Drama Queen Survives Idol’s Hollywood Round 3

It looks like more faces survived this third cut of American’s Idol’s Hollywood week than didn’t as the judges sent contestants of only one of four rooms home.  Many of the top favorites put in stellar performances to seal their fate.  But also among the surviving was drama queen Tatiana Del Torro.

Should she have survived?

In her audition, she scared us with the creepy laugh and last week we saw Tatiana torpedo two groups with her drama.  Tonight, I was sure she’d be gone.  Her performance was mediocre, but what was really weird was how much she congratulated herself afterwards.

But if the judges wanted to see how far they could push this girl, they nearly succeed in sending her over the edge when they played musical rooms with her.  In the end, she got at least one more reprieve.

Overall, the evening moved quickly as we were shown glimpse of many of the final Hollywood solo performances.

The men put in strong performances to kick off the night.

Stage actor Adam Lambert chose to sing Cher’s “Believe.”  While I thought the song choice was a little weird he held his own and will be back tomorrow night.  Anoop Desai put in a decent performance of “My Prerogative.”  Jorge Nunez also put in a solid performance.

My favorite male is still roughneck Michael Sarver who sang Westlife’s “All or Nothing.”

Buddies Jamar Rogers and Danny Gokey will also be returning.  Jamar surprised me with a decent rendition of “Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T.  I’m not a big fan of Jamar’s but I think his performances are improving.  However, I liked Ju’Not Joyner’s version of the song better.  Tonight was the first time we’ve seen the real estate consultant who auditioned in New York City.

Danny also chose a song that was better sung by another contestant.  But then again I thought Lee Ann Womak’s “I Hope You Dance” was a weird song choice for him to begin with.  I don’t think it highlighted his talents. 

However, I did think the song was better suited for Anne Marie Boskovich who will also be retuning.

Several of the contestants took the opportunity to add an instrument to their performance.  Maybe it was the keyboard that saved Stephen Fowler (he was in the first room to get the good news) who struggled with his solo performance.  Also returning was Nathaniel Marshall who played the guitar to Rihanna’s “Disturbia. 

But looking really at home behind that keyboard was pianist Scott MacIntyre who would have made Chris Daughtry proud of his version of “I’m Going Home.”

But MacIntyre wasn’t the only contesting banking on the hit of a former Idol for a pass to the next round.  Among the best was Jasmine Murray’s rendition of Jordin Spark’s “Tattoo.  Murray remains one of my favorites.

Kristin McNamara made it through with her version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of You.”  Outside of last week’s drama, we got to see that McNamara doesn’t have a bad voice.  And Alexis Grace put in a solid performance of Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheat” to return.

Lil Rounds, singing Jennifer Lopez’s “Baby I Love You” proved that she is a contender too.

Others were feeling the stress.  Despite struggling with lyrics, Joanne Pacitti, the contestant that had a previous contract, and bubble tea maker Casey Carlson will be returning tomorrow.  Kai Kalama was also reprieved even though he was having some issues with his voice.

The other big surprise of the night was Nick Mitchell who put on his Norman Gentle persona for “Georgia” and earned a reprieve.  The performance was funny, but the man can sing.

And although we didn’t get to hear them sing we learned that Arianna Afsar, Jackie Thon, Jackie Midkiff, Cody Sheldon, Matt Breitzke, Alicia Barton and T.K. Hash were also in the rooms that got the good news.

In the dreaded Room 3, we say goodbye to Michael Castro, Kaylan Loyd, Lenesha Young and India Morrison.

I really liked this round because we got to see more contestants sing.  However, the way they left the decision to the end made it difficult to see how everyone faired.

Tomorrow they cut the list to the Top 36.

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Idol Jonesing for Talent in Jacksonville

I’m starting to get a bad feeling about Season 8 of American Idol after watching the slim pickings at the Jacksonville auditions.  Only 16 tickets were given out tonight.

Let’s face it the judges were more entertaining than the Day 1 contenders.  First they mixed it up with Simon sitting next to Kara and Randy to the right of Paula.  They really mixed up the seating arrangements later when Paula sat on Simon’s lap and Ryan sat on Kara’s because the friend of an auditioner sat on Randy’s lap.

We were also treated to a weird scene were Paula pretended to give Kara a kiss for what seemed no apparent reason.  And during another audition, Paula got up and walked out when no one asked her opinion on the singer.  Anyone else see foreshadowing there?

Due to some technical difficulties with my local Fox station, I didn’t get to see the first few minutes and judging by what the judges let through that first day I’m not sure I’m missing anything.

I tuned in in time to see Joshua Ulloa add a few sound effects to Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On” to win a spot in Hollywood.  Personally I just thought it was weird.

Next up Sharon Wilbur asked Simon to hold her dog Sasha while she sang “Superstar” by Karen Carpenter.  Simon must have gotten really attached to that dog, because I still can’t figure out what the judges saw in that performance.

But the judges were definitely seeing or at least hearing something I wasn’t because then they put through beauty queen Julissa Veloz whose performance was anything but flattering to Whitney Houston.

Even the rejects were boring for Day 1, but things were looking up the next day when we met three real contenders.

Accompanied by her adoring sisters, Jasmine Murray showed us that “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”  Not only did she have a nice voice, but as Simon put it, she was cute and commercial.

Also winning a ticket was two-time auditioner T.K. Hash.  I don’t remember having seen T.K. audition before, but I liked him tonight.  Randy thought his version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” was over the top.  I was more impressed with it that I was with Archuleta’s last year.

And the last golden ticket winner we saw was Anne Marie Boskovich.  The judges actually made her come back twice.  I don’t know why since she obviously had strong enough voice to be a real contender.  They told her she need to show her inner star and she did with Colbie Caillat’s “Bubbly.

The second day was much better than the first in Jacksonville, but overall the talent was pretty thin.  Tomorrow Idol heads to the home of last year’s runner up David Archuleta – Salt Lake City.

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