American Idol hollywood round and Top 24

Well due to a family emergency and a rough week in general, I'm still playing catch-up with our tv watching this week. I half-watched the Hollywood Week episode while doing some work, but couldn't really pay attention, so tonight it's time to rewatch it. But looking at the top 24 list, I see I didn't do too well with my audition-round predictions. Here are the people I mentioned by name in previous posts.

Angela Martin - She's the single mom whose daughter has Rett Syndrome. I didn't think she was the greatest singer, so I'm kinda glad she didn't make the top 24, but I'm curious to see exactly what happened.

Beth Stalker - I don't remember her first audition offhand, but I know she stood out to me even though the judges weren't that impressed. I guess she didn't stand out in Hollywood either.

Samantha Musa - Hmm... I'll be interested to see what happened to her and why she didn't make it.

David Archuleta - No surprise he made the top 24.

Angelica Puente - She was one with a great voice but a bad case of nerves.

I realize this might be pointless since I'm already three days behind the air date, but I do want to make some comments as I watch anyway.

Brooke White is one who did make the top 24, but I haven't been overly impressed with her so far. I'll be interested in seeing what she does later in the show.

Jake Mellema, the drummer/singer - great wedding singer, but not an American Idol.

David Hernandez - I don't remember seeing his first round audition, but I'm VERY impressed with him. He's the first guy we've seen in a long time who adds little vocal treatments like runs and growls, like many of the best women do (Kelly Clarkson and Katherine McPhee come to mind). I would've been shocked if he didn't make the top 24.

Amanda Overmyer - I haven't quite decided yet if I like her or not. No surprise that she made the top 24 -- she has fantastic stage presence. And she does have an unmistakably unique voice, which has done well for people like Fantasia and Taylor Hicks. Top 12 for sure, but I doubt she can win.

Josiah Leming - He's the brit-punk singer. I really like him, and I'm really surprised to not see his name in the top 24, especially given the judges' comments. What happened??

Danny Noriega and Ramiele Malubay - They featured short clips of these two back-to-back, and I see they're both in the top 24, but I wasn't impressed with either one! I can't see how either one of them was better than Josiah, but I guess I'll keep watching to see what happened on the final day. Maybe it's a race thing and Idol is looking to boost the diversity of the final 24?

The next two up were Carly Smithson and Michael Johns, and once again I saw nothing memorable from either of them. They're both good singers, but they both had some pitch issues. Once again, I'm surprised to see them in the top 24, especially given some of the people who didn't make it.

David Cook's another who made the top 24. I wasn't overly impressed by his first performance, but he probably had the best rendition of "Everything I Do" of any of the guys.... although the next one featured, Robbie Carrico, sounded even better.

So at the end of the first two days, we still haven't seen any of the five people I mentioned from the first audition rounds! What's up with that??

There's finally a post-cut interview with Angelica Puente, but we never did see her sing in Hollywood.

Now they're finally featuring Angela Martin. As if her backstory wasn't sad enough, she also lost her dad shortly before Hollywood. And given her final a capella auditon, I'm actually surprised she didn't make it through -- ESPECIALLY with nerd-boy in the back row going on!

Now we're up to the final day of Hollywood auditions. Maybe we'll actually see some of my top picks, even though they didn't make it into the top 24.

Here's David Archaleta again. He was fantastic in the audition rounds, and he delivers another goose-bump performance here. Still, I don't think he's as good as David Hernandez, but the judges keep throwing in that "so amazing for 17" line, which has helped people like Jordin Sparks and Paris Bennett.

Syesha Mercado - VERY impressive final performance, especially given the condition of her voice. I'm glad to see she made the top 24. I agree with Randy -- she's one to watch.

Here's Michael Johns again. I wasn't impressed the first time, but I've never seen anyone actually do a GOOD rendition of of Bohemian Raphsody. I'm still a little surprised he made the top 24 -- I don't think he's nearly as good as the judges thought. I guess we'll see. Carly Smithson's final performance was also much better than her first. She's really good, but still somewhat ordinary. I don't think she can win unless we see some big spark or goose-bump moment.

The last contestant to be featured is Josaih Leming, and it's clear why he didn't go on. He's probably just too young and inexperienced. I'm glad the judges put him through anyway, but I'm not quite as surprised now that he didn't make the top 24.

So that's it for the Hollywood auditions... now all that's left is to whittle the group down to 24. Looking through the list, I'm amazed at how many names and faces I don't remember seeing in this episode! I'm sure we saw some in the first rounds and I just don't remember, but they'll show clips during the selection show. But for now, my top picks have to be David Hernandez, David Archuleta, Syesha Mercado, and Amanda Overmeyer, in that order. (I guess that means I do like Amanda after all!) Of course there could very well be someone else in the top 24 we didn't see tonight that is far better than any of those four, but it's late, so the selection show will have to wait another night! And I promise I'll keep the next blog post shorter!