"American Idol" Season 10, Episode 4

"American Idol" Season 10, Episode 4

Television News

By our guest blogger, Catherine Fuentes

I’m not surprised that a city with roots as musical as Nashville had some of my favorite "Idol" auditions of the season so far. Of course, it had some real comical lows, but in an hour-long episode, the lows are glossed over via montage.

Keeping with the trend of the season of the young contestants truly shining, my favorite of the season thus far, Lauren Alaina, came last. She started singing a few years ago when her beloved cousin got diagnosed with cancer, yet it sounds as if she’s been singing for a lifetime – a lifetime far longer than her 15 years. When she sang, I realized that the ability to sing is actually a gift, and she has it. The judges cried, her family rejoiced, and she sang some Aerosmith.

Another favorite of the night was Jackie Wilson, an older contestant with an amazing voice that hit all the high notes and had a tender sweetness to it. For the first time all season, all the judges applauded an audition. I hope to see a lot more from her. Her personality didn’t seem to be as big as Lauren’s, but let’s just chalk that up to maturity. However, she had one of the funniest Seacrest moments of the season thus far. Seacrest assumed he was waiting outside with her parents, and had a look of shock and horror when she kissed the guy he thought to be her father. It was awkward and hilarious, because Seacrest did not play it cool at all.

Despite my jokes that Rob Bolin and Chelsee Oaks were a real life movie of love gone awry (please, living with your ex is never a good idea, nor is singing romantic songs with the other and bringing a new significant other to the audition), I absolutely loved them, and hope they both progress far into the competition, because like Jennifer Lopez, I really am curious to see what would happen. Rob has a gorgeous raspy voice, and Chelsee has such a great tone to her voice, that I even loved them individually. However, the highlight of the performance was Chelsee’s new boyfriend giving Rob the nasty side eye as they were celebrating their golden tickets.

More good: a montage of older guys who all were excellent. No 15-year-old boys were featured in Nashville, but I think we’ve been getting Bieber-fatigue this season.

Good, but not my favorites: Adrienne Beasley was an African American girl adopted by white farmers who had a big voice, and Matt Dillard, an overall wearing guy whose family has taken in over 700 foster children over the years. I think Adrienne will do better in the competition than Matt, but both performed well enough.

The decent: Stormi Henley, a former Miss Teen USA was beautiful, and assured the judges that the girls in the Miss Teen USA pageant are “talented, but there’s no talent part of the competition.” She sang fine, but had a small voice, and might get by on being so personable (and pretty).

As for the judges, Steven Tyler continues to impress with how candid, funny and personable he is with all the contestants. Sure he’s a bit loopy, but it’s more fun and seems to be more genuine than Paula was. I love Jennifer Lopez still, and she’s really gotten the hang of saying no. There’s been numerous occasions where she was the only "no" on the panel, which of course means the contestant advances to Hollywood, but it’s great to see her stand firm when she believes that a contestant won’t perform well in Hollywood. Randy is being tough, and it’s weird seeing him swap his preferred insult of calling someone “pitchy” to actually being insulting, but I kind of like it. To be honest, I haven’t missed Simon once this season, which is shocking, because I am an admittedly huge fan of Simon.