American Idol Season 6

[phoenixx]

That's right folks, Season SIX Open Casting Calls are now scheduled. Bring yourselves, your talented neighbors, your talented children (hint hint Fraz) to these locations:

Less than two months after Taylor Hicks was named the newest American Idol on the show's season-five finale in May, it's already time for open auditions for season six.

Tryouts will begin at the Los Angeles Forum on Tuesday, Aug. 8, the show's producers have announced.

Contestants will compete for the top slot – but even Idol castoffs have a shot at a recording career. So far Hicks, along with runner-up Katharine McPhee and fan favorite Chris Daughtry, who placed fourth on the FOX talent hunt, have all inked record deals. Last week, the top 10 finalists from last season kicked off of the 51-city "American Idols Live" tour.

Open calls for season six will also be held in the following cities and venues on these dates:

San Antonio, Tex., Fri., Aug. 11, Alamodome

East Rutherford, N.J., Mon., Aug. 14, Continental Airlines Arena

Birmingham, Ala., Mon., Aug. Aug. 21, B.J.C.C.

Memphis, Tenn., Sun., Sept. 3, FedExForum

Minneapolis, Minn., Fri., Sept. 8, Target Center

Seattle, Wash., Tues., Sept. 19, Key Arena

Men and women between the ages of 16 and 28 (as of Aug. 6, 2006) who are eligible to work in the U.S. are invited to apply. For complete eligibility requirements, go to AmericanIdol.com.

[amykhar]

Damn. I'm too old

[lynnzop[$]]

Wah, I'm too old!!!

[phoenixx]

Stage mom potential, ladies!!!! Do Bree and Sarah sing? What about Kareem?

Our friend Rachel is trying out. She is 24, teaches spanish to HS seniors. Her voice is ok (it's lovely, but is it enough to be THE Idol? Prob not so much) and she is a real cutie.

[lynnzop[$]]

phoenixx said

Stage mom potential, ladies!!!! Do Bree and Sarah sing? What about Kareem?

Oh gawd, put a bullet in my head. Not on Bree singing, but on the stage mom potential.

I don't know that Bree would go for it. Several years with the choir director from hell probably jaded her.

Jer, I can see trying out in a couple of years. The evil choir director is gone and he's quite the ham.

[frazzledspice]

Someone who just graduated from my daughter's HS is going to go. She has a good style for country music, but would have difficulty branching out into other genres. Of course she is one of those tall super-slender girls--a real clotheshorse--and she would probably get some points for that.

If anyone you know is going, it would be good for them to buy the highlights from the first few seasons CD set (it's at Sam's Club for between $15 and $20, it was one of my hubby's Father's Day presents...)

Anyway, it shows the "first auditions" of the top contestants and winners of the first few seasons (through 2004) and it's interesting to see what the judges like.

We noticed, for example, that Kelly Clarkson auditioned with "At Last" and Katherine McPhee auditioned with another Gershwin song....we thought this was interesting because my daughter loves songs from that period and has performed them in different places. Some people tell her she could be on AI (and she always says she isn't interested, although I could see that changing, possibly, in two years or so.) But anyway, if she ever decided to try out, and we were to finance her trip to Memphis, or wherever, she would do her homework first.

[hadassahchana[$]]

amykhar said

Damn. I'm too old

I'm not.

[pippadaisy[$]]

frazzledspice said

We noticed, for example, that Kelly Clarkson auditioned with "At Last" and Katherine McPhee auditioned with another Gershwin song....we thought this was interesting because my daughter loves songs from that period and has performed them in different places. Some people tell her she could be on AI (and she always says she isn't interested, although I could see that changing, possibly, in two years or so.) But anyway, if she ever decided to try out, and we were to finance her trip to Memphis, or wherever, she would do her homework first.

Actually, that's about the last thing I'd do. The people who get through are the ones who've done something different. If you take a look at season two, they had a TON of people doing "At Last" for their auditions. The contestants who have the most distinctive auditions are people who do their own thing and the hell with the AI format... they have the confidence to do what they like.

[Joubert[$]]

One day I would like to see a montage of the contestants who think they're going to be cute by covering a Paula Abdul song.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Considering the whole flap over her possibly not singing at one point, that might be a fun song to choose...

[frazzledspice]

I could see more people doing Mariah Carey than going back to the old standards....

I thought that Kelly Clarkson's and Katherine McPhee's audition songs were interesting simply because they chose similar songs to the ones my daughter loves to perform--ever since she heard Linda Ronstadt's Nelson Riddle orchestra album. After that, she got Gershwin and Cole Porter and Manhattan transfer books, went to two vocal jazz camps, and even tried to start a vocal jazz quartet in her choir (half the quartet graduated, so she'll try to rebuild it this fall.)

Other than that, her tastes run to indie rock and classical and Broadway...country is the big thing where we live, of course....

And I thought it was interesting that the style she really loves is what McPhee and Clarkson auditioned with.

My daughter hates pop...people have told her she should audition for AI. She's going to be a senior in HS, and she said if she went and got to LA, she might miss some of her senior year and not graduate with her friends...I could see her possibly trying out when she's in college, but that is her decision, not mine.

[Joubert[$]]

Well, good luck to her, Fraz. I'm sure they sign all sorts of non-disclosure agreements, but let us know what you can when you can.