‘American Idol’ review: Meet ‘The Glee Project’s’ Matheus Fernandes, Papa Peachez

After just a brisk couple of weeks, the audition process on “American Idol” is just about at an end. Personally, we like this since we typically find that most only give us a small sample of the actual talent, and a bunch of garbage that is either exploitative and / or annoying.

The two cities that were shown off here were San Antonio and Long Beach, and the talent was pretty big in both cities. With that being said, there are also going to be a few rants mixed in here and there about everything from children to editing to Randy Jackson self-promoting in front of the entire University of Arkansas. (By the

San Antonio

Vincent Powell – This was the last time that Vincent was eligible to take part in the show, and he came out with a sweet, bluesy sound that was completely unlikely what we’ve heard so far. He needs to cut a little down on the nasal factor, and he does need some serious style help after coming up on stage in weird-fitting pants and giant spectacles.

Savannah Votion – She came on the show after a pair of terrible (and argumentative) singing brothers named Rick & David, so by comparison anyone would have been gone. Luckily, she had a booming voice, and if we (like Vincent) ignore the strangely awful choice in fashion, Savannah could be someone to make it pretty far.

Cristabel Clack – What an interesting name. There’s almost a little bit of star power just in that alone, no? The great thing about Cristabel’s audition was she had a nice mixture of style with power and stage presence. She acted as though she was performing in front of a massive audience, and not just a cheesy reality TV audition.

Ann Difani – Seriously, these “Nominate an Idol” segments are pretty terrible. Do people attending University of Arkansas games really want to see Randy Jackson coming out on stage making gigantic declarations about this girl getting a chance to audition? Her husband did something nice for her, but there really wasn’t much here outside of a traditional country voice.

Victoria Acosta – When she was performing Mariachi music while out on the Riverwalk with a band, she was incredible. As for singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” it felt more like she was yelling than actually performing. Keith Urban was right that there was something missing … but then she did her traditional music again and was great.

Papa Peachez – Seriously, why does there need to be one of these “there’s a large black woman trapped in my body” people every season? The song was like a bizarre spiritual out of a haunted New Orleans, and it was a bit like wandering through a cavern. Nicki Minaj completely loved the guy, and this almost single-handedly got him through. We hope he stays for at least a little while.

Sanni M’Mairura – What a nice guy Sanni was. We’re not entirely sure that his voice was really as great as it was hyped out to be.

Adam Sanders – In closing this city, who’s ready for some more Mariah Carey hero worship? It’s a little annoying, but when a guy can really SING like this, you should be allowed to worship whoever you want. Let’s just hope that someone put on earplugs before listening to the audition. It was good, but it did not need to be so loud.

Long Beach

Shubha Vedula – Poor girl did not get to audition for either Mariah Carey or Nicki who were late thanks to either traffic or prior commitments), but the good news here is that the guys did at least seem to like her. With that, we have the first person in Long Beach to get a ticket!

Matt Farmer – First of all, let’s say that it is a personal pet peeve when children are brought into auditions, especially before the contestant starts singing. Are you really going to say no to a former member of the military with his daughter in the room? At least the producers probably vetted this guy before he went out to audition, and thus they knew that he had a great voice and the kid wouldn’t be embarrassed.

Let’s just take a moment before getting to the next contestant in order to roll our eyes at the fact that Nigel Lythgoe let a girl come on here, promote her band, and then scream at the judges and flip them off. She had no intention of doing anything on this show other than being completely horrible to everyone. Why even show this?

Jesaiah Baer – More, please! Our favorite audition of the entire day was rudely interrupted by an alarm aboard the Queen Mary, and we still don’t really understand why in the world producers wanted to do this aboard a boat to begin with. Didn’t they learn anything from having one on an aircraft carrier? When she got to perform again, she reminded us as a little bit of both Casey Abrams and Haley Reinhart.

Micah Johnson – It’s Lazaro Arbos 2.0, except this time he had a speech impediment caused by tonsil surgery rather than a stutter. Either way, what a surprisingly great singer this guy was … especially when it comes to country music, which is just about the last genre we expected to see him cover.

Rachel Hale – Talent-wise, we’re not sure how much better Rachel is than any other country singer; however, her super-likable demeanor puts her over the top. She’s just so easy to love, and this will get her plenty of votes down the road.

Briana Oakley – First things first, applause to producers for actually showing that Briana was on “Maury” before this show in a talent-themed episode; and since she said that she had a hard time being bullied, we’re going to skip the jokes here (even if they would be in good fun) and just get to the fact that she is an incredible singer. These are the auditions where we like to picture her floating back to the school and laughing in all of her bullies’ faces.

Matheus Fernandes – Our final audition of the day was a guy who we knew very well: Matheus was a contestant on “The Glee Project” season 1, and he really did pretty well the first few weeks. The problem we have is that, unlike Briana, this was not remotely addressed … despite this being a big part of his story. We don’t really think that this would have hurt him if it was mentioned, just like it would not have hurt Jessica Sanchez last year had her “America’s Got Talent” history revealed on the show. It’s not his fault, but the producers need to realize that viewers are not idiots and this is not exactly a completely undiscovered guy.

Of course, there’s no questioning that Matheus is an amazing singer … and he killed this audition and deserves to make it very far in this competition based on that level of talent alone.

Who did you love the most during this episode? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and you can read some more of our favorites from this “American Idol” season over at the link here.