American Idol: Season 6 Part 1

So here we go again with another year of American Idol and I'm still lovin' it. This time I'll be doing running commentary.

We start in Minneapolis:

First up is Jennifer, and it's not looking good. She's akward and doesn't have a good speaking voice... and her singing is so labored and awful. Randy drops this classic line, "No... the singing, no."

Next is Troy "Urban Amish" Benham, a surefire "winner" if you know what I mean. And he seems to be melodically chanting his "song." And he admits he isn't familiar with the show or the judges. The first in a row of butchers.

Leading to: Jesse Holloway doing a great tone deaf version of Celine Dion's Titanic song, and he decides to take a break half way through. Half way through he even gets Paula to say "I can't do this." I'm feeling ya Paula. Finally, he gets the benevolent Jewel to say "Not a chance."

Charles "Apollo Creed" Moody, comes in a boxing getup and sings pretty badly... but not terribly compared to what we've seen so far. Alas, he get's KO'ed.

Now we've got a self described "crack baby," and her speaking voice is promising. Denise Jackson, finally someone worthy of Hollywood. And she's in! She's pretty good vocally, but she would probably need a more confident and affable personality.

And here we have the first AI "montage" and this one is of forgotten lyrics. The epitome of forgotten lyrics is Tashawn Moore, who starts it off with a flat trembling voice. Eventually she just repeats the lines and even ends up whispers the song. And after about a minute or two I just figured out she's singing Prince's "Kiss."

Our next contestant is Perla Meneses who I think has made it this far simply because of her looks and her frighteningly Charo-like personality. She sounds horrible singing Blondie's "Call Me" and she doesn't improve after singing "Hips Don't Lie." Stunningly, everyone gives her a yes, and she's through. She seems destined to be one of those contestants which makes everyone wonder "how did she/he get to Hollywood?" in a few weeks (except that I'm thinking it now.)

Next we have "Flair and Pizzazz"-filled Matthew Volna killing the Johnny Cash classic, "Folsom Prison Blues." So far (and they're pointing it out) there have been no worthy male vocalists. Except that they used that front to setup a Navy seaman, Jarrod Fowler, for success... and he's pretty good. Jewel and Randy, make a good point of telling him to watch out for his "pitchyness." Personally, i feel pitchyness is sign of an untrained, or simply bad, voice trying to hide the fact that they can't keep a note. We'll see which one (untrained voice or bad voice) Jarrod is.

And that's the first hour...