Auditions Part 5: Houston

"Houston We Have a Problem". I'm just wondering if that line will be used in the show tonight when one of the contestants is horrible. Hopefully they won't be that predictable. Either way the show is in Houston, Texas and we are back for Part 5 of auditions. Aspen definitely didn't deliver the best auditions we've heard thus far, but hopefully we'll get a few decent ones tonight. So Let's Get To It:

I've Got A Golden Ticket(Going to Hollywood):

*Skylar Laine(17). A Southern girl with a country voice from Houston, Texas, super surprised. Or Not. But she's pretty decent. All 3 judges give her the go ahead to Hollywood. 

*Baylie Brown(21). After being eliminated 5 years ago in the Hollywood rounds, Baylie returned to see if she can go a bit further. Although I didn't like her audition song, I like her voice. Randy pretends that he remembers her from 5 years ago. This guy has seen thousands of auditions and contestants since Season 6 yet he remembers her? C'mon now. I could almost sorta believe when J.Lo says she remembers things from last season, but 5 years ago? Randy remembered her from reading her story off of the sheet they were handed to them from the producers. Either way she's on her way to Hollywood again.  Hopefully it'll work out better for her.

*Kristine Osorio(28). 3 children at home, going through a divorce, took out a loan to pay her divorce lawyer but isntead bought a plane ticket to come to Hollywood, and I'm glad she did. She was pretty solid. Very natural and she has the pipes to do pretty well.

*Cortez Shaw(20). A guy singing Adele's "Someone Like You" is interesting, and he made it his own by making it very up tempo, which is a shift. Randy didn't like it, but after Cortez said he loved Randy, Randy somehow changed his mind. There might be a little something there, not sure if it's out of this world, but there's definitely something.

*Ramiro Garcia(28) Gotta say this is one of the most impressive audition stories this season. This guy was born without ears. EARS! Over the course of his life he has had tons of surgeries and now has ears, plus as a bonus he can really sing. Like he can really sing. He's 28, where has he been the past 10 years? Really good stuff. Very impressive story, very impressive voice.

And The Rest(Also Going to Hollywood):49 Others.

Bye Bye Bye:

Phong Vu(25). Although he got plenty of camera time, which he said he enjoyed, he will not be getting anymore after tonight's episode because he was terrible. It sounded like a mix of a cat and dog crying. Just no voice there.

Alejandro Cazares(26). The "Revolution Man". He wants a world where Lady Gaga is a big seller, a world where this country can elect Barack Obama. Um, as Steven pointed out, those 2 things have already happened. This stumps the "Revolution Man". So he pretty much just wants to 'be'. Awesome. As a Revolutionary thinker he needs some work, and as a singer he just needs to stop. The American Idol security team had to usher Alejandro out. Just really bad bad bad.

Um, Really?(If We Could Take One Ticket Away):

There were only 5 featured contestants tonight, and they all were pretty deserving. So its' all good tonight.

Best Of The Night:

Ramiro Garcia. I was super surprised at his story, and his voice.I thought it was a powerful audition,  it made me really pay attention, and I think he is one of the stronger contestants we have seen.

Final Thoughts

*The montage of some country boys singing Scotty McCreery's infamous "Baby Lock Them Doors", was funny, but it proved that there is no Scotty at these auditions.

*There were over 50 contestants from Houston that made it but only 5 were really featured. That might be indicative that the majority of those 50 contestants don't do very well in later rounds. There were plenty of bad auditions and montages. The more bad montages, the more likely that the pool of contestants they sent to Hollywood don't last very long.

*Surprisingly they did not say "Houston We Have A Problem". But since this is the 9th time they have been to Texas in the show's history maybe they feel saying it for the 9th time is just "too much". 

* I enjoyed the fact that the judges didn't agree with each other this round. The boys, Randy and Steven, disagreed with J.Lo several times. Given we were only given snippets of auditions J.Lo seems pretty adamant of her thoughts and belief in these contestants. I can't really tell who was right or wrong given the 3 seconds we saw of the contestants, but I did enjoy that they all had different thoughts and ideas. It makes it more interesting.

There ya have it. Week 2 is done. We have a really interesting mix of contestants going to Hollywood. Come back next week for more I'dol Be The Judge. We'll see you then.