Hollywood Week/Boy's Night - 2/6/13

Hello all. Well we have finally reached Hollywood week and frankly I was not overly impressed with many things that happened during this night. Several things have changed this season. First of all the guys and the girls have been separated. This week we are only seeing the boys perform solo and with a group. Next week it will be the girls turn. Another change of events is the contestants do not get to choose their own groups. The producers pick who sings with who on the group rounds which really threw some very good contestants under the bus in my opinion.

I read somewhere that in all 276 contestants made it to Hollywood. Not sure how many were guys and girls. However on this night of boy's town the guys had to form lines of 10 for their solo moments before they got to the group rounds. We saw several familiar faces that were shown in the audition process. Some made it while others I liked didn't. The judges said good-bye to Karl Skinner, Dustin Watts, Brian Rittenberry and Dr. Calvin Peters who were potentials of mine.

Some potentials of mine I liked who did make it through this round included Micah Johnson, Curtis Finch Jr., Frankie Ford and Lazaro Arbos (he stutters). Seems half of the guys did go home before the group round. One thing I have to add here is Nicki Minaj is a total idiot as she was the one hold-out who deemed Cortez Shaw's performance of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" the worst she had ever heard. Later in the group rounds she shows that she obviously does not know music as she saves some people who did horribly.

I found the judges decisions totally off the mark with several of the groups we saw. Our groups only had one night to pick a song off a list of 20 songs that they were given, choregraph and master the lyrics. It was definitely a rough go for many. Here are some of what we saw......

The first group up was named "The Mathheads". This consisted of (short) Matheus Fernandes, Gabe Brown, (return contestants) Mathenee Treco and Nick Boddington. I found their version of Queen's "Somebody To Love" to be the best of the night as far as the groups went. Thankfully the judges agreed and each made it to the the next round.
From here on I found the judges were not playing fair in most decisions. Remember how Simon Cowell used to say if you forgot the words you were gone? Well, these judges did not go by that rule which sucked for many.

"Normal Hills" consisted for four guys which included last year's contestant Johnny Keyser. Their attempt at the song "I'll Be There" originally by The Four Tops was horrible with all but one forgetting the lyrics. Instead of sending them all home, the judges opted to send Kareem Clark home who was the only one who did remember his lyrics. I could not believe the other three were sent to the next rounds.

The "Couch Potatoes" were a trio that included Curtis Finch Jr., Charles Askew and a third guy whose name I did not catch(sorry). They performed "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars. Overall they were pretty good with Curtis being the main focus of this group. The judges give them a standing ovation and of course each is sent to the next round.

The "Four Tones" also did well singing Sam & Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming". Micah, Vincent, Marvin and David make it to the next round.

I also enjoyed the group "Young Love" which consisted of Zach Birnbaum, Nate Tao, Cortez Shaw and Elijah Liu who did nicely with the song "Some Kind of Wonderful. They make it.

Now comes many who did not do so well. Only two from the group called "The Taylors" are sent to the next round. They are Paul Jolly and Will White.

The group called "B-Side" are horrible singing Maroon 5's song "Payphone" yet Nicki Minaj the idiot convinces the other judges to send all four guys to the next round.

Singing accapella also doing the Maroon 5 song only three of the four guys make it. Sorry did not catch their names.

One group called "Last Minute" tried to butter up the two female judges by dedicating their choice of song to them. The song is One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful". It was terrible from this group of four and all are sent home.

Others had group problems which showed us the group known as "Country Queen" the most. This group consisted of Army sergeant Trevor Blakney, equipment operator Lee Pritchard and two "fruitcakes" known as JDA and Joel Wayman. Their song choice is "More Than Words" by Extreme. Trevor is not a happy camper as the other three seem to want to concentrate more on the choregraphy rather than learning the words of the song. They make it to the stage with things still not right. Poor Trevor ends up forgetting the words and of course the choregraphy is a bust as well. I was shocked the judges opted to keep the two fruitcakes and send the other two home. This was another moment of being un-fair by the judges in my opinion.

"Super 55" also had issues doing the song "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys. They spent alot of time trying to teach Lazaro Arbos the lyrics and once upon the stage gave a lukewarm performance. Only Lazaro and Christian Lopez make it which was kind of sad. I somehow doubt stuttering Lazaro will get very far on this show since he has issues not knowing alot of songs even though he does sing well in spite of his stutter.

The youngest of the boys is in the group known as "DKSK". Their song is Billy Joel's "The Longest Time". David Leathers Jr. (a repeater from last season), Sanni M'mairura and Kevin Quinn did fairly well doing the song. Only Kayden Stephenson (the boy with Cystic Fibroses) did not fair well. Kayden is sent home along with Kevin (so un-fair). Kevin should have definitely stayed in my opinion.

Last but not least alot of attention is shown to the group called "Oz". This group consists of Frankie Ford who turns out to be a real headache plus Adam Sanders, Papa Peachez and Charles Allen. Their song is Estelle's "American Boy". I was only impressed the most by Charles Allen. Seems Frankie can not cut the mustard and seems to be crying most of their segment. He is the only one to be cut and we see him vowing to return next season to win it all. My advice is he better get some backbone if he intends to fulfill that promise.

Many groups were not seen however I am thinking 43 of the boys make it to the next round which is another solo round. Twenty-three of these guys will be cut to make our top 20 guys. I am hoping the judges get it right this time and save some of my potential favorites. I will be back with Thursday's re-cap.
Until then.....