Idol Chitchat

It’s idol season once again on tv. Since its no secret that I watch the show, I’m going to share with you guys who my bets are. And by “bets”, I mean the ones I want to do well enough to get into the top 12.

Didi Benami – Love her already! She’s like Brooke White 2.0 hehe. Hope she doesn’t crash and burn as the show progresses. Love the artists in her list of influences… Adele, Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, John Lennon, JASON REEVES! “Terrified” anyone? hehe! Good luck, Brooke! I mean, errr…. Didi!

Andrew Garcia – I’ve been a fan of this guy for some time now on youtube. I like his musicality and all but I don’t think he knows his genre yet. He’s like Danny Gokey but more talented in that he plays the guitar and the piano, and he knows how to flip songs his way. We’ve heard his take on Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up”, and we all know that went well. But let’s wait and see how far he goes in the competition.

Crystal Bowersox – This girl right here is the real deal. I love that she cited Glen Hansard and Ray LaMontagne among her list of musical influences. She gets bonus points right there from me. And also, I love how she didn’t attack mainstream music during her interview, just mentioning how it currently needs a wake-up call. That’s nice. She seems nice, too. Many of her peers seem to like her. I have a feeling she will go very far, if not win this whole thing this year. If she does, she will be the most credible winner yet. Or maybe that’s just me falling for how idol is packaging her up to be haha. And oh another one… I love that she’s not afraid to show the world that her teeth are yellow haha.

Casey James – I didn’t watch the auditions. I only started watching from Hollywood week onwards so I don’t know what’s up with this guy and Kara. But I liked what I heard from him during Hollywood week. His bluesy kind of rock reminds me of Bo Bice from Season 4. His guitar-playing was good. I just wish he moved more during performing and not just stand right there like a tree.

Siobhan Magnus – I love that they’re keeping her as low profile as possible because then people are going to get more curious about her. I loved what I heard from her during Hollywood week, strong voice, quirky personality. She’s like the little one that could, the one everybody would love to root for because she’s such an underdog. Great mix of artists cited as her musical influences. I have a good feeling she will surprise us bigtime like Elliott Yamin did in Season 5.

Lee Dewyze – He’s been downplayed all throughout the auditions and was only shown in snippets during Hollywood week. And yet, he was among the first group of seven to find out that he’s in the top 24. If I remember correctly, Kelly Clarkson was never featured prior to the semi-finals, Elliott Yamin was also downplayed, and Kris Allen from last year was the same. I think, this guy is this season’s little surprise. I’ve seen his videos on youtube and boy are you guys in for a very nice surprise. If he picks the right songs and keeps his cool, its goodbye yet again to a girl’s chances of winning the idol title this year.

Other contestants on my radar include: Lilly Scott (because her looks kinda throw me off a bit in a good way and she seems Lilith-ready haha), Alex Lambert (because he can play the ukulele and he sounds good), Haeley Vaughn (because she’s bubbly and not the typical country singer for obvious reasons), and John Park (for listing down Marc Broussard as a musical influence and being asian lol),.

There you go. I’ll serve you guys another platter of my idol opinions a few days before the Top 12 competition starts. We’ll rank the hopefuls when that time comes coz by then we would have had three weeks worth of performances to base our rankings on. See you in three weeks!

contestants’ photos are from americanidol.com