Tag: American Idol (Page 27 of 28)

American Idol: Welcome to Randy Jacksonville

January 28, 2009 /

So last night in part five of eight of FOX’s “American Idol” audition rounds, the scene shifted to Jacksonville, Florida. And the producers of the show decided to have a little fun and give judge Randy Jackson some love due to the name of the city (that’s really a stretch, isn’t it?). They showed Jackson in his days performing with the rock band Journey, and basically paid tribute to him a bit. That’s okay, but still a stretch. Anyway, this city did not seem to have the talent level of other audition rounds, and it was obvious right from the start of the show last night. Here are the highlights and lowlights:

THE BAD

Dana Moreno was shouting a Chaka Khan song, and I do mean shouting. Next! 16 year old Kaneswa had been told her entire life by her mom what a great vocalist she was, but that is always the recipe for failure, isn’t it? Kaneswa sang Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture,” complete with some of Anita’s vocal acrobatics. However, for Kaneswa, they were not acrobatics, but more like nasal inflections….Darren Darnell was the life of the party among contestants waiting to audition, so much so that I was thinking he could be the next Ryan Seacrest. But then when his buddy didn’t get a golden ticket, a switch went off and this guy looked depressed and started crying, right up through his own audition, which bombed anyway….A girl named Naomi sang Minnie Ripperton’s “Lovin’ You” and while she may have hit the high falsetto note at the end, it was the only note that was on key. Naomi brought along her friend who was semi-obsessed with Randy Jackson, and the friend got to sit on Randy’s lap. Anyway, Naomi was awful….George Ramirez, an 18 year old who sort of looked like a young Abe Lincoln, was a physics student who just happened to want to give singing a try, but it was more like a low rumble of off-key mess Continue reading »

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “American Idol”

January 23, 2009 /

I should hope that regular Premium Hollywood readers know by now that I’m in no way the person who should be writing about “American Idol.” That title goes to Mike Farley, of course, whose regular blog for the series has developed a loyal following over the past several seasons, and God bless him for being able to watch the show week after week after week. Still, I figure there are enough “AI” fans floating around who might be interested at least this one highlight from the show’s panel during the TCA tour, so allow me to offer it up for you.

Obviously, the predominant focus on the conversation was on Ms. Kara DioGuardi and her addition to the “AI” mix as the series’ fourth judge. Alas, neither Simon nor Randy could be in attendance, but in an unexpected turn of events, we were gifted with the presence of one P. Abdul, whose name had appeared nowhere in any of Fox’s schedules for the day. It was a nice bonus, and, of course, we all had our fingers crossed in hopes that Paula might gift us with a couple of batshit crazy remarks, as is so wont to do. Sadly, she remained coherent throughout the proceedings, but she did at least completely freak Kara out with her decision to divulge some information about their history together.

Continue reading »

American Idol, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External TV, News, Reality TV, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV

American Idol runs for the roses

January 22, 2009 /

Thank you FOX for once again keeping the “American Idol” auditions show to one hour last night. I have a feeling I’ll be giving you those hours back, but it’s still nice to have a condensed version of these initial shows. Last night it was a trip to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and not a ton of trips to Hollywood. Here are the bad and good of what they showed….

THE BAD

Tiffany kicked things off, and she was a bleach-blond trailer trash looking thing whose parents had been telling her how great she was for years. Yikes. She sang Mariah Carey and was just awful, and apparently stunned that the judges thought she sucked. Welcome to the real world, Tiffany…..Mark Mudd was a real hill-jack and took on country legend George Jones. Dude was not very good, and when he was leaving the stage said to the judges, “Be careful.” Look, I live in the south and I know that people say that..it’s a form of sayingm “Take it easy,” but the judges took it as a threat to their safety…pretty funny….Ross, a self-proclaimed nerd who was trying to use mathematical formulas to learn how to sing, had a deep and horrible voice, and in the end just knew he wasn’t good enough….Aaron Williamson sang Creedence Clearwater’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and was just too loud and emotive for this competition….and finally, Rebecca Garcia from Nashville sang Carrie Underwood and Paula had recognized her from being on the morning news while she waited on line for her audition. For some reason, we all thought Rebecca was going to be good, but she was just awful. Kara thought that her audition was a joke, literally, which made Rebecca cry…oops…..they also showed a medley of bad auditions, including this really large dude named Patrick who thought he was Michael Jackson, and a girl who sang in all weird vibrato.

