‘American Idol 15’ premiere review: Shelbie Z. (of ‘The Voice’), Kerry Courtney, Jeneve Rose Mitchell audition
This is … the final season of “American Idol“! Did you know that? Did the show not beat you over the head enough over the first five minutes of the show? Get ready for a year full of nostalgia and a variety of montages that are all about some of the winners and notable contestants from years past. Oh, and there’s also Kanye West, who the show tried to act was some sort of surprise appearance despite the fact it was first reported months ago that he was going to show up.
We’re going to be bringing you some more updates from the night live as time progresses. With that in mind, be sure to refresh this page!
Michelle Marie – Probably the biggest superfan out there, though to be fair we think we could name all of the winners even faster than she did. (Boom!) Nice voice, but she may need to show a little more edge if she wants to become a superstar. She’s extremely nice … but is there a thing as too nice?
Josiah Siska – Needed a little more energy (and a little less nonsense from Harry Connick Jr.), but he did a good job with the Johnny Cash hit. Dude has a low voice, but what was interesting (as noted by Harry) is that he also has a really good understanding of music to go along with it.
Lindita – Really talented, but a ton of runs here. Also, we’re super-tired of the song, but since this is the audition we won’t hold that against her too much. Now if she goes and sings a bunch of Mariah Carey / Whitney Houston songs the rest of the show … meh.
Billy Bob Evett – He’s all right, but he does violate what we’d like to pencil in somewhere as a reality show rule: Don’t say you’re “a big character.” Just be one and have a good time. He probably focused too much on the performance and not enough on getting the pitch right.
Lee Jean – A pleasant surprise. A 15-year old who sounds mature for his age and seems to understand the lyrics of Ed Sheeran to a certain degree. He’s still raw and rough around the edges, but there’s a sweetness there that America will almost certainly get behind and want to root for.
Jeneve Rose Mitchell – Love the story here: Someone who is really “off the grid” to the point where she doesn’t even have technology going on the show hoping to have an actual audience to perform in front of. She’s really raw, but there is an earthiness to her voice that is so unique.
Sonika Vaid – Cool name. Very cool voice. Her parents came to America from India, and that was most of what we got from here when it comes to her story. She didn’t really need much more than that in order to get through.
Reanna Molinaro – The latest victim of Harry shenanigans, this police officer handcuffed the guy before giving a pretty competent Patsy Cline performance. We like her! She’s a character, and that’s as important as anything else.
Sylvia Lee Walker – It wasn’t great. Specifically, it made the entire audition burst into flames. Way too much going on. She’s got energy for days; maybe it was “energy idol,” she would make it all the way to the finals with her story about her goat named Jim.
Shevonne Philidor, Kory Wheeler, Laurel Wright – Returning contestants montage. Maybe things will turn out better for them this time…
Joshua Wicker – One of the older contestants we’ve seen on the day, and our favorite so far. There were so many different interesting little layers to his voice. It got soft at some points and rough and aggressive at others. This was a nice mix.
Alex and Jordan Sasser – They are SUPER enthusiastic, and they both auditioned separately. In almost an echo of the Yanni G – Nick Fradiani situation last year, Alex did not go through while he did. This was … awkward? It really was, since it seemed like Jordan got a little thrown under the bus for being “distracting” during her performance.
Kerry Courtney – Love his voice. He’s a little out-there and atmospheric, but that is part of why we like him! Part of what makes this show is that it celebrates the different, and there have not been many rockers so far. The night has been stuffed full of country.
Shelbie Z. – She’ll go far. Big personality and awesome voice, but it’s funny that the show is just pretending that she was not on “The Voice” a few seasons back and was fairly memorable for that, as well. For the record, we have no huge problem with it since everybody at this point has a story. We just wish the show was more transparent.
Kanye – Eh, let’s not talk about Kanye. This has stunt written all over it.
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