I didn’t want to rush to judgment about contestant Katie Bernard so waited until today and watched her audition again (I love my DVR) and decided that my first impression from last night was right. What exactly were the judges thinking giving her a ticket to Hollywood? I still don’t understand what she was saying before she sang. I got the part about her having a little kid voice but I think that is an understatement, the woman mumbles worse than my 3 year-old. She has a decent singing voice; if she went around singing everything then she’d be easier to understand. So its obvious that her very unusual voice is not a result of some sort of oral-motor issue but something else; I think she needs to figure it out or her adult life is going to be riddled with confused conversationalists.
Randy Jackson just had to say “I would give this girl another shot.” Ugh, that planted the seed in Paula Abdul’s mind. Simon Cowell, the obvious voice of reason during this audition, quickly gave his negative vote. Abdul invited Bernard’s husband in to help convince her but Mr. Bernard didn’t talk much – we were blessed with more mumble speak from Katie herself. Just to spite Cowell, Abdul gave a big yes vote and Katie Bernard is off to Hollywood. I’m going to file her away with BFFs Antonella Barba and Amanda Coluccio in the “enjoy your trip because it’s going to be short” file.
While browsing You Tube looking for her audition video I found a few other clips of her other performances. The first one is at Hard Rock Live in Orlando, FL and the second is at Dimples in Burbank, CA. Her singing voice is a bit better in these clips than her audition but I still don’t get a “The American Idol” vibe from her.