Just looked at the Kralendar and gasped! Tomorrow, Monday, January 21, 2019, will mark 10 years since Kris Allen's Louisville audition for American Idol first aired! Crazy!
Since Kris is in writing/recording mode at the moment and news is slow, I'm making a blog executive decision and we're going to go down memory lane for 2009 throughout this year, week by week! I think this will be fun and hope that you'll all chime in the comments with your memories too! (In case you need to refresh yourselves on the whole season, here's a great wiki on it!) I'll be adding in my memories and reactions as I recall them to each week's episode of Idol, that great summer of 2009, and the excitement of anticipation for Kris Allen The Album (KATA as Kris fans call it).
So let's get started with the Louisville audition episode, which was taped in 2008 and aired on January 21, 2009. Kris appeared toward the very end of it. I'll be honest, I was more struck by Matt Giraud's audition (helped along by Idol supplying back story from Matt).
As for Kris, the judges were actually pretty critical, but then all put him through. Viewers didn't see that, as his full audition was heavily edited. In the version that aired, he was lumped in with three other good singers, with narration from Ryan Seacrest, "the judges hope some winners will emerge..." We see Kris sing a few bars of A Song for You well. And the Ford logo was super-imposed over Kris with the motto, "Who's got the drive." Subtle stuff there from Idol. Check out these videos to see Kris's full audition, compared to what actually aired.
As Kara says in the unaired version, though, "You know what? You're going to Hollywood!"
Next up in this series: Hollywood week!
