"american idol" contestants LOVE celine

[thevoice]

Fox's 'American Idol 6' open audition tour hits New York :

 

Jackson, Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, didn't have any real problems during the auditions, though there were some songs that they could have done without hearing multiple times, the New York Post reported Thursday.

"Alicia Keys' 'Falling,' 'Crazy' (by) Patsy Cline, just about anything by Celine Dion," said Cowell about the songs he could do without hearing by another contestant.

 

He was ready to list off more when Jackson cut in with "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston.

 

"We've seen some good, and we've seen some bad, but we haven't yet seen great," said guest judge and Broadway songwriter Carole Bayer Sager.

 

Season 6 of "American Idol" will air this January.

 

source : realityworld.com

[CSCfan]

'Idol' hands on deck in NYC

 

Cowell & co. seek Pier-less singers

 

By MARISA GUTHRIE

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 

 

It was white-knuckle time for "American Idol" hopefuls in New York yesterday. After making it through two preliminary rounds of auditions with the show's producers, hundreds of contestants performed at Chelsea Piers for the only people who really count: Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson.

That troika decides who will go to Hollywood for the upcoming sixth season of television's hottest show.

 

L. McKay, a 23-year-old student and part-time secretary who drove from Lansdale, Pa., has tried out for "Idol" three times before. "And four is my lucky number," she said.

 

Talking before her audition, McKay said this time she's going to sing a song she wrote especially for the judges. She declined to sing a few verses, but admitted it was a sort of serenade to Randy, Paula and Simon.

 

Scottie McLaughlin, 26, works as a host at Madame Tussaud's, where he regularly rubs elbows with wax renditions of Cowell and company. This was his third time in front of the judges. The last time he tried out (for season three), Cowell told him to lose 20 pounds. And he did.

 

"I've done what they told me to do," said McLaughlin. "I lost the weight. I changed my look. I feel like I've come a long way."

 

McLaughlin planned to sing Lionel Richie's "Hello."

 

Cowell had advice on song selection. "I'm bored of girls singing Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion - because they're not going to be as good. I'm totally over 'Falling' by Alicia Keys. I can't hear that song again or 'I Believe I Can Fly' or 'At Last' by Etta James. I just can't hear them, or 'Crazy' by Patsy Cline. It's like literally a finger going down the blackboard."

 

But by lunchtime yesterday, the halfway point in a long day of good and bad singing, the judges were still looking for potential Idols.

 

"I don't think we've seen the winner yet," said Cowell.

 

Abdul was more charitable.

 

"Maybe," she said. "You never know."

 

New York is the second stop on a seven-city tour for the judges and host Ryan Seacrest. While reality television auditions always attract a bizarre element, "American Idol" is attracting a higher caliber of contestant.

 

"I have seen fewer wack jobs this year than in years past," said Seacrest. "I've seen fewer of the novelty acts. I've seen fewer people who just show up with a cape and Underoos to try to get on television, and more people who may not have even shown up to audition for 'American Idol' because they thought it was cheesy and corny ... true musicians and artists."

 

That's not to say New York doesn't have its share of bad apples. There were plenty of them here yesterday and they're sure to be in the early audition episodes so popular for their road-kill appeal.

 

"It's frustrating," said Abdul. "It's like, 'You suck.' But guess what happens - I don't sleep very well.

 

I'll go to sleep and I'll wake up in the middle of the night shouting, 'You suck! You stink!'"

 

But the bad singers have made it this far precisely because they make good TV.

 

"They're real," said Jackson. "Come on, if somebody stinks, you want to tell them they stink."