News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By LeRae Haynes

American Idol Season 11 kicked off tonight in Savannah with about a million contestants lining the sidewalks, and wearing their hearts and their dreams right out in the open like whole-body sandwich boards in a church vestibule.  They were vying for a few select golden tickets to Hollywood for the next round.

If you’re a fan of the show, and I have to admit I’m pretty new at it, this must be the most relaxed part of the season—the initial culling. It’s just entertainment. You aren’t invested in any particular contestant yet: you or the judges. There’s nothing on the line yet. Just ‘can you sing at all’ and ‘is there anything sort of unique about you.’

Nothing on the line, that is, if you’re not a contestant. At least if you get criticized and booted off a ways into the season, you’ve been seen, been heard and got your name out there, even as an ‘also-ran.’

After tonight, 42 people from Savannah, Georgia are headed to Hollywood, with their golden tickets clutched in their hopeful hands. The rest staggered out in varying degrees of disappointment, anger, embarrassment and hard-core denial.

If anyone is as new as I am, by the way, the judges are Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson. Michael Jackson's brother--kid you not.

Highlights for me were ‘David’, the Grade 12 black high school student who looked like he was 12 years old and sang with a wild, wangdoodle voice, surprising the judges with perfect vibrato and confident delivery for someone barely into double age-digits. He had enough natural phrase control and half-octave ‘cirque de soliel’ leaps, that even if he did change keys a couple of times, who’d know? It was acapella anyway.

He delighted all three judges. Jennifer called him ‘super-hot and beautiful’ and they voted him off to tinsel-land.

Another highlight was Jessica, who stunned the judges for another reason. It wasn’t just that she was cute as a bug’s ear but couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket if it had handles. It was that she strutted out there with top-notch confidence, but rock-bottom talent. She was roaringly un-tuneful: bellowing with a voice that sounded like it careened off her gorgeous cheekbones, streaked through her angular adenoids and gathered velocity by bouncing off her soft palate, before bursting out between her rosebud lips in a megaphone of off-pitch caterwauling. 

The judges were gob-smacked and speechless with wonder. To make it worse she said she’d see them in Texas at a future audition, and to completely top it off, they played the original artist up against her version of the song.

Then there was the contestant who imitated Ryan Seacrest far better than he sang in his audition. And the daughter of a former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Shannon, who ended up hauling her whole family—parents and four sisters, into the audition and nailing a cool Etta James tune and winning a ‘nerves of steel’ compliment from Randy and getting the coveted ticket. 

And it would have truly been a shame if the ‘pretty girl living in the woods’ hadn’t made it. They sort of featured her—living in a tent in the forest with her fiancée because they’re down on their luck and saving money to move up in the world. Hard luck meets talent in this lovely girl who washed her hair in a creek, but cleaned up nice in an adorable outfit her mother-in-law-to-be bought her. Personally, I liked the way her back tattoos complimented the sparkly zirconiums in her necklace. Amy’s voice won an ‘absolute yes’ from Steven and Jennifer—a velvety rasp with strength and happy little tendrils that earned her a ticket for sure.

Then there was the be-spectacled lad in flip-flops and cargo shorts who defied lung capacity with his breathless rushed jumble of words and notes delivered with a frenetic scramble of sound that left all three judges struggling to come up with three ways to tell him that he might be a nice guy, but he certainly couldn’t sing. 

I have to admit, I kind of just started watching this show to hear Randy call everyone ‘Dog’ but so far he seems to have cut down on that.

Two successful contestants prompted two new expressions for me: ‘goosies’ and ‘joy hop.’

Lauren was a mature woman (hey, when the average American Idol age seems to be 16, 25 years old seems like middle-age) who works with developmentally challenged adults inspired ‘gave me goosies’ from Jennifer, an expression that seems to be short for ‘goose bumps of surprised delight.’

‘Joy hop’ came from Ashlee, a dreadlocked, energetic sales associate who blew the strategically product-placement Coke cups out of the judges’ hands with her cool version of ‘Come Together’ by the Beatles. Her personal happy-dance was a ‘joy hop’, very impressive in stiletto heels and camo pants. 

Steven Tyler attracted his fair share of female adoration, including one woman who gleefully agreed to trade a grope-happy hug with Steven for her golden ticket.

The final singer tonight was Philip Philips who did his own version of ‘Superstition.’ I think he’s a guy to watch this season. Wow—rasp and blues and highs and lows that catch your breath and make you want to hear a whole lot more. The judges asked him to sing another song after his acapella official piece, so he picked up his acoustic guitar and nailed another tune with stellar guitar work.

By the way, I like it that it doesn't seem to matter to the judges what the guys look like. The men seem to be evaluated on sheer talent--no one seems to mention their great look' and their package that has it 'goin on.'

Philip seems to be one of those musicians who isn’t afraid, even in the glitz and the sometimes temporary wonderland of the entertainment industry, to break a string and sing hard enough to make a vein poke out on his forehead when he hits his high notes.

Randy called him a ‘true musician’ and Jennifer said he had ‘electricity and is super-special’ and it was a unanimous vote to send him to Hollywood.

Tomorrow the team heads to Pittsburg.  

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