1.23.2010

[Creations] Break Me (Finally Fragile)


Break me
Cause I can't stand this hurt anymore

I've been through so many heartache
I used to pretend
To be a tough one
But I'm...finally fragile

Can't you see
That I've tried and tried
To survived these tears
But I'm just an ordinary human being

Only slightly before
My self finally broken
So why don't you please
Hurt me once again

Need one more stab on my heart
For me to die peacefully

1.21.2010

[American Idol] Audition #4 Orlando: Zero City

We arrived at Orlando as this season's audition stopped in it's 4th city.
And I was a bit disappointed even more to this city, after Chicago.

I don't think any of golden ticket getters from Orlando would end up as a true contender this season, I even doubt they could make it into Top 12 - or 24.

A good daddy, Seth Rollins sang "Someone to Watch Over Me".
He's got a good voice, but I have to see he handles bigger songs to decide how great he is.

Another black male contestant, Jermaine Purifoy performed "Smile".
The judges praised him, Kara called it 'an honest performance'.
I thought it was good, but still far from great. By the way, he's the second Jermaine we'll be watching this season, after Jermaine Sellers from Atlanta, I prefer Sellers than Purifoy.

Anybody misses Blake Lewis?
We've got another beatboxer this season, Jay Stone.
The judges seemed impressed with his beatboxing, but Simon didn't say yes for him.
I thought his rendition of "Ain't No Sunshine" was good. Probably Simon understated him after his beatboxing.

Kristin Chenoweth was the guest judge for Orlando, but only for Day 1.
The judge panel turned into 3 judges formation again since Season 7 with Kara replaces Paula's spot, for Day 2.
I've never heard about Kristin, anyway.

There was a girl named Michelle Delamor who's been featured on AI ads, and featured as 'coming up' audition in this episode, but never appeared.
Damn, I was looking forward to see her audition.

[American Idol] Audition #3 Chicago: Third Time Attempt for Angela Martin

Chicago is the third stop for this year's audition, and I must admit that this city a bit disappointed me after those good talents from Boston and Atlanta.

Cause by this second week, the audition turned down till only a hour per city, I'll be more to the point.

The best from Chicago: Angela Martin.
She's a familiar face for frequent AI viewers since she's been on Hollywood for last two seasons but didn't make through voting rounds for both chances.
And, she ain't give up yet. Here she comes for her third appearance on Idol.
Singing "Just Fine" by Mary J Blige. For me, that was the most promising female audition so far.
I could see her feel and emotion, and I like her hard-work and self-esteem to decided to tried again for the third time.
She's def one of the most talented girls we've seen this season.
I hope she'll make it into Top 12 if she's as great as we could figure out right now.

Not-so-funny audition: Amy Lang.
She has a 'special ability' with her boobs. And she started her brief audition with pretended to fainted.

Charity Vance sang "Summertime" and the judges loved her.
I didn't. She has small voice, and for me small SCREECHY voice.
Sorry, but I didn't get it.

Asian Invasion: There was a asian boy, Chinese-face, named John Park.
I didn't like him. He did a pretty good job. But I'm not into him.
However, Shania was reaaally into him. She commented that he has 'nice lips' and 'beautiful bottom'. Hmmm...
I think Anoop and Sanjaya were better than him. I'm more into India face, haha.

Paige Dechausse, a bad-asthma-attack survivor, turned "A Change Is Gonna Come" into her own.
I didn't really like it, though. I believe this song should be sung with powerful and passionate voice, like Adam did on Finale last season, and Syesha did on Top 4 two seasons ago.

Country diva, Shania Twain was the guest judge for Chicago. She showed proper judging ability like Mary J Blige did, not like Victoria Beckham.
I prefer Mary, but Shania did a great job, she's even 'pushed' Randy to let a contestant moved on to Hollywood (Paige, I guess, CMIIW) after Simon said no when Shania and Kara said yes. And Randy finally said yes.

That's it for Chicago.

1.14.2010

[American Idol] Audition #2 Atlanta: Diva Candidates Rising

It's the second city of audition on the 9th season of AI, Atlanta!!
The city that brought us Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson and Clay Aiken.
From the first two names, we would expect divas from this city, no?
I'm feeling that AI was lack of great female singer in recent years, and I hope we could get some fresh divas for this season.

Well, my expectation was paid off at Atlanta. We got many great singing from the girls.
First from Keia Johnson who sang Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". It's pretty interesting to hear Celine from a black voice, and I thought she did great, she did some improvisations. If Keia could up-grade her singing, I'm sure she's one to watch this season, with that cheerful personality. Very likeable. Oh yeah, she won Miss Congeniality on Miss America.



And then we got three girls that seemed could really be divas of this season.
Mariam Lemnouni did Miley Cyrus' "The Climb".
Noel Reese pulled out Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing". That was the most impressive vocal of the day, for me. Really, really great. And she's just 16.
And Thisa Holland gave a rendition of "Impossible" by Christina Aguilera.
These three girls are great, but too bad they put them all in one, so we just got a bit from each of them.

