Over Ten Thousand American Idol Hopefuls Turn Out for Audition at Rose Bowl
By Pasadena Independent
Published: Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Approximately 9000 young American Idol hopefuls, some of whom squeezed their way into revealingly skimpy outfits and donned deliberately outrageous, albeit colorful, hairdos, lined up starting in the pre-dawn for hours to show off their unique talents Tuesday morning.
The Fox television show which has garnered international attention for not only the razor sharp-tongued and often mean-spirited host Simon Cowell and the contestants ( many of whom are a cross between contestants on the quirky Gong show and “Opportunity Knocks” in England), does a nationwide search each summer for the next season’s contestants and quite possibly the next “American Idol”.
Tuesday, June 30, it was Pasadena’s chance to experience, once again, the pop culture phenomenon searching for its ninth season contestants.
The gargantuan popularity of the show is upstaged only by the staggering enthusiasm of the 9000 plus people hoping for an audition. Shyness is simply not an option here.
One young woman from Orange County wanted the judges to hear her homage to Michael Jackson who died suddenly last week. The Jackson fan, Ashley Maldenaw, 21, held a sigh which asked the American Idol crew to let her “sing a song for M.J.”
Another couple of aspiring superstars were Natasha Wilt and Amy Ellars, both 24, from Orange County said they think this year was their year for fame via American Idol.
Meanwhile a man dressed as a duck played a drum as he sat entertaining the waiting throngs.
“Simon ….Please prove my father wrong…” was on Audrey Gaza’s placard that she held high for the cameras as the network scanned the hopefuls.
Sultana, as she likes to be called, said he Dad gave her no encouragement to enter American Idol and was determined to try out no matter what.
As the bullhorn toting producer alerted the would-be stars to work the camera he also pointed out that only sponsored items were allowed to be in the spots. Anyone who toted a soft drink that was not one of Idol’s sponsors was told they wouldn’t be on TV.
Two guys, known as Sexual Harassment, entertained the crowd as they slowly made their way into the Rose Bowl for the auditions. Randy Madder and” Lux” from Los Angeles said they were on the show last year but really think they’ll hit the jackpot this time.
One young woman held a sign which read “Uganda Loves Idol”.
Organizers said that this turnout at the Rose Bowl was the largest ever for Los Angeles. Their previous stop was in Dallas last week.
Photos by Terry Miller
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2 Responses for “Over Ten Thousand American Idol Hopefuls Turn Out for Audition at Rose Bowl”
Comments
the man on the “drum” was a penguin, not a duck. :) How can I get a copy of the pic of him adn of the news article? THanx
Hi Katie,
If you click on “Print Edition” in the top right corner of the navigation bar, you’ll see where you can flip through the pages of the paper from that week. You can also print from there.
Hope this helps.
JS