I was right!
After church, we came home for lunch and then headed to Hollywood Studios. I decided at breakfast that I was going to audition for the American Idol Experience, after Jasmine kept trying to get me to do it and I'd always answer with "aww, maybe. I'm not sure how much I want to be on stage." She wore me down!
So...here's MY American Idol Experience!
We got to the park at almost 2. I headed back for my first audition. Hudson came with me as my "manager," and Josh took the girls to another room, where they had a mock audition.
I sang for about 30 seconds a capella, and then he had me choose a song from the list (I chose "I hope you dance") and sang part of that for him. He wanted more volume from me, but otherwise liked what he heard, so I moved on to the next audition! I got a runner number for my shirt at that point.
Then I had about 10 minutes to hear about what I was doing next, and to choose two songs from their list of songs to perform for a second audition. I had an iPod with all the songs, both with and without singers, so I could practice before I got in there.
Then off to the second audition! She was fantastic. Very friendly and did her best at making me comfortable. She chose my second song, "I feel the earth move," as my stronger song, and gave me the big news that I made it to the show!!
And since they thought the kids were so cute and loved our family, I was chosen as the one to do a brief video introduction. It felt really silly to act it out, but it came together well.
(to see that video, click here. Blogger isn't playing nice today)
Next up: a quick lesson with a vocal coach, where she helped me figure out what to do with the end of the song, since the arrangement was very different from the original. That was a really fun time, and it helped boost my confidence a ton.
Then I got my hair and makeup done! It wasn't a full makeover or anything, but it made me feel more put-together and beautiful. And the lady who did it was a doll. I really liked her! Actually, I really liked everyone. Disney hires friendly, helpful people in general, but these were REALLY good at putting us at ease and bringing out our best.
The next step was the staging and dress-rehearsal of the songs, but they were having technical difficulties, so they ended up canceling the 4:00 show and moving us to the 5:00 show. So we had an hour to kill, just relaxing and trying to stay dry when it started sprinking.
We finally got a real dress rehearsal (oh, and by "we," there were originally 2 of us, and then a third one joined when we moved to 5:00.) and got to feel the whole experience, minus the audience. The lights, the sound, the size of the stage...They sent us backstage, let everyone into the auditorium, and started the show. That was the third time that I started thinking I was really crazy for doing this.
I sang second. They started with my little video(20 minutes of prep for a 30-second video!) and then asked me a couple questions and let me SING!
(having blogger issues. It didn't want to upload my video, so if you click here you can see it)
After the third singer, we came back out, saw a few seconds of our songs again, and the audience voted!
Then they recapped what the judges had said. (by the way, for anyone who doesn't watch American Idol, the third judge is always that snarky. It's his role in it, so I didn't really pay any attention to him.)
They announced the winner: the first girl won! I thought she would, so I wasn't disappointed that it wasn't me. She did a great job and had an awesome stage presence (and she was 14, so the "wow, she's really brave for getting up at that age" was in there to!).
Overall, it was a great opportunity! I was completely exhausted (and still am the next day!) but it was so worth it.
(I'm not sure if I'll do it again. I might, but not right away. I wouldn't want it to take away from yesterday's experience!)By the way, if you're wondering how this fits in with the show: This isn't a real audition for the show. Every day there are 5 shows like the one I was in (with 2-3 singers at each), and the winner of each of those competes in the Finale at the end of the day. The winner of that match-up gets a "golden ticket," or "dream ticket," that lets the winner go to a "real" American Idol audition and go straight to the front of the line. So the part I was in won't be on TV or anything, though they filmed it. I don't think they'll do anything with what I did, though they'll hold onto the winner's footage in case they make it to the show!
