American Idol Auditions Birmingham Alabama

January 30, 2007 |

We are down in Sweet Home Alabama this evening and a nice looking Erica Skye opens the auditions for Birmingham with Unchained Melody that wasn’t melodious enough for the judges. But then she kept going with a Dixie Chicks song and then after the judges said no again she made like the Eveready Bunny and you guessed it, kept going. Finally she got the point and left.

Then we had another voice and singer combination like Paris Bennett. Katie Bernard looked like just a wannabe (see post below), Randy liked her, Simon didn’t and it was up to Paula and she said yes. So she’s off to Hollywood.

Tatiana McConnica then sang her way to Hollywood in a unanimous decision by the judges although I thought she was a bit of a screamer and was just okay, but all three judges let her through so what do I know? We were then graced by a visit from aptly named Margaret Fowler imitating Big Bird in a yellow costume. Margaret claimed to be 23 but later confessed to being 53.

Paula seemed to be having a hard time holding it together during the first day of the Birmingham auditions and didn’t show up on day two. In a rare occurrence she decided against Bernard Williams II singing Michael Jackson when Simon actually voted yes. Randy made it two and off to Hollywood he went.

The sad story of the evening, if not the whole competition thus far, went to Jamie Lynn Ward with a paralyzed father who had shot himself. She sang fairly well and earned a trip to Hollywood, but needs a little work. American Idol has a comedian this year in Chris Sligh who was funny and likeable enough to charm Paula to vote for him to go to Hollywood.

We then had the long haired, I mean really long haired Victoria Watson who was a really nice girl, but just didn’t have enough to be an Idol. She had been growing her hair all her life and it reached to the floor even when she wore high heels. She sang a decent version of You Raise Me Up made famous by Josh Groban.

There weren’t any really strange auditions this evening and even when the judges were a bit rude, the citizens of Birmingham showed polite southern hospitality. Brandy Patterson rounded out the evening with a bad rendition of Madonna’s Like A Virgin. She had a bit of an attitude, but what do you expect when Simon says such terrible things. Brandy thought the wooden floor was a problem and tried to sing on the carpet hoping to make things better, but it didn’t work.

Twenty contestants made it through from Birmingham and we are on to Los Angeles tomorrow evening for the final round of auditions.

Alan

Tags: sweet home alabama, erica skye, katie bernard, tatiana mcconnica, jamie lynn ward