American Idol 2009 Week 1 Program 2: Kansas City

The show from Kansas City, Missouri, kicked off with a reminder that this is David Cook’s home town and a look back at his return visits to the city. 11,000 people turned up for the first round of auditions and there was plenty of love for him and the judges with “Simon says” teeshirts and Ryan Seacrest banners. Jason Castro turned up to the judges’ round to support his brother’s audition and got a hug from Paula Abdul.

Kansas City Auditions

Auditions in Kansas City were off to a good start with the powerful and emotional voice of Chelsea Marquardt. Well, that’s how she described it; the judges didn’t quite agree. Simon said, “it sounded like a cat jumping off the Empire State Building, and the noise it would make before it hit the floor,” and Randy rubbed a little salt in the wound, adding: “and then as it hit the floor, the siren, woooooo”. The truth is so cruel but at least she got a hug from Ryan! Ashley Anderson sang Foosteps in the Sand, a Leona Lewis song which a typically modest Simon thought was the best song he’d heard this audition season. Ryan suggested Ashley “stacked the deck a little bit choosing one of Simon’s songs.” The next contestant, Casey Carlson, looked the part and had the voice to go through to Hollywood. Classically trained Brian Hettler originally wanted to be an opera singer but didn’t manage to convince anyone singing Aretha’s Think. Simon threw out our new favourite question, “are you disappointed?” but didn’t get any response. We’re disappointed; we like that question nearly as much as “which three countries…?”!

Next up were a few contestants who’d put their own spin on perfectly good songs. James Michael Avance perhaps would have been better saying nothing at all! Simon called him a ‘singing Ryan Seacrest’, but we didn’t get to hear Simon’s reason for this observation. Billy Vinson has been looking at his reflection but perhaps should try listening to himself instead. Chris Jones brought a little darkness into our lives and Deandre Hopkins failed to amaze. Von Smith was the next contestant through to Hollywood; Kara complimented his instrument and Randy thought he had a dope voice. We weren’t too sure if we liked his voice, but he can sing and has plenty of personality so we’re glad he got through. The next contestant was Michael Castro and he proved as eloquent as his brother and just as cute; we liked his voice better than Jason’s, too. Simon thinks maybe he’s a little too laid back about the audition: “I’m never quite sure with you Castros whether you’re really, really into this or not”, but Kara thought he was ‘ballsy’. We’re with Kara on this one. From this point it went a little downhill with Vaughn English, who we can only describe as bananas. Matt Breitzke had given up on singing after starting a family. We thought he had just an okay voice, but he impressed Kara, Paula and Simon enough for a ticket to Hollywood.

Jasmine ‘Jazz’ Joseph wasn’t anywhere as good as she thought, but she managed to stun the judges into silence. Jessica Furney got a golden ticket, but is she taking her grandmother with her to Hollywood? Sisters India and Asia Morrison rapped for Randy. Asia couldn’t sing, but India did enough to get through. Jamar Rogers shouted theatrically through his audition, but got through to Hollywood. His best friend Danny Gokey had a much better voice and got a ticket too. We thought his voice had a really nice tone to it (unlike the next few unnamed contestants who were so far out of tune it was unbelievable). Anoop Desai, a student of the mythological barbecue, had a more soulful voice than expected and although Simon thought he had the Silicon Valley geek vibe (nothing wrong with that, Simon!), all four judges said ‘yes’ and he got an ‘Anoop Dawg is in the house!’ from Randy. Next up the producers cruelly subjected us to Signed, Sealed, Delivered which contained none of the right notes in none of the right places. Andrew Lang brought his own cheerleaders, but they were as bad as he was.

We weren’t hopeful when Band Director, Asa Barnes, said he was going to sing Michael Jackson, but he was actually pretty good. We were a bit disturbed to have thought along the same lines as Paula, but happy to see Asa move on to the next round. We had to laugh at Ryan’s posture while Asa’s family were celebrating; we’ll be generous and say it looked like he was playing monsters with Asa’s daughter Amaya. Asa apparently made it to the top 72 of American Idol in 2005. Ryan told viewers that the judges had given out 25 tickets before introducing a contestant who, to use one of Simon’s favourite phrases, made things a little uncomfortable. Michael Nicewonder showed Ryan his Elementary School medal for singing, but admitted that he’d been told by his mother that he couldn’t sing, so we were ready with the earplugs. He hadn’t progressed much since Elementary School and didn’t get through.

The next contestant, Dennis Brigham, said he’d had a dream about Simon. We didn’t listen to what the dream was as we’re sure our imagination is better! We hated his audition, suspect there’s a voice in there somewhere, but think Simon was probably right for saying ‘no’. Dennis was very lucky to get through! Mia Conley slept through the day in the waiting area; we wish we’d slept through her audition — it was one of the most tuneless vocals we’ve heard! The producers had saved one of the best until last. Lil Rounds has a great voice — Kara and Paula both thought she was ‘one of the best’, Simon thought she was ‘absolutely fantastic’ and Randy compared her to Fantasia and Mary J. Blige. Last contestant, last ticket to Hollywood, making a total of 27 golden tickets.

At the first round auditions, Ryan was looking good in blue jeans with a tan belt and a grey teeshirt with a yellow lightening strike. At the judges’ audition round, Ryan was wearing a check shirt in autumn colours with dark trousers and black and white (canvas?) shoes. We need to find some photos to take a closer look at what he’s wearing.

Golden tickets

Audition photos and videos on the American Idol official site

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