Hollywood Week: Part 2

It's Day 2 of Men's Hollywood Week. We had a few changes last night, first came that the ladies would not be part of this week and would sing next week, and secondly that the producers were to decide how the groups would be formed. Both changes contributed to and really highlighted some sub par performances. I do hope a few contestants really shine tonight because last night was pretty underwhelming. So let's see how it all turns out when the guys have one last chance to perform on their own. Here we go:

Solo Performances
Group 1
Paul Jolley- Starts out super nervous. He chooses a Carrie Underwood song and it's all big notes. He has a big voice. Nicki chastises Paul for being nervous and showing it. Keith encourages him to be "Jolly".

Lazaro Abros-We see a few seconds of Lazaro singing a Lady Gaga song and he sounds the same as he always does.  Pretty good.

Curtis Finch Jr- He sounds incredibly theatrical today. His voice is just as high quality but it was a little much again. I haven't been incredibly pleased with Curtis since his audition.

There are 5 other guys but we don't see or hear them.

Group 1 Results
Who Moves On? Paul, Lazaro and Curtis
Who Goes Home? The guys we didn't see. Makes sense.
Opinion? Lazaro has been solid throughout, we have only seen bits and pieces of Paul Jolley but he needs to overcome his nervousness and Curtis needs to get a bit more humble. But I guess it is hard when Mariah Carey tells him over and over how wonderful he is. 

Group 2
Devin Velez-Where did this guy come from? They have been hiding him somewhere because his voice is all sorts of good, and he isn't affected at all. 

Gupreet Singh Sarin-Sounds a whole lot better than he did during his group performance. We only see about 10 seconds of him but it's solid.

Cortez Shaw-This is the guy that Nicki disliked in the beginning, and not sure why she did. He's actually pretty good.

Matheus Fernandes-He does a very dark and twisty version of Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger". It was a little too intense. He did way way way too much in his 1 minute up there.

We didn't see 6 of the other guys. 

Group 2 Results
Who Moves On? Devin, Gupreet, Cortez , Adam(whom we didn't hear), and 1 uncredited guy
Who Goes Home? Matheus Fernandes and 2 other guys
Opinion? Matheus just isn't ready. He has a decent voice but not ready for everything else. It's weird we didn't even get a glimpse of Adam, and the other guy was uncredited yet both made it to the next round. I wonder if that's a sign of their future in this competition.

Group 3
Nicholas Mathis-Randy thinks he is just under the song, and he is, he doesn't really catch up with the band and it makes it kind of jarring, especially since he does have a pretty good voice.

Papa Peachez-It doesn't seem like Papa is into this show, Nicki doesn't think Papa is into this show, yet all we see is Randy looking all happy and bobbing his head in approval. What show is he watching? Nicki thinks Papa lost what was special about him.

Jimmy Smith-He is a pretty standard American Idol contestant. He is a good looking guy with a decent voice but nothing spectacular.

There are 5 other guys we don't see or hear.

Group 3 Results
Who Moves On? Jimmy Smith and Johnny Keyser(who we didn't see or hear) and Vincent Powell(who we didn't see or hear) and 3 other guys.
Who Goes Home? Nicholas and Papa
Opinion? Papa went pretty far considering he probably shouldn't have made it out of the auditions. Once he lost Nicki it was all over for him. Interesting that we didn't see or hear Johnny Keyser and Vincent Powell and some other guys and they went in. Not sure why we couldn't even hear 3 or 5 seconds, not sure it would have taken that much energy.

Group 4
Nick Boddington-He got to Las Vegas last year but was cut at that point, so he is hoping he at least gets that far this year. I liked Nick last year and I like him this year.

Charlie Askew-He is an odd little guy with a semi decent voice. He has personality so that could do him well if he gets to the Live Rounds. Nicki is obsessed with him and he tells her he is obsessed with her. She thinks he is so odd that it's so right.

6 other guys we don't see or hear.

Group 4 Results
Who Moves On? JDA, Nick, Mathanee, Charlie
Who Goes Home? 4 other guys
Opinion? We saw a good amount of Mathanee and JDA yesterday so it's not surprising that we didn't see them tonight. We will see how Charlie fairs later down the road.

Group 5
Burnell Taylor-I wasn't incredibly impressed with him yesterday but all that changed today.

Marvin Calderon-We saw a little snippet of him yesterday and a few more seconds today. I like his voice quality and tone.

Group 5 Results
Who Moves On? Burnell and Marvin
Who Goes Home? The other people. We don't even see them in a line this time, they just announce the guys that go through and that's it.
Opinion?  We only saw a little bit from both guys but they have really nice voices. The fact that they didn't get a ton of screen time could be telling though.

Group 6
Micah Johnson-This guy has had an unbelievable journey given that he only recently developed a voice impediment due to a botched surgery. He has overcome it by just singing really well.

Group 6 Results  
Who Moves On? No idea. They don't show us.
Who Goes Home? Micah Johnson, Gabe Brown, Sanni, Nate Tao
Opinion?  Micah Johnson and Nate Tao leaving were my biggest shocks of the night.They both showed a lot of depth and talent. I wish we saw a little more of Nate.

Last Announcement of the Night
We learn that next week 8 more guys will be eliminated before they get to go to the next round in Las Vegas to help form the Top 40 with the ladies.


Final Thoughts

*It was a better night than last night, but I am still not entirely pumped up about this group of guys. 2 of my favorites in Nate and Micah were eliminated, while people like Charlie and Johnny Keyser are still around. I just feel this group of guys will stay at this rate. I do hope a few more of these guys will step it up. I am really liking Nick, Devin and Burnell. I think Curtis has a great voice but is just a little too theatrical and over the type. We'll see how it all shakes out.

*Randy's continual head bobbing in agreement with what was happening almost never matched up to the quality of the contestant. It didn't matter if the contestants were good or they were bad all we saw was Randy bobbing that head. I just don't even know anymore with this guy.

That's it. A few solid contestants, a few surprises tonight. Not bad. Next week is Ladies Week and the final cut that will round out the Top 40. So come on back next time. So until then, see ya!