 | Collins: Rayshard Henderson, the "Black Clay Aiken," certainly had a big personality. I REALLY wish he had been good. Exciting, goofy, fun, rockin' a hot fro. Just not a good singer. He really set the tone for Charleston, sadly. Engaging personality...but no actual singing talent. |
 | Funk: His hair was HOT, man! He had a cool yell-voice, but his singing voice...well, sucked. |
 | Heart: I looked at him and though "holy DISCO!" He didn't sound like Clay at ALL...people should stop saying they sound like other singers. We're looking for someone original, and as soon as you name someone, you force people to compare you to them. Why make people compare you to Whitney Houston or Kelly Clarkson? You're probably going to LOSE that battle! He was over the top, and didn't make it. |
| Collins: Another flop was DeAnna Prevatte, the New Kelly Pickler, only brunette and violent. Yikes. Energy doesn't mean talent. Emotion is good, but it's best when paired with actual talent. |
|
| Funk: Yo, she was straight up SCARY! I was surprised she didn't flip out at the judges, more. |
|
| Heart: She seems like the kind of girl who can barely hold in her inner beast. That last look she shot at Simon was just scary! Very angry person, added to the gigantic pile of Idol rejects. |
| Collins: Crystal Ortiz and Randy Stark, the couple that met on the American Idol chat forums...YEESH! Horrible. |
|
| Funk: Eeeew. Eww, ew. EEEEEEEEW! Stop kissing! |
|
| Heart: And he actually runs an American Idol audition advice website? Those two couldn't keep their hands off each other, which was pretty gross. No one needs to see that. |
|
| Funk: Ew. |
| Collins: No one needed to HEAR that, either. Maybe producers put them through to the judges because they're loyal Idol chat fans, but...yet another waste of time that could've gone to deserving singers. Now, I was completely wrong about Michelle and Jeffery Lampkin. |
|
| Heart: Yikes! Crazy energy, and I thought they'd flop big-time, too...but they can actually sing! I liked their little high notes together, and their happy reaction to getting put through to Hollywood. I hate to bring it up, guys, but...is this Season 7's answer to the Sanjaya siblings from last year? |
| Collins: You know, I thought of that while watching, too. A brother-sister duo, they judges like the goofy brother better...hey, anything can happen. Sanjaya, in my opinion, was actually a HIGH POINT of last season. He made for interesting television, and, for a while, captured the attention of the entire country. Talented or not, he made the show exciting. Jeffery has a good chance at becoming something like that, only better. He had a great personality. His little "OW! Factor" thing, the celebration in the hallway after being sent to Hollywood...FINALLY, someone from Charleston I'm actually excited to see again, later! They'll make Hollywood and beyond much more exciting, depending upon how far one or both of them go. I doubt the sister will go far, but Jeffery may be hard for judges and fans to resist. |
|
| Funk: They might be a little annoying, but...I guess I can jump on board. I'm a sucker for harmony, and I was diggin' their performance. I was a little surprised they made it through, too...but it's cool. Should be an interesting ride for us with the Lampkins in it. |
|
| Heart: After them...we wasted time watching people destroy Carrie Underwood's hit song. There were more losers than winners in Charleston, I know. Seacrest pointed out that only 23 out of 10,000 people made it to Hollywood, but...I can't help but think more of those 23 should've been featured, even for a little while, during the Charleston hour. |
Hi. I'm a Mac...and this is my Idol audition.
