For the judges, Jennifer Lopez said a pretty voice and lots of interesting colors in there.
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“I’ve never been good enough and I watch you follow your dreams”.
“I gotta tell you…”
“Keith complimented me and said that he loved my singer-songwriter style, so that was a really big compliment for me”, she said.
Keith Urban agreed, saying Shelbie Z. would be a fighter “because she’s from Alabama”.
Next is Daniel Farmer, a 24-year-old student from Tennessee who can’t wait “to seduce JLo” with his smooth moves and soulful singing. Even though Connick said she needs to work on her confidence, he gave her a yes, joined by Urban and Lopez.
The Ashton singer-songwriter auditioned in October in San Francisco, which was the setting of Thursday night’s show. “Idol” stayed above a 3 rating a few other times early in its 14th season, but otherwise faded down the stretch (finishing in May with a 1.7).
After she wowed the judges, Harry Connick Jr. read aloud a letter for Tristan, written by her mother. Technically, it actually avoided hitting a low in total viewers, but only if you count its series premiere in the summer of 2002 as an unknown commodity co-hosted by a guy named Brian Dunkleman.
“That was my pick”, Shelbie Z. said. His family runs a true farm-to-table restaurant, but he knows that he needs to leave the farm to make it in music.
Wright now lives in Nashville, where she is working on her new album. “Even though Alex didn’t make it through the first round, she is very supportive and we’re very both very blessed to share our gifts”.
Alabama’s two “Idol” winners, Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard, made appearances on tonight’s episode, meeting and evaluating contestants before they encountered the judges. The final search begins with auditions in Denver and Atlanta.
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One more caveat for the below figures: Not all of “American Idol’s” season premieres were the exact same length of time, either. The information hasn’t been confirmed by “Idol”, and comes from insider tips.
