American Idol heats up in Miami

American Idol heats up in Miami
American Idol returned to Miami for the first time since Season 2. Over 10,000 people show up for the auditions hoping to be the next American Idol. But first they would have to get past the judges. Simon Cowell immediately comments on the shortness of Paula Abdul's dress. He calls it slutty. First up was Shannon McGough, who works for her parents at a meat market grinding hamburger and such. She wouldn't mind giving up her job for American Idol. She also belches - loudly. Shannon sings loudly too. Simon tells her he had a late night and isn't feeling great. She made him feel worse. Randy Jackson didn't think there was any melody to the song. Shannon wants to sing again, but Simon urges her not to. She does, and Simon tells her she sounds like she's eating when she's singing. Paula agrees there are melody problems. Ryan Seacrest brings up the boyband history of Florida, what with the Backstreet Boys and Nsync coming from Orlando. This leads to Robbie Carrico, who is apparently a former boybander turned rocker. He sang and all three judges liked him. He's greeted with silly string at the door by his adoring fans. We get a montage of bad guys singers, as they apparently found a few in Miami. Ryan says they need someone with charisma. Enter Ghaleb Emachah from Venezuala who plays guitar, piano and harmonica. He says he has what it takes because he has passion. He sings a Marc Anthony song. Simon said he would like him if he was drunk, but sober it doesn't work. Paula says the problem is the accent is hard to ignore . Randy likes his voice though and says yes. That makes the decision up to Paula. After debating she walks up to him and hugs him, welcoming Ghaleb to Hollywood. She tells him to work on the accent. As he leaves, Ghaleb apparently kisses everyone in sight. Friends Corliss Smith and Brittany Wescott agree on nearly everything except men. They're both big girls, but Brittany likes her men skinny, while Corliss likes a man with beef. Naturally Corliss likes Randy. She sings to him and Randy says it's very nice. Brittany then sings to Simon, who even claps along to the song. They each get a yes from all three judges, though Randy jokes that he only says yes to Brittany so Simon won't hurt him. The girls run around hugging all the judges. Single mom Suzanne Toon was up next. She had her daughter when she was 19. She gave a half-hearted attempt at a sob story, had a few tears involved. I'm picturing a Fantasia like “vote for me 'cause I can pimp my baby” episode if she makes it through to the voting rounds. Simon told her she became more attractive when she started singing. Paula liked the sultriness to her voice. Randy told her to watch the melody and pitch. In all, Suzanne got three yes votes The segways at this point didn't really make sense. Somehow Suzanne led to a clip on the awfulness awesfulness thing that Jasmine Trias was in Season 3. Sorry, but I just can't seem to make my keyboard type out the word that I normally use for their “look at me” clips that they use for pimping everything - not in connection with Jasmine. Jasmine has apparently released albums in her native Phillipines that have gone platinum. To me all that proves is the water is so tainted in the Phillipines that it has permanently damaged the hearing of millions of people there. This is a real crisis that needs to be solved. The next segway from Jasmine to Ramiele Malubray made sense. She wants to be the first Asian-American Idol. Paula liked her, but Simon thought she was more like a hotel singer, not contemporary enough. Randy told her she had a big voice for a cute smaller girl. Simon said no (thank you for trying Simon) but Randy and Paula said yes. I fear what will happen if she gets through to a voting round. I pray she doesn't make it. I don't need a Season 3 repeat. Another mini-sob story came from Syesha Mercado, who has had good things happening to her over and over again. She didn't use to have such happy times. Her dad has struggled with drugs and alcohol in the past, but recently graduated from a drug rehab program. Simon thought her singing was a bit of an effort, but in the end Syesha ended up with three yes votes. Also getting through were Natashia Blach and Ilsy Lorena Pinot. Our bad singer montage was up next. This one ended with Richard Valles, who sang through his nose. Randy made fun of him. Next we had the arrogant Julie Dubela, who thought she was so awesome that her manure didn't stink. She was in the top 20 on American Juniors 4 years ago, so naturally that meant she was the most awesome singer since like... ever. Simon told her she was very confident as she came in (that's an understatement Simon). She sings, not too badly, but I hate her so much at this point based on attitude that she could have sang like Whitney before she married Bobby and did drugs and I still would hate her just on point. I'm a girl, we're vicious like that. Simon calls her precocious. He wanted her to sing without all the weird acting, he thought it was over-rehearsed and over acted. Julie says she is acting like herself, Simon tells her that's the problem (thank you Simon!). Randy tells her she's not ready yet. Simon tells her to go to LA and be an actress. Julie is surprised that they don't love her as much as she loves herself. Simon calls her over-indulged (the phrase you were looking for Simon was “spoiled bitch”). Paula told Simon that no one has said no to poor little Julie. This brings us to the last contestant of the day. Brandon Black spent the whole day cranking up his performance, only to be met by cranky judges not in the mood for anything less than a serious audition. He runs in and jabbers on with some sort of “funny” introduction. Then he tries to sing and gyrate to “I'll make love to you.” I'd swear off sex if he was singing that to me quite frankly. Then he sings his own song. Simon tries to stop him. He says the audition was verging on desperation what with the terrible wig and terrible singing. Brandon wants to finish his “performance.” Simon and Randy can't stand anymore and get up to leave. That leaves Paula there alone at the table. It seems that 17 people made it through to Hollywood from Miami, 9 of which we saw. That leaves only 8 that we didn't see. We're definitely getting more of the good people. I've seen complaints about that online elsewhere, but here, I only have praise for the development. Save the bad people for filler later in the season when we still have a writer's strike and we need American Idol 5 days a week!

Source: http://www.curlio.com