| Collins: Horrible, people! I know that is a common complaint about this stage of the show. Every season, people whine about how the judges are mean and too much time is wasted showcasing freaks, but...this season, it really feels a bit blatant, somehow. It's like the producers heard everyone's complaints, then decided to ramp it up even further, just to spite them. |
|
| Heart: Amy Flynn, the 16-year-old dance team captain and abstinence preacher, has a good voice. I don't know if she has the power behind it she'd need to go very far, and I agree with Simon that her personality could start to annoy people. But she wasn't bad. |
| Collins: Ah, the Deep South. As beautiful and charming as you can be...there's a lovely current of crazy running just below the surface at all times. Amy Flynn, a lovely, wholesome girl...again, the anti-Britney theme I've talked about for this season, singers wanting to be better role models than the insane drug addicts we've got running around, these days. Amy had a nice voice, a bit immature-sounding. With work, she could be okay. There's potential, but not super-great. Paula loved her, Simon was annoyed by her...I say she won't be strong enough vocally to win this show, but she could be an interesting distraction if she makes it into the Top 24. |
|
| Funk: I liked her in the promos, without hearing her sing...but very cute, nice voice. Not very powerful, but good. She may not make it far, but I don't know if I find her annoying JUST yet. Her singing "Golden Ticket" on the way out the door was hilarious, and her facial expressions during judging were priceless. Welcome to Hollywood! |
|
| Heart: As Amy might say, whatev. London Weidberg, first off, I LOVE her name. She was the one with the really sad story about losing her dad to cancer, and I liked her voice. I'm pretty surprised the judges hesitated to put her through, though. With all the other pretty blondes who always make it, what's one more? Ha ha. |
| Collins: I'd like to be on record as saying that more attractive blondes on television is not a bad thing. Anyway, London had the Touching Family Story (TM), and claims she's already a musician. She's hard to classify, vocally. Pop-friendly, but not QUITE Disney Princess-y. Bluesy, but not unique. Will she stand out? We'll have to see in Hollywood. |
|
| Funk: Know what, Collins? She WILL. I don't like to make bold predictions, but...London WILL BE A TOP 4 FINALIST! There's a prediction for you! |
|
| Heart: Woah! Artie, with the big call! |
|
| Funk: I'm a little annoyed that we didn't see more YES votes after her. The ratio of terrible to decent is more off than previous seasons, it seems. At least that's how the producers are making it look! |
|
| Heart: We're at the end of Day One...and, if you're keeping score, 15 out of the 23 people who went to Hollywood have already been found. That leaves only 8 singers for producers to ignore for the second half of the show! PLEASE, show less of the losers! |
| Collins: Speaking of losers, Air Force pilot Lindsey Goodman's dreams of stardom were shot down by the judges. They almost always put The Military Contestant through to Hollywood, if only for the happy, patriotic moment. Reality check time...The Military Contestant never goes far. Not a bad voice, but not quite good enough to win this. The judges did their patriotic duty and sent her packing. Good call. |
|
| Heart: Too harsh, Clyde. She was something DIFFERENT! She was cute and interesting and not the cookie-cutter. I think it was a mistake letting her go. Aretha Codner was DEFINITELY a memorable character. She was the one with the giant belt, who argued with the judges that she was actually a good singer. That won't work! |
| Collins: Let's review Rule Two of Idol Judgement: If Simon tells you you're bad, then you're bad. Don't keep singing! Don't try another bloody song! Just GO AWAY! She certainly qualified, as Ryan called her, as the "Big Guns." My goodness. But, most importantly...she's another person who claims to be Idol-caliber, says she's the New Whitney Houston, then bombs. It wasn't murder, as Simon called it, but she had a lot of pitch problems. She can sing, just not well enough...and she can't hear her flaws. Simon was particularly brutal, but can you blame him after all the lousy singers Charleston brought put in front of him? |
|
| Heart: I'd like to officially establish Rule Three of Idol Judgement? |
| Collins: What's that? |
|
| Heart: No big belts on big ladies! It's just NOT flattering, ever. |
| Collins: Fair enough! The rest of the show was full of let-downs and NO votes. In fact, the Idol producers even managed to shock me by including They Might Be Giants music during the big "NO" montage. Nice work, a bit of an obscure band for much of the show's audience...but, still! "No" was the perfect song to use, I'm glad someone thought to include it. |
|
| Funk: Hilarious sequence! Highly entertaining, and not too long. That's a GOOD way of showing terrible singers without wasting so much time on backstories. Props for including the Giants song, definitely. |
No, no, NO.
