Guess What I Did?

I auditioned for American Idol last week!

Maybe I'm a nut, but I think anybody who sings at all has wondered or imagined at some time or another how they would fare if they tried out for this show. For several years now I've thought about auditioning, but never got enough gumption to fly somewhere and do it. So, when I found out a month or so ago that they were coming to Salt Lake City to audition for the coming season, I knew I had to do it! I knew if I didn't go, when they were less than an hour away from my front door, I would always regret it! So I enlisted my wonderful mom to accompany me, and I did it!

We both had to go to register and get wristbands and seat tickets sometime in the two days before the audition. I heard that many people were showing up at ridiculous hours of the morning to be at the front of the line just to register, assuming they would get the best seats. But I read in a news article about the auditions that the organizers stated tickets were handed out randomly and that getting there early would offer no advantage. So I chose not to get all crazy and didn't go early to wait to register. My mom and I were so glad, because when we did show up to register at the Energy Solutions Arena (formerly the Delta Center) in downtown SLC at 11 am on Monday the 28th, there was no line whatsoever!

July 29th, the morning of the auditions, was a whole other story. The line was crazy, and of course there were people who had camped out all night waiting. We were told to get there by 5 am, even though they wouldn't let us in until about 8 am. I think they just wanted to get camera shots of the huge crowds waiting to audition and interview people in line. Of course, there were a few crazy and weird people in the crowd...We saw a chick in a "Wheaties" box costume getting interviewed, and we were in line near a guy wearing tye-died, high water sweatpants who was playing a guitar with a rainbow and a unicorn on it. (We're pretty sure he had purposely dressed for the part of an American Idol crazy dude, just for fun). While we waited to get in the arena we just stood around chatting with people (everyone was so nice!), or spent time reading the Twilight books. My mom and I were somewhat near the end of the line because we actually got there a little late, at about 5:30, but thankfully it wasn't really a big deal...the tickets were for assigned seats, so the time we got in line for auditions didn't really matter...we would still have the same seats in the arena.


And boy, did we luck out! When they finally let us in, we discovered our seats were only two rows up from the floor of the arena! We had a great view of all the action going on down on the floor all day. And boy, was it ALL day...we were there until about 5:30 pm. The morning was basically spent hamming for the cameras. They spent a LOT of time doing sweeps of the crowd with a camera on a long arm, while we were whooping it up, screaming, shouting...probably not the best thing for a bunch of people getting ready for a vocal audition! I tried to avoid yelling too much and eventually ended up pretending I was shouting and whooping. We also did a lot of singing before the auditions...we were instructed at registration to learn two songs we would be singing as a crowd on audition day: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and "Get Ready" by The Temptations. There was a producer down on the floor telling us when to sing and what to do all morning, and he literally made us repeat these songs over and over and over while they were filming! It got redundant, but it was still a lot of fun, since we might end up on TV during the SLC audition episode of the coming season.

I was so pleased to discover that many of the women there were moms or expectant moms, and many I met were in their later 20s! (The age limit is 28). I was feeling so old when I first showed up, and I was so afraid I'd just be standing in a crowd of teenagers and hip, young, single people. There were actually quite a few very pregnant women who showed up to audition, and I was so proud to see them there. Many moms and expectant moms had cool signs, like "Let This Mom Sing You a Song" and "Moms are Already Idols." It was really encouraging to see so many other mothers there who were chasing their dreams!

We also got a fun surprise in the middle of the day...Ryan Seacrest showed up! He gave us a great pep talk for the auditions and then they filmed several segments with him in the crowd. They were the typical segments you always see on the show...for instance, the camera is close up on him as he says, "This...is American Idol," And the instant he says the last word the camera zooms out and the whole crowd goes crazy. It was fun to be a part of! He was very funny and charming and so friendly to everyone. I was impressed that he was so patient and obliging with the tons of people that wanted to get photos with him, even when the producers told everyone to lay off so they could get on with the filming. At one point Ryan was standing next to this huge Polynesian guy and was kind of goofing off with him...the contrast of them standing next to each other was so funny because Ryan Seacrest is kind of short and a very thin guy. Ryan went to put his arm around this Polynesian dude at one point, and the guy kind of went to give him a hug, and then without any warning the guy totally picked Ryan up and practically tucked him under his arm! Ryan was definitely surprised, but he took it all in stride. It was absolutely hilarious, I wish I could've gotten a photo of it! I did manage to get several good shots of Ryan down on the arena floor though, since we had such awesomely close seats!

Auditions had been going a short time before Ryan showed up, but after he left they got in full swing. Waiting for my turn to audition was very loooooong...they started at one end of the arena and called down one section of people at a time to the floor. Unfortunately for me our seats were about three-quarters of the way around the other side of the arena from where they started, so we had quite some time to go before it was my turn...I didn't get to audition until about 5 pm! The advantage of waiting so long was that we got to watch the auditions and learn a little of what to expect. Since we were near the floor we could somewhat hear the people singing who were auditioning at the tables nearest our seats, and we were baffled to see all these amazing singers that didn't make the cut.

