yet adeptly sang “Bring It On Home To Me;” and Todrick Hall, who has performed on stage in The Color Purple with AI3 winner Fantasia and sang an original, albeit gimmicky, song about himself and the AI judges. All three have good voices as well as interesting personalities/stories. We’ll see how they fare in Hollywood, when the REAL competition begins.
