The second night of auditions took us to Atlanta, where we saw more country singers than just about anything else. And most of them were blonde – or at least blondish.
No way all of them can make it past Hollywood, so how does David think Mallorie Haley (right) will do in comparison to the others? Who will be left behind in Hollywood and who has the potential to go all the way to the finals?
As I explained
yesterday, here in this column I am looking at the featured American Idol 9 contestants who make it to Hollywood and predicting whether that will be their final location or if they will continue on – and how far they will go. Just a reminder, I have not read any spoiler material that might be out there, so all of my
predictions are 100% based on what I see and hear on the TV. Let’s get to it!
Keia Johnson had an okay voice – good enough to make it to Hollywood, but I just don’t think she’ll make it past there. She seemed nice enough (though I didn’t see the standout
personality the judges claimed was there). But just not standout. Like I said, her
trip will end in Hollywood.
The next few contestants hit us in a virtual blur. But what I saw didn’t really stand out for any of them. Indeed, they pretty much were a blur of one into the next. We had Miriam Lemnoumi, Noel Reese, and Tisha Holland all in a row. I was rather annoyed that Tisha was told she was the best the judges had seen all day – and yet we only got a few seconds. But that’s not changing my mind – none of them will make it past Hollywood. But of course that prediction is based on very little information right now.
Jermaine Sellers was told by Randy that he had the best vocals they’ve seen at any audition so far. The rest of the judges were similarly positive. Me? I didn’t see/hear it. But because of the judges singing the praises of Jermaine’s singing, I am going to say he’ll make it to the semi-finals.
Vanessa Wolfe jumps bridges. That’s her back story. Alrighty then! The thing is that after hearing her sing, I wanted to jump off a bridge myself rather than continue to listen to her. I don’t know how Simon can say she’s unique – a blonde country singer on Idol?! Yeah, we’ve never had that before! I’m worried that she might make it past Hollywood and capture the country music vote that we’ve seen carry some contestants far past where they should have gotten previously. I hope that’s not what will happen here, but I suspect it will. At least, I suspected it until we saw the next two singers.
Holly Harden was another blonde country singer, but I think her voice was better than Vanessa’s. She took a risk dressing in the guitar outfit but her personality showed through and helped her win the day. When I first saw her, I thought it would continue to do so and she could make it to the semi-finals. Indeed, I considered that it could be interesting to see if either Holly or Vanessa got bumped out because there was only room for one blonde country singer in the semi-finals. But then we were introduced to the next auditioner
While Mallorie Haley wasn’t quite a blonde country singer, she was definitely a blondish countryish singer. But she stood out head and shoulders above the previous two in terms of vocals. And she had the most normal personality. She is almost a definite lock for the semi-finals, and I think the previous two will fall by the wayside now.
From the intro we got to Antonio “Skii Bo Ski” Wheeler, I was certain he was one of the many bad auditions and was not ready to pay any serious attention to him. Thank goodness for the rewind button on TiVo. Like Randy said, Antonio had good vocals but he needs to lose the rest of the crap. However, Simon will likely oppose him the entire way, so I don’t expect him to make it past Hollywood.
Carmen Turner was definitely the more talented of the two BFFs – but that wasn’t really saying much. I agree with Simon’s comment that the two won’t be apart for long. No way Carmen will stand out or make it through Hollywood.
Bryan Walker had a surprisingly rich and soulful voice. I think he has serious potential to make it to at least the semi-finals. Being a police officer could help him in a similar manner to being the military has helped other contestants in the past, so he could actually make the finals. And I support anything that means there is one less police officer out there handing out speeding tickets. Another round of predictions is done. Do you agree with them?
by David
Bloomberg --
