Journey's End... For Now
Yesterday afternoon my journey through season 6 of American Idol reached its height and its end, at nearly same moment.
In case you haven't figured it out by this point, I did not make it past the first round of auditions, despite my hopes. There were various reasons for this, but I'm happy to report that none of them had to do with problems on my end of things - I performed as well as I could, and at least one of the two judges seemed to be enjoying my performance.
I'm proud of that. I was competing with people who had a lot more years of experience and training than I have, and I did as well or better than most.
The day began very early, with my mom waking me up at just after 4am. This was followed by general preparations and then hopping off to wait in line with the other hopefuls. We saw some people we had met in line for registration, and met some new friends. I was the only kid in sight, everyone else in my part of the line - and in our seating session later - was over 20. I expected to be intimidated by this, and was surprised to find that actually I felt very calm throughout the entire audition process.
Once we got seated in the auditorium we were taught the lyrics to Prince's hit song '1999', which was followed by the arrival of the show's host, Ryan Seacrest. We sat around for a long time, doing as directed by the producers and Seacrest, which I'm sure will all show up on the tv show, although the camera didn't go out to our section much, so I doubt we'll be on the show at all.
Then I had to stand in line for what seemed forever (I think I grew a couple gray hairs) in order to get some extortionately priced water to replace the water they'd confiscated at the door (no, they didn't have water fountains). Because of the snail's pace of the concession employees, I ended up missing the filmed singing of the Prince song, which sucked big time.
By the time I got back they were telling people about the auditioning process. The pretty gal behind us gave us a recounting of what had been said (we liked the pretty gal behind us). I caught sight of a friend from my current production at New Breath (hi, Amber!) and we exchanged good wishes.
Then we waited. And waited.
Eventually the contestants from my section were escorted down to the arena, where we lined up along the edge and worked our way forward past the twelve judging tables, each separated by black curtains on each side, but open to the long sides of the stands and audience. As we reached the front, we were grouped by fours and each group was led to their own particular judging table, each group standing behind about six other rows of four. So we got a chance to see and listen to a lot of our competitors.
Plenty of time to notice the depressingly few people who were getting through. And how absolutely NONE of the competitors were getting through MY judges. Not one, from the time auditions started... you could see which tables were letting people through and which ones weren't, so my heart sank a bit when I saw which table we were being led to.
When we got to our table, we were welcomed very warmly by the others in front of us and to either side. The atmosphere was very supportive and friendly. At one point there was a guy who was singing a Gospel song, and all of us clapped and moved in time with him.... but he didn't get through, even though we all thought he was very good.
When my group got to the front, I found myself in a group of four that included a Mega-Diva. She was a Rocker in her mid-twenties, very polished, and very loud. Her performance was blow-you-away fantastic, and clearly the judges were impressed. I had to go up right after her, which was intimidating to say the least.
When I sang, the female judge was smiling and moving to the tune, which was heartening. She hadn't done that for any of the other contestants that I saw, including the Scary Good Rocker. However, the male judge practically had a soundtrack with crickets in the background - he didn't quite fall asleep, but I could tell that I wasn't fated to get past him. In spite of his conspicuous lack of enthusiasm, I managed to perform as well or better than I expected.
And that's all I can have hoped for. I didn't falter, I didn't forget my lines, I didn't slide off pitch. I was happy with my performance, and I was happy that I'd added this to my list of life experiences. I had a great time, I enjoyed myself and the people around me, I learned a lot. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
If American Idol comes to Minnesota again, I'll be there. You should come with me.
We're a party that shouldn't be missed.
In case you haven't figured it out by this point, I did not make it past the first round of auditions, despite my hopes. There were various reasons for this, but I'm happy to report that none of them had to do with problems on my end of things - I performed as well as I could, and at least one of the two judges seemed to be enjoying my performance.
I'm proud of that. I was competing with people who had a lot more years of experience and training than I have, and I did as well or better than most.
The day began very early, with my mom waking me up at just after 4am. This was followed by general preparations and then hopping off to wait in line with the other hopefuls. We saw some people we had met in line for registration, and met some new friends. I was the only kid in sight, everyone else in my part of the line - and in our seating session later - was over 20. I expected to be intimidated by this, and was surprised to find that actually I felt very calm throughout the entire audition process.
Once we got seated in the auditorium we were taught the lyrics to Prince's hit song '1999', which was followed by the arrival of the show's host, Ryan Seacrest. We sat around for a long time, doing as directed by the producers and Seacrest, which I'm sure will all show up on the tv show, although the camera didn't go out to our section much, so I doubt we'll be on the show at all.
Then I had to stand in line for what seemed forever (I think I grew a couple gray hairs) in order to get some extortionately priced water to replace the water they'd confiscated at the door (no, they didn't have water fountains). Because of the snail's pace of the concession employees, I ended up missing the filmed singing of the Prince song, which sucked big time.
By the time I got back they were telling people about the auditioning process. The pretty gal behind us gave us a recounting of what had been said (we liked the pretty gal behind us). I caught sight of a friend from my current production at New Breath (hi, Amber!) and we exchanged good wishes.
Then we waited. And waited.
Eventually the contestants from my section were escorted down to the arena, where we lined up along the edge and worked our way forward past the twelve judging tables, each separated by black curtains on each side, but open to the long sides of the stands and audience. As we reached the front, we were grouped by fours and each group was led to their own particular judging table, each group standing behind about six other rows of four. So we got a chance to see and listen to a lot of our competitors.
Plenty of time to notice the depressingly few people who were getting through. And how absolutely NONE of the competitors were getting through MY judges. Not one, from the time auditions started... you could see which tables were letting people through and which ones weren't, so my heart sank a bit when I saw which table we were being led to.
When we got to our table, we were welcomed very warmly by the others in front of us and to either side. The atmosphere was very supportive and friendly. At one point there was a guy who was singing a Gospel song, and all of us clapped and moved in time with him.... but he didn't get through, even though we all thought he was very good.
When my group got to the front, I found myself in a group of four that included a Mega-Diva. She was a Rocker in her mid-twenties, very polished, and very loud. Her performance was blow-you-away fantastic, and clearly the judges were impressed. I had to go up right after her, which was intimidating to say the least.
When I sang, the female judge was smiling and moving to the tune, which was heartening. She hadn't done that for any of the other contestants that I saw, including the Scary Good Rocker. However, the male judge practically had a soundtrack with crickets in the background - he didn't quite fall asleep, but I could tell that I wasn't fated to get past him. In spite of his conspicuous lack of enthusiasm, I managed to perform as well or better than I expected.
And that's all I can have hoped for. I didn't falter, I didn't forget my lines, I didn't slide off pitch. I was happy with my performance, and I was happy that I'd added this to my list of life experiences. I had a great time, I enjoyed myself and the people around me, I learned a lot. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
If American Idol comes to Minnesota again, I'll be there. You should come with me.
We're a party that shouldn't be missed.
posted by Bren at 10:55 AM
4 Comments:
I think that you can be proud that you did your best and you've learned so much from the experience. Well done!
You are awesome!! DO keep blogging even though this particular audition is over.
I think your attitude is mature and noble! You were up against very much more polished, professional and older people. Keep up the singing. Do you have open-to-the-public channels in Minnesota? Maybe some of the children's theater productions could put a performance on a public channel and you'll get wider exposure!
Congrats on a Most Excellent shot at the moon.
Love, auntie E
Good for you! I'm really impressed that you went to the audition -- I'd NEVER have the guts to do that. What an experience it must have been!
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