The Audition - Bohemian Rhapsody

Tweet

I remember it was a bit of a poor show so far and many of the contestants were rubbish. On came Adam Lambert, who I thought was a bit of an angsty punky goth. He seemed quite confident about being able to become the next American Idol. I had formed my first impressions on him before even before he started to sing. I expected him to sing some punk rock or something gothy, and I didn't expect him to be any good.

He tells us he's going to sing Bohemian Rhapsody and it gives me visions of tone-deaf drunken karaoke and Wayne's World headbanging, and I think 'Oh, no! Another rubbish audition.' I await the car crash moment. It just shows how wrong the assumptions we draw from first impressions can be. He opened his mouth and I was pleasantly taken aback by the quality of his voice. It was a great audition, strong, well controlled and pitch perfect, and there was a 'Wow!' that snatched at my breath. The surprise aside, I then half-agreed with Simon's comment of his voice being theatrical because I don't think the song suits auditions and it didn't seem to fit in with his demeanour. I thought he was one to watch though.



EDIT: For user-friendliness, I've added my edit of all the audition pieces put together which was originally posted back in June. Some other thoughts I've had on re-watching the audition are that Adam seems tired and sounds strangely monotonous in the pre-audition interview. Being a fellow night owl myself, I take it that it's his aversion to early mornings. Even back then, he demonstrated his ability to work his magic on the judges and adapted to deal with each in a different way. Kara's blatantly flirting with Adam who flirts back sweetly but doesn't actually kiss her hand. He keeps it friendly with Randy, who creepily seems a little too determined to test out his gaydar theory. He fanboys over Paula, who has a rare moment of clarity when she's blown away by him and says he's the best they'd seen in every city, and Simon who he treats with reverence is just his negative self but admits falling under his spell when he says 'Oh he's had us' around the 4:02 mark.