Auditions #6 - 1/31/13

Hi there. Tonight finishes our audition process with next week being Hollywood week. I am so glad. Our show tonight finds us in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Remember this is where Carrie Underwood started out to become the valuable artist she is today. Thousands have shown up so I was surprised that most of the contestants we saw bordered on the weird side.

Here in the "sooner" state our auditions are being held at the Devon Boat House. No messing around as we get to our first contestant. Here goes.........

American Idol doing one of their small town tours have brought us 26 year old Karl Skinner who hales from Joplin, Missouri. This guy definitely has a great personality and brings in a guitar for his audition. However his first song he does is "I Feel Good" originally by James Brown. It was just okay for me although he did add some dance moves that James used to do. The judges are not completely wowed either and ask him to play his guitar. He does so with an original song he wrote that wasn't that good however you could tell he does have a voice on this number and is one of my potentials. Naturally he is going to Hollywood.

A very low-keyed man named Nate Tao is a sign instructor for the deaf. I believe he chose this profession as both of his parents are deaf but he isn't. I really dug his nice easy going way of singing "For Once In My Life" by Stevie Wonder. It was quite good in my opinion. Obviously the judges liked it too as he gets the gold.

Now comes a bit of weird with our next contestant who is Halie Hilburn. She is a ventriloquist and brings a prop in the form of Oscar the dog who is 17 years old we are told. I honestly do not know what songs were sung for this segment of the show. Halie does a duet with her prop which was strange but worked sort of with the dog doing the yodeling part. It was sort of cute but the judges really wanted to hear Halie without the dog prop. She sounds fairly good and gets three yeses from Mariah, Keith and Nicki. Randy is a no vote but she is going to Hollywood as majority rules. No she is not bringing her prop. I sincerely doubt Halie will make it through next week.

I was shocked that the next contestant got a gold ticket. 19 year old Zoanette Johnson is a train wreck for sure. She has lots of energy and seems to be almost entertaining herself with her crazy antics. Her choice of song to massacre is the Star Spangled Banner. Such screeching and pitchy notes made me turn my volume down. The judges are laughing like crazy and even Keith Urban falls off his chair because he can not believe what he is seeing. I must add that this woman is a giant as she towers over Ryan Seacrest and with her brassy blonde hair and ridiculous outfit she is definitely a real character. Evidently the judges were not in their right minds when they sent Zoanette to Hollywood. I do believe she will be cut right away, at least I hope so.

After seeing many crying either with joy or heartache we next get to see another oddball named Anastacia Freeman who is 25 years old. Her singing is terrible as she slaughters Toni Braxton's song "Un-Break My Heart". Randy wants to know what brought her to audition. She answers that she got a message from God to try out. Then we see a skit of God telling her to go to idol. This was a little over the top from the American Idol folks I think. Regardless it is four no votes for this woman. Her bitter comments as she leaves are she will never listen to any Mariah music again and she could care less about Nicki Minaj as she never liked her anyway. She also says if they have the same judges next year she will not try out. My thoughts were; Good!

Our last contestant of this fast-paced hour is 16 year old Kayden Stevenson. My heart broke listening to this young man who looks about 10 years old. He has Cystic Fibrosis and his life expectency is to maybe reach age 35. He knows his illness is terminal but lives each day to the fullest. I applauded this kid for being so upbeat. His song is "My Wish" by Stevie Wonder and in reality did not wow me at all. However the judges were moved and do give him his "wish" to go to Hollywood. I somehow feel they did this more because of his illness rather than his ability to sing. Needless to say I was glad this kid will get a chance.

So our hour has come to an end and 44 others have gotten the gold. As mentioned earlier, next week finds us in Hollywood and I am looking forward to seeing not only the ones I have liked so far but also ones we really have not seen during the auditions.

Hope your week ahead is a grand one. Take care all!