American Idol, Night 3 Auditions

Tonight, American Idol is in San Francisco. The show is only one hour tonight. In the opening segment Ryan Seacrest acknowledges that San Francisco is where both Katherine McPhee and William Hung were discovered. Will San Francisco be as good to American Idol this year?

We see a first for American Idol - a guy proposes to his girl while in line to audition, she says yes, and they get married while in line. There is video of the famous homes that are used in the opening of the sit-com Full House, and also a nice look back at the summer of 1967 when all the hippies went to Haight-Ashbury.

First up tonight was Tatianna Del Torro from San Juan Puerto Rico. She bills herself as a fulltime singerm model, film actor, musician, etc, etc. She is dressed in a formal gown. She states that she has seen a psychic who has claimed that Tatianna will definitely make the Top 12 on AI. She has a seriously annoying laugh. She sings "Never loved a man" by Aretha Franklin. Simon says NO, but the other judges liked her voice and send her through to Hollywood. Did I mention her annoying laugh?

Dean Anthony Bradford age 27 shows up in a horrible plaid sports jacket. My teenage son commented that this guy looks like one of the Geico cave men. He is an awful singer and just, well, weird.

29 year old Jesus Valenzuela is at auditions with his entire family including his two boys. He says, his family watches AI all the time and his boys convinced him to audition. Simon immediately says no, but Kara and Paula like him and Randy agrees. A golden ticket for Jesus.

Dalton Powell (18 yrs) is talking with Ryan Seacrest outside the audition room and while talking with Ryan, absentmindedly solves an entire Rubik's cube puzzle in a mere 24 seconds. Dalton sings "Baby Baby" in the worse sounding falsetto ever and never once opens his eyes. The judges say NO emphatically.

We begin to see from one auditioner to the next, that Simon irritates Kara just as much as he annoys Paula. There is much verbal sparring.

Next up is Akeela Askew-Gholston. She likes to sing gospel and has searched the internet for instructions on how to sing Gospel. She has all sorts of diagrams and pictures and talks to everybody about the parts of the body and thinks she is super knowledgeable about the right and wrong way to sing. She mis-pronounces words a lot. Akeela decides to sing an original composition she wrote called "Make Sweet Love". The judges do not like it at all, so she jumps right in with another original song which is equally as awful. Simon says every song sounds just the same. This woman will not quick talking. OMG! The judges send her packing. In her closing remarks (which go on and on and on and on) Akeela says " I should not have let Paula, Randy and Simon 'irractitate' me'.

In quick succession, we get just a snippet of auditions from John Twiford, Allison Traheta and Racquel Houghton - who are all wonderful and are sent to Hollywood. I give Racquel Houghton 3 stars and think we will see more of her!

Annie Murdock is next. She plays violin and piano. She sings "Summertime" and totally bombs. Simon even comments that she sounds like she is drunk - like drink a whole case drunk.

Adam Lambert, age 22, has an interesting backstory. He has been in musical theater since age 10 or so. Paula recognized him from a musical theater program "Wicked". Adams sings Bohemian Rhapsody. He gets comments such as pretty good, diverse, theatrical and brilliant. He gets a ticket to Hollywood.

Kai Kalama is the last audition. He takes care of his mother who as a seizure disorder, and at night he sings and is a musician. He wants to win AI so he can have a career and also so he can take care of his mother. Kai sings "Smoke Gets in You Eyes" by Smoky Robinson and personally, I thought he did a great job. I think that Kai is another one that bears watching. He gets 4 yeses and is sent to Hollywood.

In the end, only 12 people from the San Francisco auditions are sent through to Hollywood. Tomorrow night, AI is at Churchhill Downs in Louisville, KY.