Idol Leaves Its Heart In San Francisco!

American Idol auditions are in the can!  Last night, our judges rolled into San Francisco, where they found a couple of singers ready to go for Idol gold!  If you missed last night's show, go to You Tube and check out Julie Zorilla.  She's beautiful, looks the part, sounds the part and sang the daylights out of Summertime!  And, be sure to take a listen to James Durbin, who is this season's answer to Adam Lambert.  With his crazy-mad vocals and inspiring backstory, this kid is in it to win it.

WBKR's Idol expert, Steve Thompson, was watching last night and breaks down the season's final audition stop for you! 

From Steve:  Evidently, San Francisco has more talent than Los Angeles this year.

Oh, we got off to a shaky start.  We had Inessa Lee, a girl originally from the Ukraine who evidently wants to be a star in the worst way.  She sings "All Out of Love" and my first instinct is to cut off her air supply.  Judging from her personality and her drive for wanting stardom, I suspect she'll be the next Tila Tequila.  To those of you who don't know who that is: thank your lucky stars.

There were three quick performances by Brittany Mazur, Lara Johnston, and Matthew Nuss.  Of these three, Brittany sings yet another version of "Mercy."  Not much of her performance is shown, but rumor has it she makes it at least to the third round in Hollywood.

Stefano Langone is evidently very lucky to be alive after surviving a car crash.  He does a nice take on "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and receives his golden ticket.  I'm not convinced he survived the crash because his destiny was to be on Idol-- but I refuse to get into these religious arguments.

Clint Gambora is a karaoke disc jockey.  (Somebody has to do it.)  I was expecting someone who would be over the top and easy to make fun of-- but the guy does a good job on the song "Billionaire."  Something tells me the style folks at Idol might get him to change his glasses.

Drew Beaumire apparently has seen too many Transformers movies.  He comes dressed in costume as a car and decides to sing "Born to Be Wild."  Not that great a singer, but a great costume for Let's Make a Deal.  One of the best parting shots ever:  he's rolling away from the camera after being rejected.

Julie Zorilla is the daughter of Columbian refugees and sings an interesting version of "Summertime."  I'm not sure if I truly believe her backstory-- but the girl can sing rather well.  If nothing else, we may have found Sofia Vergara's long lost sister on Modern Family.

Dave Combs disappoints Steven Tyler and most of America with a poor cover of "Oh Darling."  Considering how many singers have sung this song well on Idol, that was truly a spectatcular flameout.

Emily Anne Reed has a jazzy take on "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me."  She has a very unusual voice and could be a fan favorite simply because she is so different from most of the other singers this year.  She reminded me a bit of Edie Brickell mixed with Jewel.  I thought she sounded even better when she picked up her guitar-- even though the contestants are discouraged from relying on instruments this year.  Probably too original for this show.

James Durbin is no Adam Lambert.  However, his dad died of a drug overdose when he was nine, he has been diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and also Arsparger's Syndrome,he also got his girlfriend pregnant and often doesn't have enough money to pay for diapers. (And will probably be pimped as much as the Idol producers think humanly possible.)  Frankly, I thought his take on "Dream On" was overbaked.

My favorite of the evening was Julie Zorilla with Emily Anne Reed a close second.  Starting tomorrow night, we begin to see the pruning process of the Hollywood rounds.

We'll see, won't we?

@February 9, 2011    Stephen W Thompson