Feb 04 2009
Hollywood success - and pain - for 147 hopefuls at American Idol
Only 147 contestants made it to Hollywood Week on American Idol 2009 out of the tens of thousands who auditioned. 
Next up - “strength, stamina and courage” for a week of pain or joy.
A new twist is the introduction of a marketing boot camp - how to look good, what style is best, tricks of self-promotion - and the results were interesting.
Alongside the personal fashion make-overs was the other rather important aspect - the vocal coaches. To cap it all, Barry Manilow was on hand to give a few tips.
Setting the bar way high with her Whitney Houston voice was Lil Rounds - her amazing range and tone led Kara DioGuardi to stand and applaud. The pressure started to tell on some of our favourites, like 
Rose Flack and her struggle with singing Dock of the Bay - but she got through with the rich colour in her voice. Whew.
Also in the group with Rose and with “raw natural talent” (Kara) was Jasmine Murray. So the early indications of talent were being confirmed.
The vocal coaches at boot camp emphasised the importance of song choice - and the judges really emphasised that when they sent a lot of people home, no matter whether their personality or voice were good or even impressive. So we were pleased when Frankie Jordan got the thumbs up.
Bikini girl Katrina Darrell chose to sing Faith Hill and her voice was a little thin. As expected, there was a massive put-down from Kara and - you guessed it - Simon Cowell thought the criticism was unfair. But Katrina is through to the next round - with her cheeky smile and positive personality beaming all the way.
Jackie Tohn is 28-years-old and yet was as nervous as a five-year-old about what to wear as well as what to sing - both choices were a success.
Not good news for some of the other early stand-outs though, as Jessica Furney, Sharon Wilbur and Patricia Roman were sent home.
A near-miss happened when I Put A Spell On You was chosen by Emily Wynn-Hughes, who Paula thought was top 5 from the first auditions. At the last moment, Emily chose a much weaker song by No Doubt (Excuse Me Mr.) and just scraped through.
There was straight-forward good news for Alexis Grace and Anne Marie Boskovich and we look forward to the Groups contests coming next.
The preview suggests disaster for some of our favourites.
