American Idol 4: Hollywood day One

February 8, 2005

Published on February 8, 2005 By Jamie Burnside In Entertainment

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Hello there once again, and welcome to my own little look back at tonight's episode of American Idol. For what is -incidentally- my 400th JoeUser post, I will list off the most memorable occurences of a show that was surprisingly light on judge-contestant interplay.

Instead of numbers tonight, I will just give all of my comments little asterisks.

* Anthony Fedorov, the blonde-haired Russian boy sang really well on stage. I am sure that the girls will love him, and he will go far. He is my favorite "pretty boy" contestant on the series thusfar.

* Amanda Avila the Treasure Island pirate girl is just striking on camera, isn't she?

* Scott Savol, the odd looking guy for whom I proposed an image adjustment in one of my earlier posts has a beautiful voice, doesn't he? I am rooting for him to go far.

* David Brown and Anwar Robinson are loved by the judges, and will be loved by America too. I am especially interested in seeing how music teacher Robinson will do. He seems like money in the bank to me.

* Regina Brooks, the lady who allegedly pawned her wedding ring was sent back to wherever it was she came from. (Kentucky?) I think that there will be a lot of disappointed fans out there. Regina appeals to Idol fans in a "root for the underdog" sort of way. (After her significant weight loss by the way: Regina resembles Oprah, didn't she?)

Instead, the possibly talented Regina Brooks will end up being this year's "Scooter Girl." Intriguing personality, but shot down in an early round.

* One lady, Marlea Stroman passed on to a second day, but then gave up the competition in order to stay with her daughter. I hope that she doesn't regret her choice some day...

* Three fellows brought a bit of the rock genre to the competition: Constantine Maroulis, Aaron Kelly, and Bo Bice. I applaud the producers of the show for trying to appeal to an ignored fanbase. Of the three however, Constantine really stands out. Whenever he is on the television, I'd think that one's eye would be drawn to him. He really stands out somehow. Like I said before: in a way, I'd compare his (Constantine's) image to Robert Plant's.

* Then finally we have brash 16 year-old Mikalah Gordon. She sang well enough to pass through, but will America like her? She doesn't bother me so much, but I'd think that a lot of women voters would have a problem with her aggressiveness.

And speaking about problems between women: Tomorrow's show features the group song competition, one of the early highlights of the series. I am excited to see how it all shakes out!

Post-script: Cute, peppy little Emily Neves didn't make it! They didn't even give her a chance to sing on TV. That is a little disappointing, as I would have thought she'd stick around a bit.

Comments

Cindizzi

on Feb 11, 2005

Thank you so much for calling Emily "cute" and "peppy" and for saying that it was a disappointment that she didn't have the chance to go further! I may be a little biased (she's my niece) but she absolutely IS the genuine talent that you saw on AI ! I "googled" her name tonight and was shocked to see how many posts were there about her, most of them unfavorable- calling her a "hyper drama queen" etc. Well, those idiots don't know a thing about her ( or anything about editing) so let 'em sit back and judge. Emily is a very talented and accomplished stage actress and a wonderful human being - she was fluent in Spanish and Portguese by the age of 8 and she can sing her butt off so she doesn't need to become the next American Idol - you can bet that you WILL be seeing her name in lights!!

Jamie Burnside

on Feb 11, 2005

Hmmm.

I think that it may be a bit of a leap to label her a "hyper drama queen" given what little we've seen of her on television. I think that she may have appeared on television for about ninety seconds in total. I have seen hyper (if one could call enthusiastic "hyper"), but I haven't seen drama queen. In those few seconds, I just saw a nice young lady.

I wonder if the pursuit of fame as an entertainer is worth it. (Too many ups and downs. Too much rejection and judgement.) Personally I would prefer something more stable. If Emily speaks language other than English, she should think about teaching English (like I do.) -Students like an enthusiastic teacher.

Shirley Robinson

on Feb 11, 2005

I think it takes a lot of confidence to make it, and sometimes someone comes along who has what Simon calls the "X" factor. That "thing" that could separate Mikalah Gordon from the pack, and from what Simon referrs to as those who sound like "pageant" singers. I agree! I believe they had to re-groom Kelly Clarkson because of that. We have yet to see the potential of Mikalah Gordon, who I believe has that young aggressiveness comparable to a Christina Aquilara, who also had a voice with uncommon maturity. Different is what sells records, not ordinary, and not Miss America types.

Jamie Burnside

on Feb 11, 2005

I had to go back to see where in my postI mentioned Mikalah Gordon. The first time I looked through the article, I couldn't find the section on her, so I wrote the following:

"As far as I remember, my point on her is that her brashness may be a tough sell.

She doesn't bother me so much, but I'd bet that there will be those out there who get turned off by her "confidence."

Big stars are cocky, but they're already big stars. Not playing it "middle of the road" can hurt an Idol contestant. That was the beauty of Fantasia. Fantasia had a nice middle-of-the-road confidence. It played out well on television.

Of course, Mikalah could win it all. My money however is on a man winning it this year."

Then I looked through the article again, and saw that I actually DID mention Mariah, and that what I wrote the second time was basically the same thing that I had originally written. It must be true (to me) if I wrote it twice.

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