American Idol auditions in Charlotte/FOX
by Brian Mansfield, USA TODAY
So let me get this straight: The big blow-up between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey was an argument about country music?
Oh, this American Idol season could get weird.
And
if it does, the contestants from Charlotte will provide some of the
color. Among the 37 contestants sent from the Queen City to Hollywood: A
female frog gigger, a black alt-rock singer with a jones for Johnny
Cash, a formerly homeless street singer and a girl named Summer whom the
judges probably won't even remember seeing because they were too busy
bickering amongst themselves.
Summer made the mistake of telling
the judges that she "did the country thing," a choice of words that told
Keith Urban she didn't take his style of music all that seriously.
Summer auditioned with
Lean on Me
, and sang it well
enough to get through to Hollywood, but not before getting a lecture
from Carey for being dismissive of a genre of music that suited her
voice so well.
As Carey spoke, with Urban and Randy Jackson occasionally chiming in, Minaj first looked bored, then fed up.
When
it finally was her turn to speak, Minaj started with, "For a minute, I
thought it was a country music debate." As she tried to defend Summer's
comments, all the simmering tension came to a boil, with a four-way
argument that ended with Minaj walking out.
In a season where few
early front-runners have emerged, a couple more dust-ups like that could
send ratings spiraling downward. And even the contestants weighed in,
with one telling the judges the next day: "Please don't fight. It makes
us sad."
Fortunately, Charlotte also produced a few singers worth
rooting for, notably returning contestant Candice Glover, who got cut
during last season's Las Vegas round. Glover had noticeably improved,
prompting Jackson to tell her that she was the best audition he had
heard to that point in the season. And she was almost certainly on his
mind later, when he said the Charlotte stop had produced "some top 10s,
some top fives, maybe a winner."