American Idol 6: Week 1 (Live Blogging)

We start Week 1 with a 2-hour special with the first show. Ryan announces they are the #1 show in America. Ryan takes a bit of time to explain the way things work on the show and introduce the guys.

If you’ve taken a chance to vote in our latest poll, you’ll notice that the following guys have votes(#) against them: AJ Tabaldo(2), Nicholas Pedro(1), Paul Kim(2), Sundance Head(1).

We’ll see how it plays out.

— Commercial Break —

First up for the guys is Rudy Cardenas singing “Free Ride”. Not doing too badly. His voice fits this song pretty well and he’s having fun with it. It’s amazing the difference some make-up, warddrobe, full-band and back-up singers make to lay out the whole package.

He’s getting some serious applause. Randy says he got the party started, but it was corny. Paula thinks he was “fantastic”. Simon says it was nothing new and the song was dated.

— Commercial Break —

Brandon Rogers has sung with Christina Aguillera, Justin Timberlake and Usher as a back-up singer. Pretty cool the back-up singers are moving forward this season. It would be interesting to have one of them win, but I don’t think they will. He’s singing “Rock With You” and he doesn’t sound very good to me. I believe he’s at risk. Has some pitch problems and a little bit of rhythm issues as well. Let’s see what the judges say.

Ahhh, Randy says “pitchy”. Paula agrees, good comment from her saying he’s used to doing the background runs and now he’s the lead singer and doesn’t need to flourish the music too much. Simon says he did a safe performance. Simon says he’s better than his performance showed.

Jason “Sundance” Head is up next. I like this guy, but he’s crashed a little bit in Hollywood with lyrics and performance. Let’s see if he can recover now that millions of people are watching him. I like his personality. Singing “Nights in White Satin”. I believe Simon is going to say it was safe and not very exciting. Just sounds weird to me. Not the best song choice in my opinion. I believe his personality will carry him through the first few rounds though, but he’s really going to have to find his groove and start winning some hardcore fans now.

Randy likes his bluesy thing but has abandoned it. Pitchy all the way through. Paula says “wrong song” and pitch was all over the place. Simon says with that performance he wouldn’t have made it here in the first place.

— Commercial Break —

Ahhh, I forgot Paul Kim was the one to sing the Shai song for his audition. Nice song. This guy is going to be barefoot for every performance according to him in an earlier show. He’s singing “Never Gonna Dance Again”, but it’s not working for me. Picking up a little bit as he puts some more energy into, well that was until he went into falsetto and really missed the notes. Really bad. He may be one of the first two guys to go home.

Randy doesn’t like the song choice, pitchy weird, middle worked, falsetto didn’t work. Randy still likes his potential though. Paula says he over sang and didn’t find his “center”. Simon tells him to put his shoes on next week if he’s still here. Third rate version of the song, he needs to “wow” and he’s not according to Simon. Ryan joins Paul onstage sans shoes. Kind of funny.

Up next is Chris Richardson. He kind of snuck by me up to this point and I didn’t remember his voice was as nice and strong as it was. I think he’ll be a final 12 contestant. Let’s see if he doesn’t disappoint.

Singing “I Don’t Wanna Be” by Gavin DeGraw and is doing a great job. He’s standing a little too still at the mic stand though. He can move, he needs to show it off a little bit. He’s one of those contestants that makes it look like he’s been doing this his whole life and is exactly where he needs to be right now.

I think the judges are going to say the best performance of the night so far. Randy feels like the show just started. Paula liked it. Simon really likes him, but thought his voice sounded very small in the song. He’s got a total package to offer, but needs to bring up the strength of the vocal.

— Commercial Break —

Nick Pedro leads us in after the break. Pitchy, but not doing too badly. He hits the falsetto much better than Paul Kim. Boring performance in my opinion. I think you really should bring it hard on the first night and go from there.

Randy thinks the nerves were going too much for him. Randy said it was good and “boring”. Paula said the tone of his voice in the audition was what made it for him and this performance was pretty flat tonight. Simon didn’t think it was that bad. Says he lost his spark a little bit, very charming, very nervous. They all just miss the energy and confidence they saw in his audition.

That’s it for the first 6 guys tonight. Catch the follow-up post for the final 6.