Here's the way the auditions worked: they called down one section of the arena at a time, and then people waited in line on the arena floor. Everyone eventually got organized into groups of four to go before a table where there were usually two producers. There was a long line of tables set up running down the arena floor, and each table was only separated with a black curtain, so you could easily hear people next to you singing, which was a bit of a challenge. Each person from the group of four at each table would step forward when they were told, would sing until a judge held up their hand to indicate "stop", and then that person would step back, and the next person would go. All four people would sing before the judges gave any verdict on who would go and who would stay. Sometimes the judges would ask certain people to sing a second song, I'm guessing to help them make a decision. Everyone who auditioned was instructed to have 2 or 3 songs prepared, just in case. But, we noticed that getting to sing twice was a pretty rare occurance. Those who didn't make the cut were required to get their wristbands cut off and had to leave through a specific exit immediately after their audition. We were sitting right by that exit, so everybody who got cut passed right by us as they left...and it was a constant stream of people!

The few people who made it had to go through a different exit, where we were told they were taken into a room somewhere to fill out paperwork, get photos taken, and to be instructed about the next rounds of auditions. There were going to be no more rounds of auditions that day...I read that the second round would be in front of executive producers at some later date somewhere in SLC, and the third and final callbacks, with Simon, Randy and Paula, were to be held sometime in September. The great thing was that the whole arena was watching the auditions, and when we saw people making it through and going to the "non-rejected" exit, people would cheer for those singers. There was a real atmostphere of encouragement and support among everyone there, even though we were all complete strangers to each other. My mom and I sat next to a lovely girl named Shannon, who was a 28-year-old mom of three and had come alone from Denver to audition! She was so nice and we had so much in common. We spent lots of time watching the auditions, dissecting people's performances and commiserating about how nervous we were!

Here's the only photo I took during auditions (I was quite distracted). They left part of the space empty for awhile to do some things with filming, but they eventually lined up more tables to fill the whole floor.

It was both good and bad that we had so much time to watch other people audition...it was a learning experience, yet it was nerve-racking and discouraging to see the vast majority of people getting cut, even many who were incredibly talented. It was hard to understand how the judges were deciding who to keep...we couldn't figure out the method to their madness!

I finally got my turn to audition, and you can probably guess the outcome...I'm not going to be famous, not this year at least (wink wink)! I knew the particular judge I ended up in front of was going to be hard to impress. She was at the table we could see the best from our seats, and we'd been watching her all day. Though we couldn't see her face, we felt like she was a bit of a grumpy, impatient judge, and we noticed that she had been cutting pretty much everybody that came to her table...I seriously don't know if we saw her put more than two or three people through all day. She seemed to be tougher to get past than most of the other judges, and for some reason, hers was the only table that only had one judge instead of two. So, I was really disappointed when my group of four ended up in front of her.

I had three songs prepared that I was trying to choose from, and I didn't completely decide until maybe an hour or two before I auditioned. I chose to sing part of a Frank Sinatra song: "I've Got You Under My Skin," kind of a modernized, pop-i-fied version...think Michael Buble style. I knew it was a risky song choice because it wasn't mainstream, but I really wanted to do something different! So many of the girls were just belting out their songs like crazy...many of them were practically shouting while they sang, and they all started to sound alike after awhile. Yet, even the really, really good ones weren't making it through. So that's why I chose the Frank Sinatra...it was something smooth and classy and different from what I had been hearing all day.

When I stood up to sing, I think the judge gave me 8 seconds, then cut me off. It was pretty disappointing because as we watched people audition all afternoon, most of the judges were giving people more like 20-30 seconds. All four people in my group (including my new friend Shannon) were stopped in that short of a time. After we had each sung, she had us step forward and she said something like "Thanks for coming today, I know it was a long day. Thanks." And that was it...all four of us walked through, they cut off our wristband, and we left. I was so annoyed that she didn't say anything else to us at all! No critiques, no short bits of advice or why we weren't what they were looking for. All day I had noticed other judges actually spending a little bit of time talking to people about their performances. I really could have used that kind of constructive criticism!

So, I won't deny that it was a little depressing...waiting 12 hours and dealing with intense nervousness and anxiety that whole time, only to be cut after a few seconds of singing! I had so hoped that I would at least make it through that very first round. But, it was comforting to remember that the majority of people there were cut too...very, very few people made it past that round. There were about 6,000 people there, and I read in an article that the producers thought they'd probably let 200 to 400 people through...but I highly doubt they let through that many! I was there for three quarters of the audition day and I have a really hard time believing they let through even a hundred people while I was there!

Regardless of the outcome, I'm so glad I did it! Now I can say I've auditioned for American Idol, and I got to be a part of the show in some small way. I won't have any regrets about not trying, and I'll know what to expect if I ever want to audition again...which, I think I very well might! It was a fun experience, and now I'm absolutely dying to see the start of the new season. Even though I love the show, I've always been sporatic about watching it...but this year, I will not miss a single second of the show! Cause, you know...it could've been me! =)