THE GOOD

Joanna, a 23 year old from Los Angeles, who Kara recognized as a former recording artists for A&M Records, was somewhat humble and nervous, but as you might expect, was an awesome singer. She sang Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” and really belted it with great control…..Brent Keith Smith sang Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough” and while he had a great voice, did not have the fire Simon Cowell wanted to see. Still, he’s moving on…..Matt Giraud, a 23-year old dueling piano player, proved that he has probably better vocal skills than anything. I want you all to keep an eye on this one…..Alexis, a 21 year old from Memphis, was a pasty, blonde girl who took on Aretha Franklin and sounded way more soulful than you would expect from a white girl. She really has enormous potential too…..after another medley of yes’s (thank you again FOX), the last contestant was Laneshe, an 18 year old from Cincinnati, who had been growing up most of her life in homeless shelters with her mom and siblings. This was the sad/heartwarming story of the night, but there was nothing sad about this girl’s vocal chops. She even had the balls to sing one of her own songs, and it was very good, though not as good as her monstrous voice. Feel good story or not, this girl can sing and could really go far in this thing.

Next week the auditions move to Jacksonville, Florida. I’m relieved that these initial auditions are halfway through, and that Hollywood is beckoning. See you on Wednesday!

American Idol, Reality TV, TV

American Idol: Only 9 Head South

January 21, 2009 /

Mercifully, the people at FOX only gave us one hour of “American Idol” last night, either because of the the inauguration coverage or because they realized that two hours was like stretching a piece of cheese as far as it could go. Or maybe it’s because only nine of last night’s auditions from San Francisco made it to Hollywood. Either way, I thank them, and here were some of the highlights and lowlights:

THE BAD

This dude named Dean-Anthony showed up in this weird, gigantic flannel coat, and he had both a weird smile and a weird vocal delivery….basically everything was way, way over the top. Dude sang a Simply Red song that I swear I could not recognize because of how he butchered it……Dalton, a smart guy who was shown solving a Rubik’s Cube in about 30 seconds, should go back to that left brain thing because the right brain which is the artistic side, not so good……Akilah was another strange bird, evidenced by the fact that she brought drawings of the human anatomy and taught herself to sing using this….she even made reference to the fact that in her first take, she did not bring her vocals up properly from the “rectum”….are you kidding me?…..Annie Murdock was cute and looked promising, but her emotive vocals were too much and just couldn’t cut it with the judges.

Speaking of the judges, you knew this was bound to happen…Simon Cowell and newcomer Kara DioGuardi butted heads a bit because Simon just wouldn’t let Kara speak her mind. Get used to it Kara. But it sure has been taking the attention off Paula this season, hasn’t it?

THE GOOD

Tatiana Del Toro kicked off the show and her confidence was bordering on egotistical bordering on extremely obnoxious. She sang Aretha, which Simon correctly pointed out was a mistake, and while she wasn’t awful, she was not as good as she thought, and she also had one of the most annoying laughs you’ll ever hear, one that the producers of the show had some fun with. Anyway, they let her through after some pleading…..Jesus Valenzuela also made it through with some pleading, because he was only an above average singer, but he brought his kids in with him, and the judges could not say no to the kids…..Adam Lambert, a 26 year old actor, sang “Bohemian Rhapsody” and let’s just say, wow…this kid is going far unless he trips over himself….finally, the heartwarming story of the night was Kai Kalama, a guy who was shown sacrificing many things to take care of his ailing mom. This guy sang “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” and is a naturally gifted vocalist. Feel-good story aside, I want you all to keep an eye on Kai.

Tonight the auditions move to Louisville, Kentucky, and the show is only one hour again. Sweet! FOX, I thank you for those extra two hours, but I hope you don’t ask for them back any time soon. See you all tomorrow!

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

American Idol: Lots of Hollywood Tickets from KC

January 15, 2009 /

Last night, Day 2 of Season 8 of “American Idol” on FOX brought us many good performances, and golden tickets to Hollywood. Sure, there were lots of the usual horrendous auditions, but the producers chose to focus on the talented ones, and there were a higher percentage of them than there had been in Phoenix the night before. Here are the lowlights and highlights…..

THE BAD

Chelsea Marquardt kicked things off, and while she was a really pretty girl, she was an awful singer, like all-over-the-place awful. At least she can go be a model if she wants to….Brian, a 20 year old kid from KC, sang an ARETHA FRANKLIN tune, and that should be your first cue that he sucked. But dude had a hard time accepting his fate, and they showed him crying followed by a nice montage of other contestants who didn’t pass their audition bawling and/or screaming like they were in pain.

No, really….There was “banana boy,” a humorous one dressed in yellow who used a real banana as a prop….Jasmine, a 17 year old girl from Nebraska with a love for jazz and a very bad voice….Andrew, who came with two cheerleaders to help his cause, was not a bad singer, but while the judges were first considering sending him through, they decided in the end that Andrew was not ready…..

Continue reading »

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2023 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