Not sure which opening produces better sounds, but I'm leaning toward the dog's behind.
|
| Heart: Yeah, it's sad that after London, only rejects got camera time. Joshua Boson, the creepy guy who over-sang "You're Gonna' Love Me," look...whenever people sing this song, they're going home. You KNOW it. It's almost a guaranteed no! |
And you! And YOU! And YOU...are going home.
| Collins: There are a few kiss of death songs, and several that have simply been overdone and don't show off anything unique about a singer. That's certainly a Kiss of Death Song, in my book. It died with Frenchie Davis many years ago, in my opinion. Now...let's talk about the story that ran throughout the entire show, the New Daddy, Oliver Highman. |
|
| Heart: Why did they pump up the story just to say NO?! 23 people made it...and we saw, like, FOUR?!! Come on! |
|
| Funk: They played up the Baby Daddy story too much for a No Vote. They were totally right not to put him through, though...his voice wasn't good, and he now has a NEWBORN TO CARE FOR! What are you gonna' say to the wife and baby? Yo, sorry...but daddy's gotta' go chase a dream and get his hopes crushed in Round 2! See you in a few weeks, good luck, honey! No way. |
| Collins: You know, I didn't think his voice was so bad. At least at first. He intially sounded a bit like Garth Brooks, but lost it when he tried to get fancy. He wouldn't have won, but was hardly the worst we've seen. It's a good thing that he went to the hospital with the misses, though...because he didn't make it past the judges. A lot of time was devoted to their story, but...well, it is what it is, people. |
|
| Heart: 23! Out of 10,000! We saw pretty much nobody. |
| Collins: Not great odds, really...let's hope the rest of those happy people they sent to Hollywood and opted not to give TV time are really good. |
|
| Heart: That's it for Charleston! See you in Omaha. |
|
| Funk: Those cats look even crazier than they were in Charleston! |
|
| Heart: I hope some of them are actually GOOD SINGERS. |
| Collins: Charleston's still a lovely city, by the way. I doubt we'll be seeing it featured on American Idol again anytime soon, though. |
|
| Heart: Bye, Chatterheads! |
***** DISCLAIMER *****
The opinions expressed by the three "FOX43 Idol Experts" do not necessarily reflect the opinions of FOX43, Tribune Broadcasting or FOX.
***************************
Comments
So far, I don't think they are showning that many great people. Each night Idol is on, I write down the people that they put through to Hollywood, and I only wrote down 3 people from SC. I hope there is some better talent next week.
Posted by: Nicole | January 25, 2008 3:53 PM
Thanks for the comment, Nicole.
It's true. Unfortunately, Charleston was a complete let-down.
It seems the producers are really holding back on letting the viewers see who's making it to Hollywood. That makes it harder to predict who will go for into the season...which is part of the fun!
Luckily, we'll be in Hollywood soon, and meet the brand new Top 24.
Keep checking in here and letting us know what you think of the shows, the singers and our comments!
Anyone else brave enough to leave a note for us Idol Experts?
Posted by: Clyde Collins | January 25, 2008 4:41 PM
I wrote down four from Charleston-
Michelle and Jeffery Lampkin.
Amy Flynn-OR AC...whatevs
and
London Weidberg
I can't believe we only saw that many in the show, London was my favorite.
Posted by: Lily | January 25, 2008 5:10 PM
haha, this is pretty funny.
Posted by: Brett | January 27, 2008 12:30 AM
I have to agree with you, Julie, on the Lindsey Goodman shoot down. She had a beautiful voice. Her nerves, unfortunately, was her downfall. If she would have made it, she would have been my "underdog" favorite for the year. I was shocked they said no to her honestly, they've let worse through. As for Miss Amy Flynn, absolutely adorable until she goes all 16 year old cheerleader on us. She also has a lovely voice, but absolutely no power behind it. I see her being the Sanjaya of this year, the AI voting crowd will love her, and she has potential, but will never really have a great performance. London, I agree with her being one of the top 12, but I can't say that I see her being top 4. And finally the Lampkin siblings, they are a fun bunch, but I don't see either of them making it to the top 24. Perhaps I would feel differently if they auditioned seperately. But to agree with just about everyone, this was just a bad one. It would have been nice to at least see a couple other good singers. It doesn't always have to be about the bad people we love to laugh at.
Posted by: Shelby | January 29, 2008 3:31 PM
Don't you people have lives?
Posted by: (commenter name withheld) | January 30, 2008 5:06 PM
Nice try with the naughty name, Mystery Commenter. We do monitor these things, you know.
As for your question...we get paid to do this. It really doesn't take up much of our time, either. A few hours a week.
Thanks for reading, though, bucko.
Posted by: Clyde Collins | January 30, 2008 6:32 PM