Crowned "Most talked about contestant on American Idol" by Paula Abdul, Tatiana Del Toro amazingly makes it past Hollywood week, a feat even early favorite Michael Castro couldn't beat. Just how did this crazy giggling 24 year old girl make it so far?
I've long worked out that American Idol doesn't operate based on how good a person's voice is, or even how many votes he or she has gathered. It's the Land of TV and Evil Producers, and apparently, all they care about is viewership. Gasp! What a crazy and unorthodox idea to think that producers only want people to watch their shows and care nothing about how real 'reality' TV is.
And if you believe that, you probably deserve to be fooled.
That's right, kids.. In the land of TV, everything is scripted, nothing is left to chance, and each and everyone plays a part in making the program attractive to viewers. Sounds harmless enough, but not when Jamar, the obviously more talented singer, is left out of the top 36 while joker-with-moderately-good-voice Nick (Norman Gentle) is chosen. But let's not digress here. We were talking about Tatiana.
Since day 1, dear old Tati has been laying down the foundations (not talking about makeup, but damn this girl can pile on layers like there's no tomorrow) for her very dramatic and wild ride through American Idol. She dresses like a hooker, giggles like a maniac, but amazingly, sings like someone who can sing. The judges put her through (to my amazement), and onward she goes to Hollywood rounds, all the while giggling nonstop.
She further confirms my suspicions that she's not all there (in the brain department) during the extremely entertaining Group Day. She changes groups like Sanjaya changes hairstyles, ensures her groupmates of her 200% dedication with a dead serious expression and refuses to be associated with her group member that says 'we're all tired and we want to rest'. Tatiana NEEDS to let the world know that she's in it to win it and that she would gladly kill her own grandmother for the American Idol crown. She obviously didn't say it, but somehow you could just feel the 'crazy' lurking beneath that innocent facade.
Most amazing of all is that she actually made it all the way to the top 36. The producers probably wanted her to be the entertainment factor of this year's American Idol, along with the obviously bi-polar Nick/Norman. But if they were expecting a crazy Tatiana for the top 36 performance, the producers were going to be majorly disappointed.
The Tatiana who walked onto stage on Wednesday was a completely different woman. Singing 'Saving All My Love For You', the new 'demure' Tatiana did a very reserved version of it, which wasn't half bad. I was expecting her to completely destroy it. She can hit the falsetto notes much better than Jasmine Trias (on season 3), but her belting was flawed. The judges liked her performance, but was surprised by how different she was now. It was painfully obvious that they were trying to get Crazy-Tatiana to come out again, or else the producers would have made a completely wrong decision in putting her in the top 36.
The calm Tatiana totally threw them off balance, and the judges began imitating how she laughed, trying to provoke her into doing it. But Tatiana now denies all her craziness, saying that her friends were shocked that she acted like that on American Idol. She also claims that her 'friends' (Damian's theory was that her friends are imaginary) said that she has never laughed like that in her life. Good one for provoking the producers, but a bad tatic if she wants to remain in AI. They're obviously only putting her there for entertainment, and now it looks as if they're not going to get any from her.
Frankly speaking, the calm Tatiana scares me more than the crazy one. At least when she's crazy, you know that she's being herself and you can just brand her as a weirdo and move on. When she's demure, however, you get so nervous watching her every move, anticipating the moment she finally cracks under the pressure and loses it. (Damian, for one, was afraid she would pull a revolver from her flowery dress and kill Simon with it while screaming "THIS CRAZY ENOUGH FOR YOU?!") The calm before the storm turns out much more frightening than the storm itself. I'm still puzzled over which is the real Tatiana. The crazy laughing girl or demure lady?
True enough, as soon as she lost her crazy image, the producers pulled the plug on her Idol journey, and Tatiana is officially out of the running for American Idol. The ones who did get through are Danny Gokey (dead wife story makes another appearance), Alexis Grace (young single mother about to wed) and Michael Sarver (oil rig guy).
There's still one more chance for Tatiana to make it through. In the Wildcard round, the judges (read: producers) would choose 3 from the 27 fallen and put them through to make up the top 12. Would Tatiana unveil the craziness in her to make it through? I can hardly wait to find out =) If she makes it through, she would be fulfilling a prophecy made by her fortune teller friend. How exciting!
