American Idol Season 7

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Here were are tonight - FINALLY - at the end of the tedious (and often painful) auditions process. Next week, the competition moves to Hollywood at last! So for tonight, American Idol is showcasing the best and worst of the auditions.

The first highlight of the night came when Tiffany McCambell showed up to belt out her “gift from God”. Well she shows up dressed like a grandmother which doesn’t exactly scream ‘contemporary’ if you catch my drift. Her voice was excruciating because of some serious pitch problems. Simon joked that if God gave him that kind of voice he would give it back. Ouch - now you know that one must’ve hurt!

Keeping it in the family seems to be Chris and Cory Lane’s motto. The twins not only look alike, but they even mess around with the same girl. The fellas audition an original rap, one lays down the beats while the other fumbles over the words. It takes about 10 tries before the kid remembers what he is supposed to be rapping about. I thought that my head was going to explode if I heard, “alright, here we go” one more time!

After that disaster came the boys’ girlfriend Ashley Lawing, the 19 year-old cutesy country gal who brings in her puppy for good luck. Simon loves the dog but thinks Ashley is horrendous. The judges want her dog, Panda to go through to Hollywood but won’t even consider Ashley.

20 year-old Cardin Lee McKinney from Nashville, Tennessee performs the Dreamgirls hit, “One Night Only”. I thought she had a very pretty voice, though Simon found her to be a little too theatrical for the competition. Randy and Paula have her back and give her the green light to the next round.

JoAnne Borgella really reminded me of last year’s Idol, Jordan Sparks. She is a plus-size model from Hoboken, New Jersey with an awesome voice. Look out for her later because I think she just might go far.

Alesha Stehlz knows she was born to be a singer and describes her voice as very unique. But her version of Celine Dion’s “Surrender” is just SO over the top that Simon can’t stand it. I kind of thought she sounded a bit like a chipmunk although her voice did have some nice qualities. Paula and Randy believe she just chose the wrong song. They tell her she sounds like Dolly Parton and send her out to learn a Dolly song and come back for a second audition.

Can Alesha pull it off? Come back and find out how she does!

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Eva Miller has all the confidence of a star but not enough talent to back it up.  She says she has that “special edge” and that she is in love with Simon but she really didn’t impress him with her performance.  Eva dances around so much that she actually falls over!  I couldn’t contain my laughter and just when I thought it was over for her, she hopped right back up and picked up where she left off.

Simon wants to know if this girl is actually serious and Eva replies, “No this is not no joke!”  The poor girl truly thinks she has talent, tsk tsk.  She gets upset and the judges have to let her down gently.

“MyFunny Valentine” never sounded better than when 16 year-old Alexandrea Lushington sang it tonight.  This girl definitely has star quality and a very unique sound to boot!

Nathan Hite is not just your average apathetic, gothed out 16 year-old.  No wait… he is.  This kid is laid back and doesn’t seem to really care about anything or anyone.  I am certain that Finger Eleven must have been appalled by the way Nathan performed their hit song tonight.  His vocals just don’t cut it and he is out of breath followed by a bit of shouting.  Simon calls his act a “bedroom audition” and Nathan disagrees by trying to have the upper hand.  Outside he tells Ryan, “maybe it’s the fact that I refuse to spoon with him so he’s not lettin’ me through”.  What a punk.  Go back home, kid.

One of the biggest surprises of the night came when Amanda Overmeyer, the nurse by day and motorcycle badass by night belted out Janis Joplin’s “Mean Woman”.  I really didn’t think she was going to have the pipes because her outfit was outrageous, but this woman has one mean rock voice and sings with pure passion.  Amanda lands herself 3 yesses to Hollywood.

Finally, Josiah Leming gets his chance to shine for the judges.  He is an 18 year-old high school dropout living out of his car.  He sings an original song called “To Run” for the judges.  Josiah can sing pretty well but he’s got this funky British accent that comes through which, as Randy points out, is quite an oddity considering the kid is from Tennessee.  Regardless of the kid’s strange pronunciations, the judges still put him through to Hollywood and give him hope for a brighter future.

All in all, 20 hopefuls were picked up in Atlanta.  Tomorrow night is the last round of auditions so it should be pretty good show!

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