What do you remember the most american idol at its peak? Is the performance amazing? The moment the bad David won the seventh season? Be honest, these are the hilarious and horrific auditions that open up every season. I could bet you dollars on donuts that more people remember greats like William Hung than anyone who actually won the competition.
Fun fact: not everyone who auditioned got to perform in front of Randy, Paula and Simon. There were way too many people for that, and it would have taken forever. Instead, every successful contestant on TV went through a screening process that determined they weren’t good at singing, necessarily, but entertaining enough to be on TV, for better or for worse. worse.
Here’s a list of the best TV auditions…but not for the reasons they hoped!
Related: 10 celebrities and the (mostly) hilarious songs they released
ten Stefanie Sugarman sings “Knockin’ Da Boots”
Was Stefanie destined to be a longtime contestant on american idol? Probably not. But did she deserve to be on TV? You bet! She is an energetic dancer who has shown a lot of charisma and pride… but little talent. I think her problem was that she was putting a little too much emphasis on her movements, and that was affecting her singing.
And you can tell she expected her charm to do most of the work, because she thought she might go back to the audition room a second time to try and change the judges’ minds. Don’t quit your job, Stef! Which was… marketing cheese? You know, it suits him really well.
9 Sarah Goldberg sings “Dreaming of You”
Sarah was confusing for many reasons. Why was she dressed like a cowgirl? Why did she decide she didn’t need her hat anymore? Why did she look so sad about it? And finally, why did she think she would go to Hollywood?
They immediately asked her if she thought she could sing, and she replied, “No!” Points for honesty, I guess. And despite all that, Sarah still got upset when she was rejected.
As she told her sobbing little story about her inability to sing, her deafness, and the way her friends made fun of her, she revealed the real reason she came to audition — somehow. another, she thought they would teach her to sing. For a contest. Which aired on national television. His breakdown in front of the judges is breathtaking to watch.
Sarah begs and begs to let her be the most unique American idol ever – the first one who can’t sing. And that’s after five seasons of incredible talent. “You don’t have to sing to be an American idol.” Girl, what?
8 Tamika Bush sings “The Greatest Love Of All”
Honestly, Tamika wasn’t a bad singer, probably the best singer on this list. As Randy said, she’s just not a “solo” singer. But everyone can agree that Tamika was a diva. Given a small piece of constructive criticism and she’s gone! “You’re not here being judged on how you sing,” she said, “and you don’t sing, do you?”
Tamika, honey, you clearly don’t understand how this works!
Simon got to the heart of his problem with this good advice: “Go to an audition where they lie to you.” Ice cold! Then, as she stormed out of the room, she said, “You’ve all got issues, you’ve all got major issues.” Do you plan a lot? The funniest part of this tape is the kind words she has to say about the judges after the audition – they even used it to keep people tuned in after a commercial break!
7 Mary Roach sings “I Feel the Earth Moving”
You can tell right away how… unique this audition is going to be when Mary describes her vocal style as a combination of pop rock, Broadway, jazz and R&B.
She also said she loves hair, makeup, and fashion while looking like…this. To his credit, his choreography wasn’t bad! She did a lot of fun moves while she sang that wouldn’t normally distract from the vocal performance (not that the moves themselves were graceful at all). But, as Simon’s painfully long and awkward pause suggests, Mary did far worse than an “eight.”
Simon really lets her have it then, calling her performance the worst he’s ever seen and her voice the weirdest he’s ever heard! Like many on this list, Mary doesn’t believe TV’s Most Brutally Honest Man. Their confrontation takes a strange turn – she mentions that she has a ton of different voices, and Randy makes a joke asking if they’re all in his head. She did not deny this, which has dark implications. The weirdness continues as Mary openly tells the judges what her voices think of them all. Talk scary.
6 Koby sings an original song
Not to be confused with the piece of beef, this Koby (with ay) has a background in musicals! The show spends a lot of time getting to know her, showing photos of her on stage during her performances, including the role she had at the time of filming. It is certain that his interpretation of Ulla in The producers was fantastic.
However, she’s not as big of a performer as Fox editors made her out to be! While she certainly has guts and talent, it somehow ended up in a terrible audition. Koby hit the judges with an irritating original song, loud notes that went on too long, and lots of terrible melismas (or spanning multiple different notes on a single syllable). Then things go south when Koby confronts the judges’ criticism with his request for a golden ticket. Ouch! It’s like she said at the start of the clip, “For every yes, you’ll get ten noes.”
5 Anastacia Freeman sings “Unbreak My Heart”
Another beacon of confidence, Anastasia Freeman stumbled onto the audition stage and into our hearts. The audience can’t help but support her, especially since she gets so emotional before the audition. The awkwardness begins immediately, however, as the first thing she does in front of the judges is to trip over her high-heeled boots, then she asks if she can take them off. OK, we’re doing barefoot auditions now.
Her low singing voice did nothing to improve her situation, and then comes a gesture that has become a classic for contestants like Anastacia: she asked the judges if they were laughing at her. In an equally classic response, they deny it. But then Nicki Minaj does something a little mean — she counts down so all the judges can give Ana a simultaneous “no.”
Ouch! The post-audition interview was awesome, though. She explained that she would never listen to Carey’s music again and that she had never listened to Minaj’s music, saying she worshiped the devil anyway.
4 William Hung sings “She Bangs”
You can’t make a list like this without this classic! William Hung’s name is practically synonymous with “Funny american idol Hearings. You have to admire the enthusiasm he puts into lighting the scene. He put so much confidence in his words when he said, “I have no professional training!”
What sets him apart from the other contestants on this list is that he took fair criticism from the judges undeterred – he never got angry and carried on with his dignity intact. Although he had no talent in the conventional sense, Hung still enjoyed moderate success as a performer. He amassed an adoring cult following and even released an album in 2004 titled Inspiration!
3 Monique Gibson and Christopher Baker
We’ve got a double whammy here: two friends who gave horrible auditions – together!
Monique’s audition starts off on the wrong foot as Simon immediately blows up her outfit upon entering, saying it looks like she was dressed by three different people. Monique laughed it off, though, and Simon had to put up with his pig squeal anyway. For some reason, she thought a number of different songs would make it to the judges.
At least she believed in her friend, Christopher. But she really shouldn’t have. The third best part is when Simon said, “There wasn’t a single note in tune,” and Chris takes that as a cue to keep singing. The second best part is when Simon asked why he was watching him. The first best part is that Randy asks if he’s in pain!
And after all that, Chris said he would try again in a low voice. Bro, it doesn’t matter what tone you sing to if it’s all wrong. Remarkably, this improved his performance a bit, according to Randy. But that wasn’t enough to convince anyone, including the security team.
Stick around until the end of the clip, when these two stars disparage the judges with an improvised song.
2 James Lewis sings “Go Down Moses”
Sometimes comedy comes to us in the simplest forms, and James here is no exception. He was a non-baritone who tried to be a baritone, and the results were terrible. I like the way it pronounces “people”, though. “Leave mah pippul goooo!”
The way Randy hid his face while he and Paula couldn’t stop laughing is infectious. Its song sounded like the lowing of cattle. “I’ll be back next year and doing more contemporary songs,” James said after the audition. “I won’t do like the old Christian songs.” Yeah man. That was the problem.
1 Aven Moore sings “Tomorrow”
These auditions have really peaked in previous seasons of the show! Aven Moore said he wouldn’t get too excited, but he ended up trying too hard. His performance was less than subtle, forcing far too much vibrato and long note sustain. The funniest image is of the judges checking their watches to see how much time has passed for those last scores.
Please stay to watch the end of the music video for the zinger given by Ryan Seacrest!
