S20.E03: 503 (Auditions)

[helenamonster]

Original airdate: 3/13/22

[Annber03]

Ooh, I liked Cadence Baker. That was a cool take on that Whitney Houston song. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I love that song, but Cadence sang it way lower and wayyyyyy slower than Whitney does.  She slowed it way down.  So that didn't really feel that impressive to me.  I don't know.  Why pick that song just to change it?  Her voice is also really affected for me.  Whitney singing that song so high and fast is why it's so spectacularly impressive that she can pull it off.  I was surprised that Lionel wasn't insulted by the whole thing.

This episode was unbearable to me without the ability to fast forward so I watched "Killing Eve" and came back to this.  Then I could fast forward because I was watching it late.

Better, but nothing really in this episode stood out to me.  Maybe the Barbra Streisand girl.  Besides that, no, not really for me.  I can tell that Cadence was good but I don't know how I feel about one of my favourite songs being so bastardized in that way.

FYI,

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[Annber03]

I would've taken the 17 year old girl who sang "A Change is Gonna Come" over that country guy from the town of 500 people. I agree that she was a little restrained in her performance and probably did need a little more work, but I still think she had a really good voice in general and I would've been interested to see how she would've fared in Hollywood. The country guy sounds pretty much like every other country guy that's gone through on here thus far in recent times, so...

Dontrell was another one that stood out to me tonight. And Abigail...she has an interesting voice, but my mom felt the song she chose seemed a little old for the sound she had and I kind of tended to agree. I can see her having a nice little indie artist sort of career, though. 

[TheGreenKnight]

Cadence was the only one I truly enjoyed this episode. I did like Dontrell, too, although it felt like he was trying to imitate Billy Porter a little too much.

Dakota and Abigail were both okay, but I didn't like Dakota as much as the country guy from the first episode and Abigail probably won't last long on this show because of genre.

[Ms Blue Jay]

11 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I would've taken the 17 year old girl who sang "A Change is Gonna Come" over that country guy from the town of 500 people. I agree that she was a little restrained in her performance and probably did need a little more work, but I still think she had a really good voice in general and I would've been interested to see how she would've fared in Hollywood. The country guy sounds pretty much like every other country guy that's gone through on here thus far in recent times, so...

I totally agree with you.  My only issue is that song is such a cliche to audition on Idol with, but she's probably way too young to even know that.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[Gemma Violet]

40 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Why pick that song just to change it? 

In the early days, Simon would often criticize a singer who didn't change it up at least somewhat.  He labeled a singer 'karaoke' if they sang it exactly like the recording.  

[Ms Blue Jay]

In my opinion, that's if the song or the singer is just okay.  Kelly Clarkson didn't change up songs.  If you can sing a Whitney song as well as Whitney did, then that's something to write home about.  If you make it the Easy Version of the song, then it isn't.  

Edited March 14, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[DietCokeJunkie]

Gah! Was this country night? Auditions feel very heavily skewed toward country artists so far. 

[Suzysite]

4 hours ago, DietCokeJunkie said:

Gah! Was this country night? Auditions feel very heavily skewed toward country artists so far. 

Well, they have primarily been in Nashville so far, so country is what you'll get there.

[LexieLily]

5 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Dontrell was another one that stood out to me tonight. And Abigail...she has an interesting voice, but my mom felt the song she chose seemed a little old for the sound she had and I kind of tended to agree. I can see her having a nice little indie artist sort of career, though. 

Was Simon your mom's favorite judge, per chance? ;-)

[Annber03]

12 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Was Simon your mom's favorite judge, per chance? ;-)

Haha, eh, I don't think she's really had a "favorite" judge, per se, but she did agree with some of his critiques, yes :D. 

[DietCokeJunkie]

Nothing to see here. 

Edited March 14, 2022 by DietCokeJunkie
Technical difficulties :(

[DietCokeJunkie]

3 hours ago, Suzysite said:

Well, they have primarily been in Nashville so far, so country is what you'll get there.

8 hours ago, DietCokeJunkie said:

Gah! Was this country night? Auditions feel very heavily skewed toward country artists so far. 

 

  

Yes, but there’s only 2 nights of auditions shows left before Hollywood week. Is Nashville the only city they went to? Why are we seeing so much of it? I’d prefer more of a mix of genres to this oversaturation of country music. 

Edited March 14, 2022 by DietCokeJunkie

[peachmangosteen]

Yea, this season feels very country heavy to me. I haven't been that enamored with any of the auditions so far. I'm afraid this season will be a dud. The past 2 seasons were SO good imo so that sucks.

[LennieBriscoe]

I hit "Reject" at the first twang. 

Button's on its last legs. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

4 hours ago, DietCokeJunkie said:

  Yes, but there’s only 2 nights of auditions shows left before Hollywood week. Is Nashville the only city they went to? Why are we seeing so much of it? I’d prefer more of a mix of genres to this oversaturation of country music. 

They edit the shows in a very ridiculous way.

You'll notice Katy's outfit and hair constantly changing.   They go to a few cities, then introduce each episode as a different city.  Which it isn't.  Each episode is just a mashup of all the cities they went to.  (We've seen Katy with the short blonde hair, we've seen her with the very long dark brown hair.  Etc.)

