Tonight we kick-off our American Idol 2013 Hollywood Week coverage as the focus is on the boys. And even though they’re splitting Hollywood Week up by gender, they’re all shooting for the same goal: The American Idol 2013 Top 40. And yes, that’s 20 guys and 20 girls.
Now there are bits of format changes here and there, so this is going to make for an interesting live recap. So bear with me.
Hollywood Week Standouts (The Guys)
Sudden Death Round
Micha Johnson: His a cappella of “Bennie and the Jets” was likely the best of his group. He’s on to the next round.
Other familiar faces going through: Nate Toa, Gabe Brown, Gurpreet “Peter” Singh Sarin.
Karl Skinner: This time around wasn’t as good his first audition and the judges agreed. And he’s out of the competition.
Cortez Shaw: This is a guy we haven’t seen much this season. His version of “I Will Always Love You” was fine. The judges didn’t agree. Nicki had a bone to pick. But in the end, he’s through.
Lazaro Arbos: He stole a lot of hearts during his initial audition and he probably stole a few more tonight. His version of “Angels” was solid but it’s the amazing change in his speaking voice to his singing voice everyone first notices. He’s easily through to the next round.
And suddenly it’s time for group night. And there’s some new laws. Nigel Lythgoe announces that they’re assigning people to groups. And once they’re assigned, they cannot change. The contestants are so not happy. And some of the groups are CLEARLY put together for drama. Disgusting move, production. This is so not how to keep Idol alive.
Group Rounds
Nick Boddington, Mathenee Treco, Matheus Fernandes, Gabe Brown. Their version of “Somebody To Love” may have been the best Queen cover on any reality show ever. I usually hate when people cover Queen, but this was great. They’re all through to the next round.
Johnny Keyser, Kareem Clark, etc. This group’s version of “(Reach Out) I’ll Be There” was so bad that they didn’t even introduce all the members. No one should have gone through. But for some reason Johnny made it through even though he forgot the lyrics. Kareem is the only one cut.
Curtis Finch Jr and Charlie Askew shined in their group, which helped all three of them go on to the next round.
Micah Johnson, Vincent Powell, Marvin Calderon and David Willis. This group was solid and all got an easy OK to the next round.
Random thought: For some reason this season, forgetting the lyrics means nothing. Weird. Well, until that group singing that One Direction song took to the stage. That was awful.
Tony Foster, Mario Jose, Burnell Taylor and Darien Moses. Their version of “Some Kind of Wonderful” was a bit scattered, but it was still pretty solid. I liked them all, but the judges didn’t send them all through. Darien and Mario get cut. The other two move on.
Josh Stephens, Scott Fleenor, Christian Lopez and Lazaro Arbos. Their song included a lot of forgotten lyrics, which seems to be the theme of the night. But for the most part it was a decent audition. But as to be expected, not everyone was put through. Josh and Scott are cut. Lazao and Christian move on to the next round.
Lee Pritchard, JDA, Joel Wayman and Trevor Blakney. Well this group was a complete disaster. Josh, JDA and Joel are moving on to the next round despite that.
David Leathers Jr, Kevin Quinn, Kayden Stephenson and Sanni M’Mairua. They’re young and cute but the performance was not good. David and Sanni are moving on. The others are cut.
Papa Peachez, Adam Sanders, Frankie Ford and Charles Allen. And yet another horrible group with forgotten lyrics. Did they sleep deprive these people more this season than last!? What was with all the dropped lyrics? Frankie is cut. The others move on.