American Idol Season 9 - Hollywood Group Round Returns! (Recap)

Hello Idol watchers and welcome back to another round of Hollywood Week.  And yes, it's the week that can make or break some of the early favorites.  The GROUP Round!  It's crazy.  Every year I will pick some favorites from the audition rounds, but totally forget that people self-destruct when they're forced to work with other people.  I never have understood Group Round as a necessary audition device to find our next Solo Artist Icon.   Maybe on Simon's eventual X-Factor, this makes sense.   But, it's hard to complain because watching these contestants get all feisty is so much fun!

But, in this blog we're mainly focused about who is moving onward to the next rounds as we narrow down our list to 24.    There are 71 that survive after the groups.  Here are some of the groups that were showcased:

FAITH
They sang "Irreplaceable" by Beyonce.  Ashley Rodriguez, Michelle Delamour and Charity Vance all make it through.  They sounded pretty good together, but we didn't get to see any of the drama leading up to their performance.  I guess there was nothing worth noting!

Team Awesome
This group includes Michael "Big Mike" Lynche, and it break my heart every time.  Now we witness him talking his wife through the birth of their daughter over the phone as he awaits his group performance.  I'm not gonna lie, I was moved to tears.   If you were his father and blew his big shot at Idol, how would you live with yourself?  SERIOUSLY!?!   As I mentioned before, Michael has already been disqualified for his father talking to the local newspaper and breaking confidentiality agreements.  It's a shame that Idol probably already had all of this filmed and edited to showcase Mike.   Anyway, He and Tim Urban (we saw him in Tuesday's Hollywood week with his guitar) make it through.   Seth Rollins and Michael Castro (Jason's brother) do not move on.

Neopolitan and Destiny's Wild
My wife picked up on why they named their team Neopolitan and it had to do with Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry.  That's all I will say to remain politically correct!  But the big fuss with these 2 groups was their feud over Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance".  Apparently Destiny's Wild decided to do the song a capella but Neopolitan performed first and did the same thing.   It was fun to watch them all talk to the cameras and never to each other.   Long story short.  All of the contestants got in.  But I thought Destiny's Wild sounded awful.   The members?  Neopolitan - Liz Rooney, Thaddeus Johnson, Jessica Cunningham and Paige Johnson.   Destiny's Wild - Todrick Hall, Theri, Jareb Liewer and Siobhan Magnus.   And I'm sorry, I don't remember ever seeing this Jareb before, but he was absolutely annoying to the max!  I hope I don't have to see him much longer!

The Mighty Rangers (The Denver Crew)
This was your typical group where some went to bed and others kept rehearsing.  And when they performed some sang well and remembered the words and others didn't.   Tori Kelly and Maddie Penrose continue.  Mark Labriola forgot his words and begged and begged for another chance.  Simon put him in his place.

The Jermaine Sellers Group (I don't think they had a name) 
This group had a remaining member of the Danny Gokey group from last year,  Moorea Masa. Ironically, I remember that group from last year and how they showed everyone's name except one member of the group.  This must have been her.  She had this whole EGO problem where she wanted her team to know that SHE knew how to get through this round.  The team had lots of problems gelling. And in the end only Jermaine Sellers and Jeff Godford get in.

Big Dreams
We saw a montage of people that couldn't learn the lyrics to Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape."  Unfortunately, in this group was former convict Matt Lawrence.   And there was high drama girl Amanda Shecktman.  No one on this team moved on past this round.   But this is my point exactly.  Lots of people jumped on the Matt Lawrence bandwagon, and once you hit those group rounds, all bets are off!   Moral of this story?  Don't get attached until you see who is getting through in the Hollywood rounds.

Middle C
Janell Wheeler, Jermaine Purifoy and Casey James (stripper audition guy that did that awesome bluesy thing in Tuesday's Hollywood ep) all get through with some great solo singing and harmonizing.

3 Men and a Baby (or was it Little Lady?)
This group had Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens and J.B. Ahfua (God Bless you!).  They awesomely sang Alicia Key's "No One".   I know that I don't like to support the youth, but Katie Stevens might be one we'll be seeing in that top 12.  She is really good.   And I really like Andy Garcia too.  And now it's not just because of the name.  He's had 2 solid Hollywood performances in a row.

The Dreamers
Big drama group here with Rocker Chick Mary Powers trying to be a control freak.  Mary, along with Alex Lambert (don't remember seeing him but I don't think we need another A. Lambert being successful on Idol!) are the only 2 that moved on.  Mary wasn't cut out for the group round and I think the judges gave her a pass knowing that she can really sing.  But her attitude in the group round showed her in a whole new light.  I'm sure she'll get past it.

So, we did see a few other favorites that made it through at the end (just no performances to show what they're doing).   John Park, Haley Vaughn, Tyler Grady, Katelyn Epperly and Lloyd Thomas to name a few.

So, that's all for Group Night.  There is one more round of performances for the 71 remaining contestants.  I think this is when they put people into 3 or 4 different rooms and give them the news.  Then from there they will select the Top 24.   We're getting ever so close to LIVE performances!  Are you guys excited?  Well, we better be because we still have a long road to go folks.   Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!

Ending Credits

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