It's so silly that they do this but they're obviously very nervous that each city won't be interesting enough on its own.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[Blissfool]

I think they spent a lot of time in Austin in last night's episode. At the beginning of the show a girl was singing close to a lake (Lake Travis?) and the group around her included cheerleaders wearing Texas uniforms. The judges never said "Austin," but they did make a couple of references to keeping things weird, which is Austin's motto.

[KHenry14]

I liked Abigail and her version of "Vincent".  This is a song that needs a fair amount of finesse, and she nailed it. I look forward to seeing what she can do in the next rounds. But she needs to lose the overalls and hat ;)

[Darian]

I almost deleted after the first guy. The WGWG is going to "bring back soul?" I can't take seriously anyone who says they want to bring back something that is doing fine and judges who don't call him on not knowing his supposed genre. The second song he did proved the point that not one person on that stage, not even Lionel, brought up. Blech. 

Spouse still interested so I did get to hear some good singing that didn't want to make be beat someone with a guitar.  

[Vermicious Knid]

The 17 year old girl (name escapes me) who was inspired by the guy from last season has obviously never heard of Ruben Studdard. Considering he won, she would be better emulating him.

Stop. The. Yodeling. For the love of God, stop.

[Ms Blue Jay]

LOL she was born after Ruben competed...... 

[PhD-Purgatory15]

I actually loved what Cadence Baker did with "I'm your baby tonight". I thought she gave it a nice groove/tempo (helped obviously by her professional guitar player father) and when she cranked it up to Whitney speed towards  the end I got so so happy because I'm a sucker for uptempo/fast tempo songs, and so few idol contestants lean into them going all the way back to Kris Allen. I'd be 100% happy if she's a female finalist who makes the live shows.

Honestly, (before she started with he weird mouth trumpet thing) I thought the Asian American girl who wasn't named was better than most of the rest of the ones who got golden tickets. I thought the funeral parlor country girl was a very soft yes for one, and really before he did a little bit of Tennessee Whiskey I though Dontrelle was going to be a questionable yes as well. I keep thinking back to the girl from last season who was very upfront with the judges about seeing herself as a CCM artist last season (and sang a CCM song in Hawaii before the cuts to the Top 24). Pretty sure they cut her at that stage because they felt her wanting to be a CCM artist was too limiting. If Dontrelle only does gospel songs through Hollywood, I could see a similar result.

I can see it now, two final guys for one spot in the lives and it's the country kid from the first audition episode vs the 17 year old from a 500 person town in this episode. I'd lean towards the kid from the first audition show but I think AI might lean toward the 17 year old.

Marc Osborne could be this season's Chayce Beckham or because he's so much like Chayce he could be quietly axed in Hollywood with very little fan fair..

I think the girl who sang Gabby Barrett almost identically to what Gabby sounds like she might suffer from jukebox-itis. Meaning if you give her a Carrie song, she'll sound like Carrie. If you give her a Kelsea Ballerini song, she might sound more like Kelsea. Etc.

Finally, what do you do with Sam? Parts of that song were very pretty. Parts went off the rails quickly. I guess I hope they give him a bit of the Hollywood experience and don't just cut him after the first solo round. Maybe he'll take vocal instruction/criticism well and he'll be able to improve on his technique (particularly his breath control)...but I'd be incredibly surprised if he ends up making the live shows.

Edited March 15, 2022 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Vermicious Knid]

Also, Piano Man...on a guitar?

[InternetToughGuy]

I haven't posted in so long, I forget how accepting the American Idol threads are to posts that are highly sarcastic (and often rude) to the contestants - might have to get a permaban to find out haha

Anyways, this season so far seems to have little hope, even though the past couple years have all seemed like that because the auditions aren't good at conveying who is likeable, merely singling out who isn't annoying. I make a face like the Chicago Bulls logo at most people somehow. Katy is so damn annoying and Luke isn't far behind. They never show any bad auditions, so they have to pad out the show with those 2 making irritating voices and painfully unfunny skits. Is it my imagination or is Ryan doing a lot less than he used to? He seems like a glorified door opener now. Perhaps I'm just confusing that with the show having 1/10th the energy it had in the 2000s, back when the contestants auditioning would fill up an arena compared to nowadays where Idol winners can't even sell out a 50 seat ice cream parlor.

Edited March 18, 2022 by InternetToughGuy

[InternetToughGuy]

On 3/14/2022 at 9:15 AM, Ms Blue Jay said:

It's so silly that they do this but they're obviously very nervous that each city won't be interesting enough on its own.

It's quite surprising how they can even churn out a show at all these days. Most of the people auditioning, if they grew up on the show at all probably started in like 2013 when the decline was super obvious, so it's hard to imagine they associate any allure with the Idol name. It'd be easier to believe the contestants don't watch the show because if they did, they'd see the winners for the past 8 years haven't achieved much of anything, so what is the point?

[Ms Blue Jay]

7 hours ago, InternetToughGuy said:

It's quite surprising how they can even churn out a show at all these days. Most of the people auditioning, if they grew up on the show at all probably started in like 2013 when the decline was super obvious, so it's hard to imagine they associate any allure with the Idol name. It'd be easier to believe the contestants don't watch the show because if they did, they'd see the winners for the past 8 years haven't achieved much of anything, so what is the point?

You make a good point.  Their parents probably watch(ed) the show.    Not them.

Edited March 18, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay