Its Tuesday night, what does that mean? State of the Union address? No, no, American Idol night! Tonight the cast and crew were in Memphis, home of the blues. There seemed to be an epidemic of misunderstandables (that may not be a word, but it is now) at the beginning - contestants rambling through their introductions and rambling even worse through their songs. Thankfully there was a shining light through all the muddled mumblings - Jason “Sundance” Head (aka Sundance Head).
Sundance Head is the son of Roy Head, a crooner from the 1960s most notably known for his song “Treat Her Right”. When Ryan Seacrest asked about his father, Sundance said “”Well if dad’s watching, I’m a much better singer than he is, he’s a dancing fool and I ain’t got no moves.” Well this isn’t a dancing competition so you’re in the clear Sundance.
Head enters the audition room and informs the judges that he will be singing a song called “Stormy Monday” by Bobby Blue Bland. This is an old-school blues singer, what better song to sing while auditioning in Memphis. From the second Head started singing all three judges perked up and you could tell that they were just feeling him; his voice captured them, immediately. Upon completion of his song Simon Cowell said “Wow!” He was nearly speechless there for a minute. Paula Abdul followed up with “Powerful voice, didn’t expect it” and Randy Jackson said “…you blew it out, man you sounded great dude, amazing.” At this point Simon found his voice and went on to say “I’m gonna be amazed if you don’t make the finals! I thought it was terrific, well done.” With that all three judges gave him a yes vote and Sundance Head is on his way to Hollywood.
After the door closed Simon Cowell turned to the other judges and said “He just blew Taylor out of the park” - referring to last season’s winner, Taylor Hicks. Ohhh, them some fighting words Cowell. Taylor has a huge fan following and I’m sure they are going to quickly weigh in on this. Now I was a Taylor fan but egads I cannot wait to hear more from Sundance. His voice struck me down in my soul, I need to hear more from him and I cannot wait until the Hollywood round.
Who can forget Jonathan Jayne and Kenneth Swale from Seattle? Simon Cowell said of Swale “Your dancing is terrible, the singing was horrendous, and you look like one of those creatures that live in the jungle with those massive eyes, what are they called? Bush baby,” and asked Jayne if he borrowed a pair of trousers from Randy Jackson. Since the show aired the Special Olympics have stepped up with a press release regarding the show as Jayne has been an active participant with the organization for years. “While polite isn’t a word one would normally associate with Cowell and company, a viewing of the episode in question shows that the judges were in fact gracious and very encouraging to Jayne during his rendition of ‘God Bless America’. At one point Abdul commented admiringly about Jayne’s spirit and advised him to ‘Always believe in yourself.’”
I think that the Special Olympics is being gracious with their response to the show. During Jayne’s performance the judges snickered and made faces, clearly not acting in a professional manner. Of course seasoned viewers of American Idol wouldn’t expect them to act professional and while they weren’t hard on Jayne they certainly weren’t gracious.
Both Swale and Jayne just wanted to make it to Hollywood. Guess what? They did! Both appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The appearance was highlighted by a picture of a ‘bush baby’ with Simon Cowell’s face glued to the picture. See the pair’s appearance on the show courtesy of You Tube.
Perla Meneses’ performance in Minneapolis is still getting a lot of attention, but the reviews are hot and cold. The general consensus is her heavily-accented rendition of Blondie’s “Call Me” was average, at best. Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly went so far as to say “Worst of all, though, was Perla Meneses. Okay, her hips may not lie, but they also do not mask one of the weakest voices to make it to Hollywood in the last few seasons. Unless, of course, you dig cut-rate Shakira impersonations.” Now in Meneses’ defense I’d like to say that she purposely chose not to sing a Shakira song in hopes of avoiding the comparison. Unfortunately that idea went down the drain as soon as Randy Jackson asked her to perform a bit of her favorite Shakira song. Now the comparison is inevitable, both have long curly locks, hips that don’t lie and hail from Colombia.
Jon Peter Lewis (American Idol season 3 finalist) is standing in as a resident AI expert for Rolling Stone Magazine and giving his opinion on this year’s crop of hopefuls. Perla Meneses was on his good list. Not being one to hold back what he thought, Lewis said “She’s from Colombia and can sing ‘Hips Don’t Lie,’ so she’ll be known as ‘the Latin girl.’ She seems to have the right T and A; the survival story…and her voice isn’t bad. She sounds like Shakira, and Simon seemed to like her.” So my question is does Lewis mean that Simon likes her voice or her T and A? I’ll let you decide that one for yourself.
Nineteen year-old Sarah Krueger from Eau Claire, WI impressed more than just the judges in Minneapolis. With her soulful rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” she earned herself a trip to Hollywood. Simon Cowell said of Sarah “Very good Sarah, you’ve got a lot of control over your voice, you look great, very good” while Randy Jackson felt that Sarah was “very refreshing”. Krueger took a bit of a chance with the song choice as Katharine McPhee sang it several times during Season 5 and absolutely nailed it each time. Thankfully Sarah knew her range and did a fantastic job. Her high school choir director Paul Gilbertson wasn’t surprised by her performance, “I’ve told a lot of people, the only thing I’ve done for her is give her more places to sing,” he said. “She has a 100 percent natural voice.”
In other news Reality TV Magazine has done a little Internet sleuthing to try and predict which contestants make it to the semi-finals. By determining the registration date of certain contestant’s domains to the date of the cut in November they have predicted that Anna Kearns, Shyamali Malakar, and Sanjaya Malakar have made it into the semifinals. The three had their domains privately registered on November 18, a day after the rumored cuts were made. Read the entire story here.
