American Idol – Orlando

We didn't write anything about the Chicago auditions for the fact that there was nothing worth writing about. The only thing worthwhile was seeing Shania Twain and her reaction to John Park.

Now on to Orlando which was another story all together.

Great story from Seth Rollins and his autistic son – glad he made it through to the next round.

Jermaine Purifoy, who originally auditioned back in season 7 absolutely NAILED “Smile”.

18 year old waitress Shelby Dressel had no problem belting out her Norah Jones song.

Cornelius Edwards was doing the Tina Turner song “Rolling” with so much enthusiasm, he decided to throw in a little bit of dancing flair; me messed around, hit the splits and ended his presentation with the phrase “…my pants done ripped” – it just looked so dang painful.

Jarrod Norrell thought he'd try his hand at singing Amazing Grace (he was giving it up to God, as he mentioned). I think lightning struck as he was belting that out and to me it sounded like a good drunken Bob Dylan impression. In other words – it was brutal. When he got the feedback from the judges saying he couldn't sing, he was not ready to go, but that knee in the back and them handcuffs persuaded him…shouts out to the Orlando PD !

Matt Lawrence with the checkered past of robbing a bank with a BB gun when he was a teen and going to jail for 4 years. Hey, his debt to society is paid, time to move on. I'm liking the voice alot – mark my words, keep your eyes on this guy throughout the competition.

Congrats to the 31 that made it to Los Angeles.