American Idol auditions may very well be over forever, unless some kind of show revival rolls around later on. While watching the American Idol retrospective special on Tuesday, we couldn’t help but think back at some of the best auditions on the show from future stars like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. Where there is a best, however, there is also a worst — and there were a lot of really, really bad singers over the years. Looking back at ten of the very worst ones though, it suddenly seems like we really haven’t seen many of the seriously super bad auditions anymore in the last few years.
American Idol has gotten away from the wacky for the actually talented. But let’s never forget how extremely terrible some of the auditions were back in the day. A few of them so bad, they actually briefly made the ‘stars’ of them famous in their own right for a time.
The Top 10 Worst American Idol Auditions of All Time
10. Mary Roach, “I Feel The Earth Move ” (Season 4). Even Saturday Night Live got in on the Mary Roach action. She’ll always be one of the auditions I remember the most.
9. Aven Moore, “Tomorrow” (Season 3). All I can say about this guy is that he was no Annie.
8. Rhonetta Johnson, “You Remind Me” (Season 6). Hey, I think Rhonetta is fabulous and should have made it to the live shows.
7. Nick Zitzmann, “Unchained Melody” (Season 5). This is one of those sad instances when I think the guy doesn’t realize the joke is on him. Regardless, his audition is awful.
6. Renaldo Lapuz, “I Am Your Brother” (Season 7). This is another one that always sticks in my head. When I got this assignment, I knew this guy was going on this list.
5. James Lewis, “Let My People Go” (Season 7). I remember this one just like it was yesterday. We even talked about it at work. It’s another one of those auditions where I’m not sure if he realized how bad he was.
4. Larry Platt, “Pants on the Ground” (Season 9). Who didn’t hear the pants on the ground song after this audition. I think that song got more airtime than Lee DeWyze ever did post-Idol.
3. Steven Thoen, “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Season 6). One of my biggest pet peeves is Queen songs on singing competition shows. They’re sacred to me. So I don’t even like it when good singers sing Freddie Mercury. So you can only imagine how this guy makes me feel.
2. Keith Beukelaer, “Like a Virgin/I Wanna Dance With Somebody” (Season 2). Yeah. I just don’t even know what to say about this one.
1. William Hung, “She Bangs” (Season 3). Did you expect ANY OTHER audition for the No. 1 spot? There was no way this wasn’t topping our list. The funny thing is, if you remember, William Hung actually made a short career out of this and even put out an album. Scary, I know.
What would your list be? And do you miss the really sill auditions like these? Should American Idol bring them back or not?