Perla Meneses came to the United States at the age of 15 from Colombia with only two backpacks, her teddy bear, and a guitar. She setup residence in Florida but went through some rough times finding herself living out of her car for a period. She’s now the topic of conversation on Idol fan sites across the web as well as news broadcasts across the country. What is it about Meneses that makes her a hot topic for conversations? I’m going to go out on a limb her and say its part personality and part looks. Yes she has a nice voice but her heavily accented rendition of ‘Call Me’ was mediocre at best. When she sang Shakira she seemed more in her element but how much Shakira will she be able to sing while in Hollywood? Click here to watch her entire audition.
Her personality is very endearing, you look at her and you smile. She is not an over-the-top bubbly airhead but a genuinely happy person. She’s obviously quite easy on the eyes as determined by Randy’s jaw-dropping stare as she belted out “Hips Don’t Lie”. Will this combination of an okay voice, great personality, and eye-pleasing looks be enough to take Perla Meneses on a Rags to Riches journey? Only time will tell.
Jarrod Fowler’s name is coming across the wire as one of the top contenders for Season Six of American Idol with some people going so far as to compare him to Josh Gracin. Now I’m guessing this comparison is made because they are both military men – Gracin having been a Marine and Jarrod Fowler being in the Navy. America has the Navy to thank for Fowler’s appearance in Minneapolis.
Fowler, originally from Peoria, Arizona, is stationed on the USS Ronald Reagan in San Diego, California. The ship held a sixteen-week competition – Reagan Idol – and Fowler was the ultimate winner saying “When you’re deployed for six months, the days get mundane at sea. The competition really boosted morale on the ship. It was a lot of fun.” In Minneapolis he sang “Bless The Broken Road” by Rascal Flats and while he earned a yes vote from all four of the judges (Jewel was a guest judge) he was warned to watch his pitch.
I’ll admit that all of this buzz about Fowler has me a bit surprised. In my opinion his performance was good but it definitely didn’t standout in my mind. Sure, he looks nice, but this is a singing competition, right? Perhaps if he takes the judges’ suggestions and puts them in to practice his next song will better show his vocal range and he’ll keep his pitch in check. I’m all about giving this guy a chance, hopefully in Hollywood he’ll show us all what he can really do.
What do you think about Jarrod Fowler? Share your opinion with us on our new American Idol Forums.
There has been a lot of buzz about the Malakar siblings on the net these past few days including several sites reporting that they are twins, which would be wrong – these two aren’t twins. Sanjaya Malakar (17) and Shyamali Malakar (19) went against the grain of sibling contestants in the past and auditioned separately. Shyamali was up first and sang Summertime; she has a very nice voice but she just kind of gets lost; she’s lacking in stage presence seeming a bit timid. Hopefully Hollywood will give her a bit of a boost – we need more personality girl!
Sanjaya was up next, this 17 year-old can sing and quickly impressed all three of the judges. Simon Cowell went so far as to say that Sanjaya has more talent than his sister. Sweet Sanjaya didn’t reveal that little bit of information when pressed by Ryan Seacrest. Sanjaya has a goofy grin but is one adorable kid; I can see the teenage girls of the US spamming the phones voting for him.
As is the case with most American teenagers, both Sanjaya and Shyamali have MySpace pages. Sanjaya’s is a bit barren but it appears that he has already been barraged with friend requests – Sanjaya Malakar’s MySpace Page . Shyamali still has ‘Tom’ as her number one friend, for those unfamiliar with MySpace, when you create a new account ‘Tom’ becomes your first friend. Most folks delete Tom; evidently Shyamali has a thing for him as he’s in the number one position! *wink* Shyamali Malakar’s MySpace Page. If you peek into her pics folder you’ll find this artsy photo.
The sleuths over at TMZ have found a skeleton in Thomas Daniels’ closet. Evidently in 2004 Daniels was convicted of a DUI in Oregon. You can read the whole story and see his mugshot at tmz.com.
The sixth season of American Idol opened up by breaking records. Approximately 57.6 million viewers watched the premiere episode’s auditions in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For those who enjoy the harsher side of the audition process, Minneapolis didn’t leave you feeling unfulfilled. At one point during the show, Randy Jackson went so far as to call the city Minnehopeless. There were a few standouts but most the most memorable in my opinion was Perla Meneses. Upon entering the room Simon Cowell’s eyes lit up, evidently he liked what he saw. Her first song wasn’t spectacular only earning mediocre reviews from the judges. Upon Randy’s request Perla sang part of “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira and the judges quickly changed their opinions. With that she was given a golden ticket, we’ll see you in Hollywood Perla!
Wednesday night’s show had the cast in Seattle. Again the show was heavy on sub par performances but the sweetheart of the Seattle auditions was sixteen year-old Jordin Sparks from Glendale, Arizona. Jordin, daughter of Phillipi Sparks of New York Giants fame, said she has been waiting to be old enough to audition for American Idol. Her song of choice for her big day was “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion. She did a fantastic job eliciting very positive remarks from Randy and Paula. Simon stated “Sometimes, I like to put one sugar in my coffee to make it sweeter, that was the equivalent of putting eleven spoonfuls in. It was all a bit too cutesy, a bit over the top, you know that weird smile thing you were doing throughout.” However, Simon went on to give her a yes vote alongside Paula and Randy - Jordin is off to Hollywood! Next week the cast heads south to Memphis.
On the first episode of season 6, Perla Meneses was one of the people that stood out. Her song choice wasn’t that great, but when Randy asked her for some Shakira, it sounded pretty good. I think I may have found her MySpace page - Possibly going by Dre…I would assume that’s tied to her middle name, Andrea.