//American Idol Mini Recap – San Francisco And Louisville Auditions//

With all the hoopla surrounding that little ol’ inauguration thingy that took place Tuesday, the American people almost forgot about the second biggest event to happen this week: the continuation of the eighth season of American Idol!

The audition episodes rolled on Tuesday and Wednesday night in San Francisco and Louisville respectively. Some of the best and worst contestants came out to fight for that golden ticket to the promise land aka Hollywood.

We may be cramming both nights into one recap (admittedly, we’re still on that inaugural high) but that doesn’t mean this post will be extra long. Quite the contrary. Maybe it’s just us and we totally don’t have a good ear (we do strangely love the Jonas Brothers….DOH!), but we were a bit underwhelmed by the talent in both cities. Doesn’t mean we couldn’t pluck a few to chatter about.

San Francisco:

Tatiana Del Toro- The obnoxiously perky beauty from Puerto Rico was given a totally unfair hard time by the male judges. Paula and Kara backed her (even though she brought a press kit complete with naughty lingerie pic). Her voice isn’t like the powerhouse vocalists she wants to be, but she sure as hell can sing that bikini girl under a table. Note to Tati: next time ditch the hideous dress and get close to buck naked in a ‘kini.

Dean-Anthony Bradford: OMG! His coat was soooo hawt! His sideburns, way hawt. His voice, not so much. He was definitely entertaining but the judges totally didn’t dig his shaky vocals. It’s OK. He’ll always have the hottest outerwear known to man. And his almost-strip teased followed by “The drapes match the carpet” lick at Simon’s dig at his hair color makes him a winner! He has the golden ticket to our hearts!

Jesus Valenzuela: Jesus didn’t have a bad voice (I totally chuckled typing that), it was just really over the top. What saved his arse was his adorable kids. The little one, Gabriel, knows how to work a sign. We want to see Jesus make it to the top 12 just so we can see little Gabe’s signage skills.

Akilah Askew-Gholston: Akilah studied hard to become a tambourine smackin’ gospel singer, so it was quite a shock when she decided to sing an original song called “Make Sweet Love.” Dude, she totally should have called it “Get Married THEN Make Sweet Love” just to remain PC. Akilah’s voice sucked on the badly written song, but what sucked the most was her word usage. She totally thought her vocab was bigger than it actually is. She even said she needed to start her song over because she “came out of the wrong rectum.” Yes….she said that. She also said that Randy, Simon and Paula totally “irracatated” her. Yep…

Adam Lambert: Adam was pretty awesome. He performed Bohemian Rhapsody–an Idol favorite. His voice was a bit theatrical, but that’s understandable since he’s been performing in Wicked for quite awhile. The judges, mostly Simon, gave him a bit of a hard time, but we can see him getting far. His Pete Wentz haircut and aversion to chap-stick must change by Hollywood, though.

Kai Kalama: There’s one big touching story every episode and Kai Kalama is it. The golden son takes care of his mother with a seizure disorder, but he was rewarded with a golden ticket to Hollywood for his awesome voice. His stage presence is seriously lacking and personality needs to shine more, but America is bound to fall in love with his back story and swoonarific hair.

Louisville:

Joanna Pacitti: Joanna is this season’s Carly Smithson. You know the story, had a record deal, deal fell through (or in Carly’s case album flopped like crazy), and now she’s on Idol for her last chance at stardom. It’s OK because Joanna has a killer voice and a sweet ass personality. If she stays humble (unlike Carly who gave off the “I’m tooootally going to win because I can sing better than Celine Dion even though I copy her voice” attitude), she could make it very far.

Alexis Grace: 21-year-old single-for-the-moment mom Alexis has the most adorable 2-year-old named Ryan. She couldn’t rely on her little girl’s cuteness to get her through. Instead she powered through Aretha Franklin’s “Mr. Feel Good” and made the judges feel good. They weren’t blown away by her stage presence (we weren’t either) but they gave her some fashion tips and a ticket to Hollywood.

Rebecca Garcia: Rebecca was on the local news vowing to give it her all in her performance the morning of her audition. The local news can’t possibly be wasting time chatting to someone with 0 talent, right? Wrong! Becks sang Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” (baaaad idea!) and slaughtered the song and our eyes with her horrible “dancing.” Kara pointed out that Beccers was named “most humorous” by her high school and chalked her performance up as a joke. The waterworks started flowing. Apparently, Becky was all-to-the serious. Sting!

Matt Giraud: Two things about Matt that both interested us and shocked us: He sang Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Wanna Be” (and we’ve already established the fact that we will adore anyone who chooses to tackle Gavin.) and Simon compared him to Elliott Yamin who is only like our favorite Idol contestant, like, ever. OK. Two guys we love attached to one, this guy is lucky we liked him (though, he has nothing on Elliott or Gavin). We’re rooting for him!

Kris Allen – Only got a quick glance at Kris during a “made it to Hollywood” montage, but we immediately noticed he was dressed like Gavin DeGraw (yes, we’re so obsessed) and had a KILLER voice. Can’t wait to see more of him!

Leneshe Young- Again, the last person of the night has the biggest sob story. Leneshe (pronounced La-Nee-Sha) grew up practically homeless helping to raise her brothers and sisters. Either the homeless days are behind her or she dropped some serious changed for her audition outfit, because she looks pretty damn spiffy–and bright. Leneshe decided to be all the way original and sing a song she wrote called “Nattie.” OK. The song is complete and total Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop song gold. All she needs is a remix with T.I. and T-Pain. The tale about adoring some thug lovin’ garnered rave reviews from all of the judges who praised her sultry voice and current music scene appeal (told you! T-Pain, come get you next check!). She was given a golden ticket that matched her golden shirt. Love!

Until next week!