Well, sort of... On July 28th I auditioned for American Idol in Salt Lake City. Now instead of hearing "So when are YOU going to try out for American Idol?" I can say, " I did! Last week! "
For those interested in the process, here is the story: The day before auditions you go and get a bracelet and a ticket for the venue the next day. This happened to be at the ESA (Energy Solutions Arena, or the Old Delta Center, if you will..) The next day you show up at 5:00 am (ack!) and stand in line for about 3 hours. Then they herd everybody into the ESA and you find the seat that is on your ticket. For me, this was in section G about 6 rows from the floor. Not bad, except that they started at S and worked there way back to F. Which, if you are following along, means that I was in the second to last section and therefore approximately number 5,500 to auditions out of about 6,000.
When your turn finally comes, which for me was at about 5:30 pm, you and three other people are brought to a table of one judge. In my case, it was the guy who had been in charge all day telling us what to do. His name was Patrick. I sang "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess and jazzed it up a bit. He let me sing for about 20 seconds and then that was it. Unfortunately the outcome was not in my favor. Then Patrick called us all forward and said, "There are varying degrees of talent here, but unfortuantely you are not what we are looking for." I knew it! There are SO many blonde haired blue eyed girls in Utah and therefore a ton of them at this audition. They had reached their quota for my "type." After it was over, the rush of adrenaline and emotions and the fact that I had only been running on about 4 hours of sleep caught up with me and I crashed into a well needed nap at my Grandma's house for an hour before driving home. It was a "good experience" (such an overused phrase...) but something that I can say that I did once. Thank you to all of the people who pulled extra weight in watching Emmy for me so I could go and have this experience. (namely my sis-in-law and brother, Ashlee and Bret, my good friend Mary Fox, and of course my hubby Scott who is always encouraging me to keep singing. Thank you all!)
BUT, as to lighten the mood a little, here are some pictures! Ryan Seacrest showed up to do his little "Welcome to Salt Lake City" spiel:
I met some really neat people in the "herd" outside while we waited to go inside. I even met Katie Lewis who I found out is best friends with my friend Suzanne Wood and she even lives in Cedar City. CRAZY, right? (She's the one on the far right...)
And this is me waiting in my seat for my turn. :)
Would I do it again? Maybe. Give it a year and then I'll think about it. BUT, make sure you watch the Salt Lake City auditions of American Idol and look for me "yelling" when they do the crowd shots. I'm wearing a pink shirt and a white headband and standing next to a tall blonde dude. :) For what it's worth, I tried. Maybe next year...
Kristin
