Meet the (Possible) Contenders: Phoenix

Holy eff, y'all, the new season is already upon us. And like I did last year, I'm gonna post on the featured (successful) auditions here on the blog, just in case you want to do the pool but don't want to watch the audition episodes (and who could blame you?). Starting with Tuesday's episode, from Phoenix:

[P.S.: Unlike last year, YouTube has been scoured of all Idol footage, so I'm not embedding clips. But this site has some clips up -- for as long as FOX will allow it -- so you can check them out there.]


Name? Emily Wynne-Hughes (21, Los Angeles)
Major Malfunction? Rocker chick, with all the multi-colored hair that entails. Continued Idol's systematic demystification of Heart's back catalog (though, seriously, "Barracuda" a capella is not easy). Maybe definitely has giant crystal orbs shoved into her earlobes.
For Real? Eh. She's got distinctive image to spare, and Simon likes that, but her voice seems to top out at Gina Glocksen levels.

Name? J.B. Ahfua (16, Taylorsville, UT)
Major Malfunction? Shamed his father on national television by claiming his desire to support his family financially.
For Real? Probably not, considering I don't recall anything about his audition besides his formidable eyebrows.

Name? Arianna Afsar (16, San Diego, CA)
Major Malfunction? Adopt a Grand-Friend! The vaguely condescending charitable endeavor of 2009!
For Real? In the eye of the beholder, it seems. I think she could be Girl Archuleta with an even more tangible sense of global charity. But does the Archuleta thing work if you're a girl?

Name? Stevie Wright (16, Phelan, CA)
Major Malfunction? Named after Stevie Nicks.
For Real? Probably not.

Name? Michael Sarver (27, Jasper, TX)
Major Malfunction? Totally adorable oil driller family man.
For Real? I may have been blinded by the cartoon hearts coming out of my eyes at the time, but from what I could hear, he sounded really good.

Name? Katrina Darrell (20, Chino Hills, CA)
Major Malfunction? Bikini Girl.
For Real? Bikini Girl.

Name?Brianna Quijada
Major Malfunction? Super nervous. Barely made it to Hollywood on the dubious tandem votes of Paula and Simon.
For Real? No, but she'll do a great job causing people unneeded stress during Hollywood week.

Name? Deanna Brown (25, Louisville, KY)
Major Malfunction? I'm pretty sure she had one, but I honestly don't remember it.
For Real? I really liked her voice, but I fear she's going to be as unmemorable to everyone else as she is to me.

Name? Cody Shelton (17, Detroit, MI)
Major Malfunction? Horror movie fan/filmmaker with a cadre of female platonic friends who all may or may not understand what's going on there.
For Real? I liked him a lot a lot a lot, but I'm probably not one to go by with these high-school misfit types (see: Danny Noriega).

Name? Alex Wagner-Trugman (19, Los Angeles)
Major Malfunction? Nerdy, mold-infested dynamo, who might be the most awesome contestant on this show ever.
For Real? I can't imagine I'd ever be that lucky.

Name? Scott MacIntyre (22, Scottsdale, AZ)
Major Malfunction? Unable to high-five Ryan Seacrest for reasons beyond the usual "I'd rather not high-five Ryan Seacrest."
For Real? Everybody seems to think the blindness means he's got this competition in the bag for reasons of human-interest and sympathy. To those people, I say three words: Crack Baby Denise.