Anyway, now that we have seen the first week of Hollywood Week on "Idol" I have more to discuss. Hollywood Week is basically Hell Week. All of the contestants have to jump through hoops in order to make the cut. First the contestants must all re-audition on stage in front of the judges and other contestants. They are brought up in herds of ten and Ryan Seacrest tells the folks watching at home through a voice-over that half of the contestants will be weeded out in this stage. This isn't all that exciting. I only have two people to report on as far as singing goes. First, wedding singer Erika Van Pelt impressed me with her cover of "Glitter in the Air" by Pink. I love Pink, and of the 5.5 million views her performance of "Glitter in the Air" at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards has on youtube, I probably account for a million of those views. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I have watched it a lot. Once already this morning, in fact. The second singing performance that I wish to highlight is that of seventeen-year-old ladies man David Leathers, Jr. who decided to pick a very BIG song to sing. You have to really be talented to try and do Celine Dion. David belted out a fantastic rendition of "Because You Loved Me". He'll be one to watch in my opinion as long as he can make it through the groups. I feel like he is the kind of contestant that will surprise us viewers when it comes to taking on the challenging categories the contestants receive in the later weeks.
In other audition news, however, young Symone Black fell off the stage in the last minute of this week's first episode. It was a scary moment made even more strenuous by the combined knowledge of not knowing what had happened until the next episode and the choice of the producers not to use any music or ominous tones during the scene. The silence seemed to make the moment more real. I even heard Nigel Lythgoe calling out for the medic. I would know that man's voice anywhere. Good news is that we find out in the second episode that Symone is fine as she returns from the hospital and moves straight into finding a group for the second challenge of Hollywood Week.
Group Round is my favorite part of Hollywood Week. I love to hate how stupid people are and I literally count divas. Do it. It's fun. Tally how many men are divas versus women. My numbers amuse me, but see for yourself. Once again, as seems to be the case for every Hollywood Week in the history of the show, people got sick. This isn't hard to predict, people. There are hundreds of people from all over the country coming together to gather in rooms packed with one another and they all sing in warm germ-breeding environments - of course people are going to get sick.
My favorite group to watch named themselves The Betty's. Why do I like the Betty's? Well it definitely is not because of the diva action, that's for sure. It is because of Gabrielle. Gabrielle, a member of the five contestants that make up the group, caught the "idol bug" as Ryan calls it. She was vomiting but that did not stop her from rehearsing with her group. Above that her group even seemed good with it and very supportive, despite the bag of puke in her lap. That could not have smelled good. I guess it was just lucky that none of her fellow group members are reactionary pukers. Still, Gabrielle has a nice voice (at least from what I heard of them rehearsing). It's raspy and different. I like different.
Apparently the groups have twenty songs on a list to choose from for this round of the competition...but I did not hear twenty songs. I put the songs I heard into the poll so unfortunately you all have a limited selection this week. These polls will be better once theme weeks start...and I can't wait! Until then I'm going to find out how many shoes it will take to cover my stairs. Enjoy whatever you are doing instead of doing what you're supposed to do!
