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

[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:

--Everyone in each audition city had to learn one song. They made everyone sing it together in the stadium before the auditions started.
--In the second round of auditions, before the judges round, they could (didn't always) put you on the spot to sing that song during the producers round. If you hadn't learned it (not if you made a mistake, but if you clearly hadn't given a shit about learning it), it was an auto-no. Those are the footage that they use to make the montage.
--Most people were explicitly told NOT to sing whatever the group song was for their audition with the judges. A few people, who were clearly people chosen to go in as "bad auditions," were explicitly told TO sing the group song with the judges, and to act as if they hadn't been instructed to sing it (Introduce it with title and artist, etc).

Also on the part with the "which judge thing?" they actually make you say one thing about each judge, and then they pick and choose which ones they want to use. :-P They don't prompt you to say a specific thing about each judge, but they were like, "Tell us how you feel about meeting Simon," "Tell us how you feel about meeting Paula," "Tell us how you feel about meeting Randy." And then they'd edit them in with whatever question they made it want to look like they asked.

Also, I really like Steven and Jennifer as judges. I think it will be great. Loved the vibe and everything seemed relaxed and fun.

[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

[alycewilson]

Thanks! I look forward to reading them. The only other person I know who auditioned didn't get past the producers.