Lil Rounds

Lil Rounds | American Idol

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:04:00 +0000

So I finally got to see Lil Rounds in action today, and just like the judges, I have to say that I like very much what I saw. But before I talk about her actual audition, let me go a little bit into her backstory. First off, I found out that Lil Rounds is a mother. She has three kids (Was it three? I'm not sure all of a sudden.). And she talks about how that incident which galvanized her, making her decide to try out for American Idol was when a tornado hit, forcing her and her family to live out of a rented room. So she says that by joining American Idol, and hopefully going far, she hopes to lift her entire family up. Now I like that of course. For her, American Idol isn't just about her, and celebrity, and future stardom, but also about her family, especially her three (Was it three?) children. And it's pretty straightforward to understand how she as a mother must feel about this opportunity to potentially make life better for her little ones. That said, it's not a hugely compelling backstory. I mean, it is, but clearly she will have to do more than rely on her story for her to make it through to the later rounds of American Idol. That said, it's pretty clear though that Lil Rounds has much, much more going for her than her story.

So on to her audition. I'm trying to remember the song that Lil Rounds sang, but the title evades me at the moment. I have to say though that her performance was brilliant. I like that there was power in her voice, yet at the same time there was character and personality as well. I'm pretty tired of singers who think they're going to be the next diva, who try to power their way through to yet another high note. It can be pretty tiring to listen to, especially in the American Idol format where what seems like an exciting singer at first can become boring, repetitive, monotonous after yet another episode of listening to her belt out yet again. I don't feel like I have that worry though with Lil Rounds because there was something to her voice that sounds interesting. Again, it has a certain sound and character, so that even if she's singing something pretty quietly, it still sounds really good to listen to.

So Lil Rounds made it through to the next round, and rightly so, in my opinion. I wonder though how she will do in the Hollywood round, where she will have to deal with other contestants with very different approaches to the competition (It looks like there'll be group performances this year.). But I do hope she does move on through past that to even later rounds. Lil Rounds, the next American Idol?

Lil Rounds

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:13:00 +0000

It looks like one of the contestants who might do well in American Idol is Lil Rounds. Lil Rounds... that's quite a name. At first I thought that Lil was short for Little, sort of like some of the other big name singers out there. And I thought, well, Little Rounds sort of sounds like an interesting nickname as well, so it could work. But then after reading around a little bit, I discovered that Lil isn't actually short for Little, but is short for Lillian, which suddenly makes her full name, Lillian Rounds, sound suddenly sweet.

So Lil Rounds is one of the people who it seems at least got past the audition stage of American Idol's current season. Looking for information on her unfortunately doesn't come back with a lot of concrete stuff or detail. One of the things I've been reading is that she's actually one of the few contestants to have gotten a standing ovation as a response to one of her performances. A standing ovation. Must have been a pretty impressive performance there. So I'm wondering, assuming that this information is true, what kind of a performance was it, which merited quite the response? What did she sing? At what stage of the auditions did this take place? Was she alone, or was it some sort of group performance (I rather doubt it was a group performance though.)? Also, what did the judges say? And for that matter, did all of the judges give her a standing ovation? Or maybe just one or two?

After all, I know that one of the judges at least tends to be pretty nice to contestants, while another one tends to be pretty stern. Did all three of them get up off their seats? Oh wait, I forgot, there's supposed to be a fourth American Idol judge this year. So does that mean that all four of these Idol judges vacated their seats in order to show Lil Rounds how much she impressed them?

And for that matter as well, how many standing ovations did these judges give American Idol contestants this season? After all, if Lil Rounds was the only person who got a standing ovation, well, then that means that she really pulled something special out of the bag. But if the judges were giving standing ovations left and right, well, then maybe it wasn't quite a uniquely impressive performance after all.

I'll be looking out for this Lil Rounds standing ovation once the American Idol episodes get underway.

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noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0000

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