Party in the USA

[alycewilson]

Unlike the previous nine seasons of American Idol, season 10 started out with a lot of uncertainty as viewers watched to see how the new panel of judges would do. Along with Randy Jackson, the only returning judge, rocker Steven Tyler and actress/pop chanteuse Jennifer Lopez joined the fold. If the first night of auditions is any indication, the

Comments

[theafaye]

What's the story with Lee Dewyze? I only follow American Idol through your write ups, so I'm curious what's meant by him being a fluke.

[timeofdying]

Crystal was the better of the two and most people expected her to win. Even though realistically speaking, the "best" contestant rarely ever wins on shows like this.

[alycewilson]

I LOVED me some Mindy Doo! Bought her debut album, and it's one of my favorites of any Idol-related album I've bought.

[timeofdying]

It's funny that Jennifer and Steven came off as better judges than Randy did last night, but I'm withholding full judgement on them until the live shows start.

And Lee's shown in the side panels, so I doubt his win had anything to do with them changing the backdrop, particularly since the producers liked him. It was probably because they redid everything and fitting nine people in the backdrop wouldn't have been easy.

[alycewilson]

This.

[alycewilson]

Good point about the nine people. I think it probably came down to "whose face do you want to feature?" Whoever is behind the contestant ends up on camera for much longer.

I agree with you about withholding judgment. Remember: Ellen came out of the box really strong as a judge last year and then seemed to lose steam (perhaps because of internal politics -- couldn't have been easy dealing with Kara and Simon on their way out the door).

[fourzoas]

I'm so excited about this new season of Idol; I'm hoping that the new line-up of judges will filter out some--I know it won't get all--of the crazybad auditions and set a more exemplary critical tone.

The showboating 16 year old was a great contrast to the girl from Kosovo (also 16, I believe)--two entirely different perspectives on what it can mean to be 16.

[alycewilson]

Yes! The Kosovo girl seemed so much more mature, perhaps because she's lived a life that has helped to put things in perspective. I would not be a bit surprised to find out the other girl has been doing pageants since she was a wee thing. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but if she wants to connect with viewers, she's going to have to find a way to let her personality come through and stop seeming so plastic.

[teaberryblue]

I don't know if you know this stuff or not but I thought it would be helpful to fill you in on some of the behind-the-scenes bits. The recommended songs thing, here is how that worked when I auditioned

[alycewilson]

Great inside info! You know, if you wanted to write up something about your experiencing auditioning, I bet it would go over real well at americanidol. It's a great community: lots of music and TV geeks there. Plenty of enthusiasm and AI geekery. :)

I always suspected that they did something like you're describing because: a) it's too much of a coincidence for so many people to want to sing the same song in a given city; b) there's got to be a weed-out process, because they wouldn't expect the big-name judges to sit through thousands of auditions; c) they clearly send some people in with the idea that they've got potential and others because they're absolutely laughable!

So... did you get past the producers' round?

[teaberryblue]

Yeah, I got to the judges' round (which was about 95 people out of the 20k who tried out in Philly) and then flubbed my lyrics! The judges were all really nice, though, and Ryan was awesome. I'm about to run out but there are some posts in my LJ about my experience trying out and I have my audition photo on my facebook, I'll link you there later.

[teaberryblue]

Here are my AI posts!

http://zia-narratora.livejournal.com/tag/american%20idol