Group Day in Hollywood for American Idol 9

Group Day in Hollywood for American Idol 9
Posted by Reality Rehash on February 11th Leave a Comment Listed under » American Idol
After 2 days of auditions, 96 contestants remain to face the dreaded group day in Hollywood Week. This is the time for tears and drama to be plastered on your tv screens. Forming the groups is always an initial challenge for many people. Some find it difficult to get organization down, while others seem like they are supposed to be in a group together. Once groups are formed, some start working on vocals right away, while others remain unorganized for quite some time. The first group to show signs of chaos was The Dreamers. They initially had 3 members, but then 2 other girls wanted in. The 5 people were Mary Powers, Hope Johnson, Margo may, Alex Lambert and Mary Alex. Once they were a group of 5, drama seemed to be all they cared about. While The Dreamers tried to get things together, others were trying to find a place to rehearse. Some groups were singly loudly, including Destiny’s Wild, which had members Todrick Hall, Theri, Jareb Liewer and Siobhan Magnus singing together. They were getting looks but didn’t seem to mind. They seemed quite organized with their routine. Meanwhile, group Neapolitan, which included Liz Rooney, Thaddeus Johnson and Jessica Cunningham, were feeling the pressure from Destiny’s Wild. They were both singing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and it seemed like they weren’t happy about it. They claimed that Destiny’s Wild stole one of their dance moves for the routine. Both groups were loudly singing next to each other. Group Phoenix consisted of Moorea Masa, Ben Honeycutt, Jeff Goldford and Jermaine Sellers. Moorea had auditioned last year and sang in Danny Gokey’s group for Group Day. She thought that rehearsing where they did last year could bring her new group some luck. Team Awesome had members Michael Lynche aka Big Mike, Seth Rollins, Tim Urban and Michael Castro. The group was organized and finished their rehearsal early, which left Mike in his room to talk to his wife, who was currently in labor. Other groups struggled to decide whether to sleep or stay awake and rehearse. Some chose to sleep, while others stayed awake for many hours to continue to perfect their performance. There was a definite power struggle within The Dreamers. Many people were trying to voice their opinions but they were being talked over each other. The 3 original members wanted to try and go back down to just the 3 of them, but then decided to try and work it out with all 5 members. Mary tried to take control of the unorganized group, but that ended up annoying her group and even was sensed by one of the vocal coaches. The next day, it seemed like most people were unusually confident and pleasant for Group Day. The groups were running through their final dress rehearsals to prepare for their shot at stardom. Sadly, many started to crack under the pressure, which made it seem like a real Group Day after all. People were forgetting lyrics left and right. Phoenix was called out by one of the vocal coaches, who said that they have no idea what they’re doing. More drama was shown within The Dreamers, which seemed to be coming mostly from Mary. She seemed to be feeling the pressure because she started to get upset when she saw how good Destiny’s Wild looked while rehearsing. She only wished her group was having fun as they were. Meanwhile, Big Mike was still waiting on his wife to give birth, so he was popping in and out of his group to take the time and talk his wife through labor. His group seemed supportive of this, which was really cool of them. His wife finally had a baby girl and he seemed thrilled! Now he was able to enjoy that and focus on singing well for the judges. The group performances started off on a high note with Faith. They sang “Irreplaceable” and consisted of Charity Vance, Ashley Rodriguez and Michelle Delamor. All 3 ladies made it through to the next round. Team Awesome was hoping to do well as Group Faith did. They sang “Get Ready”, but sadly, didn’t seem to be in sync as well as the previous group was. Big Mike and Tim Urban made it through, but Seth Rollins – whom we learned in previous episodes had an autistic son – and Michael Castro – previous contestant Jason Castro’s brother – were sent home. Neapolitan ended up singing before Destiny’s Wild, and once they sang, this really upset the other group. Destiny’s Wild claimed that it was their idea to sing the song acapella, but the other group stole their idea. Regardless, it seemed to really impress the judges. Simon said it was good in their own way and Ellen thought it was great. All 4 members of the group made it through. Destiny’s Wild followed, and sadly, they didn’t seem as well-rounded as they did during rehearsals. Ellen said it was weird and they looked as if they were dressed to be in Cirque du Soleil. Even so, all 4 of this group also made it through. The Mighty Rangers were next up. This group was torn the night before between rehearsing and sleeping. The group members were Tori Kelly, Maddie Penrose, Mark Labriola, Kimberly Kerbow and Danny Jones. The group started off well but then members started to forget lyrics. Kimberly, Danny and Mark all forgot their lyrics and didn’t make the cut. Right before Phoenix performed, one of the members decided to quit, throwing off the team’s morale. The rest of the group tried to do justice to “Don’t You Cry No More”, but Ben and Moorea were sent home. Weirdly enough, a popular song choice was “The Sweet Escape” by Gwen Stefani, yet many people sang the song horribly and/or forgot the lyrics. Group Big Dreams consisted of Matt Lawrence, whom was in jail for 4 birthdays, and Amanda Shechtman, who was overly dramatic during her first audition. The whole group wasn’t good at all and they were all sent home. Group Middle Siege was shown through to the next round, which had members Janell Wheeler, Jermaine Purifory and Casey James in it. This group sounded really good. 3 Men and a Baby also sounded really well. Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, JB Ahfua sang “No One” and all made it through. The Dreamers were the last group of the day. Their drama reflected in their performance because only Mary, Hope and Alex made it through. The Group Day brought 96 contestants down to only 71. Next week we’ll get to see individual performances as Idol continues to narrow down the Top 24 of Season 9. Written By: Aubri Yeganegi Written By: