UPDATE: According to Idol Chatter, Keith Semple, the dude we got a brief glimpse of at the end of the Chicago auditions, was disqualified before Hollywood due to visa problems (He’s Irish). Carly Smithson (Also Irish!) had similar problems when she auditioned in Season 5, she got the visa stuff sorted out, and came back for Season 7.
Brian Mansfield has also posted some interesting bits about Vanessa Wolfe (Atlanta auditions) Crystal Bowersox (Chicago, not shown), Chris Golightly (Orphan Boy), Ben Honeycutt and some other hopefuls HERE. Vanessa’s grandfather was the former mayor of her hometown, Venore, TN.
Plus, Richard Rushfield of the Daily Beast has written an interesting “behind the myth” type article about the Idol auditions. Things aren’t always what they seem.
Along the same vein, is this article I posted in headlines this morning from a teen, Michael Ryan, who got to the judges in Boston, but was ultimately rejected.
And, to hear some pre-Idol music from a few of last night’s Chicago contestants, check out this post.
ETA: This is funny. Via Vote For the Worst, A Chicago reporter caught scenes of supposed Chicago natives swearing in last night’s episode…except there were palm trees in the background! Oops…