'Dancing With The Stars' Season 14 Dream Casting
MTV Sets Premiere Date For Pauly D's 'Jersey Shore' Spinoff
American Idol: Hollywood Round #2 (Group Night)
by Jane Boursaw, posted Feb 5th 2009 1:30AM
It's group night in Hollywood, and frankly, I don't really get it. I mean, when the contestants get to American Idol, they don't perform as groups that often. And when they do, they're coached and have someone else doing all the choreography and such. Is it that important for them to do it at this stage of the game? Because what usually happens is that some contestants with great voices end up going home because of their awful group.
Anyway, there were plenty of tears, drama, and all-night rehearsals, but it's all good for the ratings.
One of the flakiest contestants ended up being Katrina Darrell, a.k.a. Bikini Girl (yeah, big shock there). She was in a group with Rose Flack, Jasmine Murray and Lauren Barnes. They sang "Mercy" by Duffy, and did a pretty bad job. Katrina made an excuse about having scoliosis and being in high heels all day. The truth is, she just flaked out on the rest of them, went to bed early, and showed up the next morning saying, "I'm here. Teach me what I missed." The nerve! The show must have some rule about not ditching group members, because they should have cut her loose. Subsequently, they did horrible (Rose even forgot the words), and Jasmine was the only one who made it through to the next round.
A group named "White Chocolate" had better luck. Made up of India Morrison, Matt Giraud, Kris Allen and Justin Williams, they sang "I Want You Back" by the Jackson Five, and easily sailed through. They were fun, energetic, and clearly showed that they'd put some time into their rehearsal.
The group that included Michael Sarver (the oil rig guy), Adam Lambert, Matt Brietzke (the welder), and Jesse Langseth also fared well. They sang "Some Kind of Wonderful," and did a great job. The judges raved, and everyone got through to the next round.
Tatiana Del Toro proved to be a basket case, bordering on psycho. In fact, one of her group members actually called her a pyscho. Tatiana tried to join a different group at the beginning, but then ended up going back to her original group. Her entire group ended up getting through (after a dramatic pause by Paula), but afterwards, Tatiana had a bit of a nervous breakdown, tearfully thanking everyone on the planet and possibly a few other planets.
Oh, and if you ever get to this point in American Idol, don't – I repeat, don't – try to sing your way through to the next round after your group has already sang. Tatiana tried doing that, singing "I wanna get through," but the judges all slapped her down.
Nathaniel Marshall (the guy with the weird piercing under his lip), Kristin McNamara, and Nancy Wilson had quite a bit of drama throughout the night. At one point, Nathanial reminded me of the "Leave Britney Alone!" guy, because he was just totally losing it. But they pulled it together and prayed (hard) in the wings right before they performed Duffy's "Mercy." It didn't help. They were awful, and Simon said it sounded like the backup singers were trying to sabotage whomever was singing lead. Nathaniel and Kristin went through to the next round, but Nancy went home. Nathaniel tried to hug it out with her, but she wanted no part of it.
So those are the highlights. Danny Gokey's group sang an acappella version of "Somebody to Love," and it was fabulous. All the judges loved it, and Danny's group all went through. Surprisingly (to me anyway), David Osmond ended up going home. You'd think with his connections, he might have a shot at making it in the music biz one way or another.
What are your thoughts? Any favorites from tonight?
29 Comments