Then we got a shy, country girl. Vanessa Wolfe impressed the judges with her rendition of a country song, "Wagon Wheel". I'm not really into her since I'm not really into country music. But the judges seem loved her and even called her authentic. We'll see how far she could make it.

Another impressive female vocal came from Mallorie Haley with her rendition of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart". She did a good job, Mary even called it the best vocal she heard on two days of Atlanta audition. I thought it was good, but not great. I prefer Asia'h Epperson's version of this song on season 7's semifinal.

Another girl came in, named Holly Harden. But she's obviously not one of Atlanta divas, and she wore a guitar costume, let's call her "Guitar Girl" (like "Bikini Girl" for Katrina Darrel, last year). I didn't get her singing, and I'm glad Mary felt the same and was brave to spoke it although the other three liked it.

Lamar Royal is a big fan of Mary J Blige, the guest judge for Atlanta, and said he would take judges' opinions whatever they thought his singing was. But, when the judges (minus Simon who was left for a minute) told him that he isn't a terrible singer but not ready enough for it, he got very angry and started shouting censored words.
More than a dozen of bleeping sounds for us to heard. Haha...

We also got potential male contenders.
A "singing police officer", Bryan Walker.
And a church singer, Jermaine Sellers. I personally thought Jermaine is the best male after Justin, so far.

The guest judge, Mary J Blige, obviously did a better job than Victoria Beckham did on Boston.
Mary gave more proper comments and wasn't afraid to spoke her own opinion when she felt different from three permanent judges. I felt the same when Mary said no to the "Guitar Girl".

Next week, we'll looking for Chicago talents!

1.13.2010

[American Idol] Season Premiere - Audition #1 Boston: The Man of the Hour, A Cancer-Survivor

American Idol is back! - again, for it's 9th season!

Personally, I doubt it would be struggling to have as great season as last year's, as ya know Adam Lambert rocked it out - and even considered by many: saved AI last year. Hmm...I must say that I'm agree with that statement.

But, well - here comes another promising season!
Another season that's promising us a new talent to see - or somebody to be seen.

They put a brief recap of last season's finale for opening this season. I liked it, they said, "Glam Rocker vs The Guy Next Door" to represents a lopsided finale between Adam and Kris (no offense, Kris). And when they said, "A new winner is crown (Kris appears)...A new star is born (ADAM APPEARS)", hahaaa...! I think that's only a smoother metaphor for the fact that "The runner-up outsold the winner on album sales, bitch!!!" Hahaha....(no offense, Kris)

Yup, enough for that. Now here's the first audition city: Boston.
It was actually taped just weeks after Paula Abdul left (I will write a post dedicated for her later). And Ellen DeGeneres, the new judge who replaces Paula's spot this year wasn't scheduled to judge for auditions. So, we'll see rotating guest judges for 7 cities of audition, includes: Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne & Mary J.Blige.

For Boston, we got Victoria Beckham. Honestly, I think she wasn't a good judge, her comments didn't help at all.

And the lucky person to be the first to be seen this year: Janet McNamara. She plays American Idol video game - I bet she won't play it again forever, after the judges said big NO for her out-of-tone, full-choregraphy rendition of Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine".

The judges, a bit surprisingly (at least for me), praised Ashley Rodriguez's rendition of - according to Kara, a very difficult song - Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You", very much.
I do think she did pretty good job, but I don't think it's awesome. So I was a bit surprised when the judges showered her with really high praises.
I don't think she will make Top 12, however.



The man of the hour was: Justin Williams. Did a really great rendition of "Feeling Good", the best auditon of the day for me. He turned the song to dinamic range, down to the low, belt out some chest notes and ending with a beautiful falsetto. No wonder, though, since he's a vocal coach. I browsed about him and found that he was already made it into Hollywood last season, wow, I didn't know since I started to really watched last season since Adam got the rest of my life on "Black or White", haha. I don't know why he didn't make it through, I'll search for it soon.
The judges gave him good reviews, GOOD - not awesome like Ashley's, though Justin's audition impressed me much greater than Ashley's.
Justin is my favorite so far, and I predicted him as the first Top 12 finalist.
FYI, Justin is a cancer survivor. Great. But I'm trying not talking much about the "sad stroy" behind contestants, I know everybody sicks enough about it. Although I do consider Justin's story not as cheesy as others, since it would motivates and inspires many people.



And then, a girl did a cover of my Mariah Carey's "Vision of Love".
No, not a great rendition like Tamyra Gray did on the first season, Lisa Olivero sang it out of pitch and drew criticism from the judges. Simon even called it, "craziest version of Mariah Carey I have ever heard". Actually, I thought it was a bit out of pitch, but not really bad. I'm agree with Kara, that she needs more practice, especially when do a very-difficult-song-to-sing like this.
Hmmm...listen, folks! Don't do Mariah, except you can really take it.

Jennifer Hirsh showed a unique voice that I'm pretty like.
And there was a boy named Bosa Mora whose parents were from Nigeria. I think he did great and has a good prospect to make it to Top 24, he reminds me of Chikezie from season 7.

Well, that was all I wanted to say from Boston. The second city of audition: Atlanta.
Stay tune, guys.