For my birthday, American Idol has given me…ELLEN! Yay!

And right off the bat, what does she do? She gives an even better answer than mine to the “How are you qualified to judge Idol?” question. No, she has no real music experience, but she does know how it feels to get on a stage every day and have to please an entire crowd. Good answer, Ellen. And then she told Ryan she was ignoring him, and asked Simon if she should come on to him. Perfecto.

Line 1:
Katie Stevens – I still don’t really like her. She’s not terrible. But I dunno.

Skiiboski – He’s not as good as I remember him in the audition. Before, the voice made up for the weirdness.

Verdict: Katie’s in, Skiiboski’s out.

Line 2:
Andrew Garcia – Hmm…this is quite good. Wow. Okay, I predict he will be in the Top 12. This is awesome. I kinda wanna download this. I think that was the best Hollywood solo audition I’ve ever seen. Excellent. Ugh…Kara just compared him to Adam. Don’t do that.

Vanessa Wolfe – Wow…she is still awful. Like, really really awful. Maybe worse than she was before.

Verdict: Andrew is in, Vanessa is out (woo!)

Janell Wheeler – Good I guess. I got a little bored. But she did sound like a real singer.

Line 3:
Haeley Vaughn – She sounds very young. Oh yeah, she sang a Carrie song before.

Mary Powers – I stand by what (I think) I said before…she’s good, but the rocker chick never makes it far.

Verdict: Both through.

At the end of Day 1, 46 contestants made it through.

Day 2:

Line 1:
Jay Stone – Aww…he blew it. You gotta let them hear you sing regular too. Darn.

Lilly Scott – Hmm…she sounds like she’s in the 40s. I feel like I’m watching some old movie where they’re listening to the radio. I don’t generally like that style, but I really enjoyed that performance.

Verdict: Lilly’s in, Jay’s out.

Mike Lynche – Well, he’s fabulous. But I kinda wish he would go be with his wife while she has their first child. But he was great.

Line 2:
Tim Urban – He has a very nice voice. I’m not sure I’m thrilled with the song choice. David Cook has a much deeper voice. I feel like this guy should have done something a little higher.

Justin Williams – He picks really awful songs. He’s so much better when he tones it down than when he starts belting.

Verdict: Tim’s in, Justin’s out.

Line 3:
Maddy Curtis – Nope. Not good. Sounds way older than 16. Very very old fashioned.

Casey James – Pretty good. A lot better than the original audition. I’m not sure how he’d do on the show though – with the theme weeks and such.

Verdict: Casey’s in, Maddy’s out.

Last Line of the Day:
Didi Benami – Hmm…I don’t think I liked her in the audition. But this is REALLY good. I think I have a thing for the people who play guitar. Very very good.

Crystal Bowersox – I don’t like her quite as much as the other guitarists, eeek…I wasn’t a fan of the high note either. But not terrible.

Verdict: Both through.

95 total are through from round one. I was actually quite pleased with the performances tonight. It’s not often in Hollywood that I can actually picture hearing the performance on the radio. It happened 3 or 4 times tonight. My favorite by far was Andrew. Right now, based on my extremely limited exposure (I’m mad that they only really showed people from before…no one new), he’s my pick to win it all.

Tomorrow…GROUP ROUND!!! Yessss. Let’s see if anyone can outdo Kimberley Locke and Frenchie Davis. I doubt it. Best group performance ever. Blake and company gave them a run for their money. But no one rocked it like K-Lo and Frenchie. But…some of these people seem pretttty good. We’ll see.

Until then…