Experience some of the insanity here:
I've long worked out that American Idol doesn't operate based on how good a person's voice is, or even how many votes he or she has gathered. It's the Land of TV and Evil Producers, and apparently, all they care about is viewership. Gasp! What a crazy and unorthodox idea to think that producers only want people to watch their shows and care nothing about how real 'reality' TV is.
And if you believe that, you probably deserve to be fooled.
That's right, kids.. In the land of TV, everything is scripted, nothing is left to chance, and each and everyone plays a part in making the program attractive to viewers. Sounds harmless enough, but not when Jamar, the obviously more talented singer, is left out of the top 36 while joker-with-moderately-good-voice Nick (Norman Gentle) is chosen. But let's not digress here. We were talking about Tatiana.
Since day 1, dear old Tati has been laying down the foundations (not talking about makeup, but damn this girl can pile on layers like there's no tomorrow) for her very dramatic and wild ride through American Idol. She dresses like a hooker, giggles like a maniac, but amazingly, sings like someone who can sing. The judges put her through (to my amazement), and onward she goes to Hollywood rounds, all the while giggling nonstop.
She further confirms my suspicions that she's not all there (in the brain department) during the extremely entertaining Group Day. She changes groups like Sanjaya changes hairstyles, ensures her groupmates of her 200% dedication with a dead serious expression and refuses to be associated with her group member that says 'we're all tired and we want to rest'. Tatiana NEEDS to let the world know that she's in it to win it and that she would gladly kill her own grandmother for the American Idol crown. She obviously didn't say it, but somehow you could just feel the 'crazy' lurking beneath that innocent facade.
Most amazing of all is that she actually made it all the way to the top 36. The producers probably wanted her to be the entertainment factor of this year's American Idol, along with the obviously bi-polar Nick/Norman. But if they were expecting a crazy Tatiana for the top 36 performance, the producers were going to be majorly disappointed.
The Tatiana who walked onto stage on Wednesday was a completely different woman. Singing 'Saving All My Love For You', the new 'demure' Tatiana did a very reserved version of it, which wasn't half bad. I was expecting her to completely destroy it. She can hit the falsetto notes much better than Jasmine Trias (on season 3), but her belting was flawed. The judges liked her performance, but was surprised by how different she was now. It was painfully obvious that they were trying to get Crazy-Tatiana to come out again, or else the producers would have made a completely wrong decision in putting her in the top 36.
The calm Tatiana totally threw them off balance, and the judges began imitating how she laughed, trying to provoke her into doing it. But Tatiana now denies all her craziness, saying that her friends were shocked that she acted like that on American Idol. She also claims that her 'friends' (Damian's theory was that her friends are imaginary) said that she has never laughed like that in her life. Good one for provoking the producers, but a bad tatic if she wants to remain in AI. They're obviously only putting her there for entertainment, and now it looks as if they're not going to get any from her.
Frankly speaking, the calm Tatiana scares me more than the crazy one. At least when she's crazy, you know that she's being herself and you can just brand her as a weirdo and move on. When she's demure, however, you get so nervous watching her every move, anticipating the moment she finally cracks under the pressure and loses it. (Damian, for one, was afraid she would pull a revolver from her flowery dress and kill Simon with it while screaming "THIS CRAZY ENOUGH FOR YOU?!") The calm before the storm turns out much more frightening than the storm itself. I'm still puzzled over which is the real Tatiana. The crazy laughing girl or demure lady?
True enough, as soon as she lost her crazy image, the producers pulled the plug on her Idol journey, and Tatiana is officially out of the running for American Idol. The ones who did get through are Danny Gokey (dead wife story makes another appearance), Alexis Grace (young single mother about to wed) and Michael Sarver (oil rig guy).
There's still one more chance for Tatiana to make it through. In the Wildcard round, the judges (read: producers) would choose 3 from the 27 fallen and put them through to make up the top 12. Would Tatiana unveil the craziness in her to make it through? I can hardly wait to find out =) If she makes it through, she would be fulfilling a prophecy made by her fortune teller friend. How exciting!
Experience some of the insanity here:
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