[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!