American Idol: Group Night in Hollywood

By Jennifer Hudock on February 10th, 2010

• Link to StumbleUpon
• Leave A Comment

The contestants can’t let the fact that they made it through first-round eliminations go to their heads. It’s group performance night at the “American Idol” Hollywood trials, meaning the ninety-six remaining contestants need to work as a team with total strangers. Not only are they responsible for cohesively agreeing on a song, but they must choreograph their routine.

Working with strangers is never easy, and with each performer thinking only of their own progression through the trials, achieving the dream will be difficult. The groups struggle to find a place to rehearse. Voices compete, and with everyone so close to one another, ideas are bound to be borrowed from. Personal lives can’t interfere, but contestants like Michael Lynche have to take time out for his budding family. With his wife in the hospital, preparing to deliver their first child, Michael steps away after practice in hopes that she delivers before sunup. Despite his longing to be there, but knows he must focus on the task at hand.

In group situations, there are always leadership struggles. Some of the contestants are strong personalities who refuse to let others get in their way on the way to the top. With teamwork being key to this routine, some of the contestants find working with others detrimental to their own success. Just as they call the contestant groups in to perform, Michael gets a call from his wife, and his group steps out to support him as he logs on to his mobile to be there as she delivers their baby girl. It was an emotional moment, but Michael knew God had a plan for him, and got back to work.

The first trio, Faith, performed well, and all three girls were accepted onto the next round. Team Awesome, featuring Michael Lynch, Seth Rollins, Tim Urban and Michael Castro, lived up to their names. Of the four in the group, only Tim Urban and Michael Lynch were accepted to go on to the next level.

Neopolitan and Destiny’s Wild have battled head to head since practice time, and with both groups performing the same song there is more than competition brewing between them. Neopolitan went on to the next round, leaving Destiny’s Wild feeling nervous about following so closely. Ellen said their performance was a bit surreal, but all four also go on to the next level.

Gwen Stefani’s “Escape” eluded every group that performed it. With it’s challenging chorus, it drove several contestants to the end of the line.

Despite the the difficulty many seemed to have working with others, several contestants worked very hard to pull it together. With the Dreamers, headed up by take-charge mom, Mary Powers, are the last group to take the stage. They struggled throughout their entire twelve hours of rehearsal. Despite their struggles, take-charge Mary made it to the next round.

It was an emotional dismissal for so many hopefuls, as group round eliminations left just 71 contestants for the next round. Eliminations continue next Tuesday night from Hollywood and only 24 hopefuls will remain.