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American Idol: San Francisco Auditions
I wasn’t going to write about the same show two nights in a row, but hey. It’s San Francisco, right in my back yard (plus about 60 miles). And tonight’s American Idol auditions had some fairly low highlights, and some sort of middling lowlights. But the weird thing was how enthusiastic Paula and Randy were about so many mediocre singers, and how outraged they were when Simon brought them back to earth by telling the truth.

I don’t know what Heidi Fairbanks was thinking, but she must have forgotten she was in a pop singing competition. If she had sung only the Jessica Simpson song, she would have been rejected out of hand, because she was awful. By singing an operatic aria first, she attracted enough attention that her rejection was a little harder for the judges. But they really had no choice. She’s not a pop singer.

Simon had it right when he told Katharine McPhee that “parts” of her performance were fantastic, but I don’t think she was quite as good as the judges led us to believe as they drooled over her. Other parts were way over the top and pitchy. (Randy, what were you hearing?). But she is very cute and fresh in her looks and personality, and for that she probably deserves to go to Hollywood.

Shalicia Carlisle announced that she had the best voice in the world, just before an appalling (Simon’s word, and mine) audition, but at least she got her job back when Simon phoned her boss and made a personal plea. That was one of the memorable moments in a not very memorable series of auditions.

Shawna White was telling the truth when she said that Willits, California, her home town, is a place where everybody knows everybody else. It’s actually a place where I think everybody is related to everybody else. As much as I like seeing someone from a nowhere town that I’ve actually heard of (and been to) do well, I have to go with Simon on this one. He called her annoying, and referred to fingers on a blackboard. I guess we’ll find out in Hollywood, because Randy and Paula (whom Simon eventually walked out on out of frustration) put her through.

All in all, the San Francisco auditions were underwhelming, and it’s good they didn’t waste more than an hour showing them to us (although if 18 contestants were put through, there must have been some undiscovered talent that will have to be revealed once the show settles down in Hollywood). (Let’s hope.)

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