Re: American Idol 5/6
Rgirl's AI Summary of This and Last Year for Rgal
Re Trenyce: Actually about 240 were brought out to Hollywood out of the cold auditions. Then they broke them up into groups of I forget how many (a dozen?) and just had a cattle drive head 'em up, weed 'em out process to get down to the final 32. Then they had four groups of eight. Two contestants from each group of eight could be selected. As Heyang mentioned with Clay, he was in an especially strong group (hmm, this is sounding like Worlds QR:lol: ), so the wildcard thing is there in part to make sure people get through who were in situations like Clay.
Trenyce was in the final group of 32 and was picked by Paula as a wildcard. The other three were Kim C, picked by Randy (BTW she now has a job with ESPN Sports--I can just see it, our next FS commentator
), Carmen (Simon's pick, Clay's honey--they may still tour together:smokin: ), and Clay (audience pick). By the time it came to picking the wild cards, the judges mostly went with people from the four groups of eight. There were one or two from the 240, like the girl who sang "Angel" twice and blew her chances, that they picked up from watching videos of the Hollywood performances. In the original cold auditions Clay literally looked like the Howdy Doody puppet--that's what everybody called him, "the Howdy Doody guy with the great voice." He has naturally bright red hair that's kind of curly, he wore dork glasses, and just had geek written all over him. At the end, no doubt they will show Clay on tape standing before the judges asking him, "Why are you here?" with Clay, looking like a skinny, round-shouldered dork saying, "Because I think I'm the next American Idol" in his country twang.
About Tamyra: Tamyra was a stand-out from the git, very polished but also knew how to communicate a song--most of the time. Every guest artist who worked with the group said they would record her in a minute. She faltered near the end as Heyang said, when I think a lot of people first started tuning in, really paying attention, and voting, and got booted off instead of Nikki McKibbon (Janice Joplin wannabe, not even close, but who had a good night the night Tamyra had problems). I think a lot of people voted that night who hadn't been following the show.
About Kelly: She was uneven in the beginning--always great pipes but didn't always know how to put the song together. Then about the third or fourth week she sang "Natural Woman" and blew the roof off the place. Standing O before she was finished. After that she significantly improved every week and by mid competition sounded like a pro. With Kelly, even more so than Tamyra, although Tamyra was technically probably better, you got the sense (at least IMO) that she knew how to convey the heart of the song, what you and JOHIO talk about, singing as if you really mean what you're singing. And she had great versatility, from "Respect" to "Walk on By" to "Stuff Like That There." If it would have, as it should have, come down to Kelly and Tamyra it would have been a choice between better technique (Tamyra) and better soul (for lack of a better word, Kelly). Kelly also always seemed very real, down to earth, and comfortable with herself. Tamyra did come off in the videos they did as a little high strung, but only a little. None of the women this year are even in the same league with Tamyra or Kelly, IMO. But this year the guys in general were better than the guys last year, I think. Last year some of the girls were also extraordinarily beautiful, too. There was one named Christina (?) I think who didn't have the chops but was really lovely.
I'm sure I sound 15 talking about the show, but it is easy to get caught up in watching people go from Joe and Jane Schmo to being celebrities. I think people improved more last year from beginning to end, and that was fun to watch. Again, I don't know why they didn't have guest artists working with them this year like they did last year. One interesting comparison if you ever get the chance is to tune in "Star Search" and listen to those singers. They have kids who are five who sound like they've been singing in Vegas for 20 years. And nobody, of any age, points--ever! Plus Frank Zappa's son is one of the judges and I just love him. Besides Ahmad Zappa, it's Naomi Judd and Ben Stein (of "Win Ben Stein's Money"), and then they have a guest. I haven't been following "Star Search" but I tuned into it and "America's Most Talented Kid" (I couldn't help myself) a couple of times. Yeah, the parents of the kids can be very scary. Props to Simon for stating publicly that he wants nothing to do with AI Jr.
That's everything I can think of to fill you in, which I'm sure is much more than you care to know:lol: What does Rgal Jr. think of AI, not just who she wants to win but of the whole thing?
Rgirl
