I was cruising through Youtube when I noticed a cover by someone named Laura Zeen of Never Say Never. It wasn’t a great cover, and I noticed her picture was that of her auditioning for Idol. I checked out more of her videos, and I noticed that she’s a Hollywood Round contestant from Seasons 6 and 7. But she never made it all the way. And she’s living now in obscurity.
Now, she’s a pretty girl, but if you’re listening closely, you’ll be able to hear that she’s not quite in the “pocket” of the song. She doesn’t quite have the beat down right. So after watching Never Say Never and Take A Bow, two stylistically different songs that she failed to tackle, I wondered what this girl was good at. Possibly not much.
There’s more out there. This kid named Joe has a video talking about his American Idol audition and how he got cut. Good news! He goes to Berklee School Of Music as a vocal major. This kids gonna be good. Right?
I mean, really? You know how Andrew Garcia is getting crap for Genie In A Bottle. Could you imagine this kid doing THAT cover? He makes Andrew look good. Now, he gets a bit better when he does an acoustic cover of a song that already has acoustic covers out so he’s not so inventive:
And to be fair, his music theatre stuff is good, but he seems to have a hard time translating to pop music. And even in the Poker Face video, there are still moments of terrible.
Now sometimes, Idol does get it wrong, and someone else in the industry realizes this and snatches them up.
Like Colbie Calliat, who famously auditioned for Idol and got rejected before recording her hits like Bubbly and Realize, and touring with John Mayer.
Or, there’s Josh Strickland, who had a brief run on Broadway playing Tarzan, but couldn’t make it out of Hollywood Round in Season 2.
So that brings us to contestants like Lilly Scott, Alex Lambert, Katelyn Epperly, and Todrick Hall.
Is it possible that Idol got it right, or did Idol get it wrong? Where will these four be in a couple years?
Sound off below!
Laura Zeen is actually Lauren Torelli.
Wow, I loved Lauren. She is a great person, really nice
Amber Riley (Mercedes from Glee) also auditioned, but never made it anywhere. I cannot even imagine that; you other Gleeks might feel the same way. TPTB missed a good one here too!
I’m not disputing that Lauren might not be a nice person, heck she might even be a little talented, but she’s not ready for prime time. That’s my point. I didn’t know about Amber, but there’s another great one they let slip through the cracks.
Tori Kelly. She didnt make it out of the Hollywood round but I bet you will hear more of her later. check her youtube.
These auditions are such a luck of the draw except if you make it past the judges. Then it is all on talent and personality. I have auditioned for the show 3 times and now I am too old. X-Factor is definitely next. Check out my youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/montax35?feature=mhw4
Montax-
Here’s what I would say about you.
After watching a couple of your videos, you have a decent voice. Pop songs aren’t really your thing. You have a tendency to get this weird vibrato and also a bit nasally when singing songs like Chasing Cars and Already Gone. Chasing Cars was actually terrible, and I almost wrote you off… but then I didn’t and I listened to…
Angel. A pop song that you were able to sing. It was actually pretty good. Seriously. You have a good baritone voice like John Park does, and with a little bit of voice lessons, you could be even better. You might just have to watch which songs you choose. Also, Nobody Needs To Know was good, and I love the musical. Your voice is a bit heavy for the song, in general. Have you considered doing Wheels Of A Dream (Ragtime) for auditions? It’s normally a duet, but I know people who kill it as a solo. It’ll fit your voice a lot more.
You Raise Me Up was solid, but the other two were better. Good baritone voice. If you can act, you could do well in music theatre. Your voice is better suited for that style (most baritones are, sadly. Almost all pop music is written for Tenor)
Don’t forget Glee’s Amber Riley; I read that she auditioned for some season of Idol but didn’t even make it to the round in which she auditions for the judges! After her Glee success I bet they feel silly! Oh wait I just scrolled up to see someone else already commented about that. Now I feel silly!
I still am bitter about Joe Munoz of this season’s top 24. I think I’m the only one but I hope he makes it big; he’s definitely talented and a cutie