By: Mary Cavaliere

Tonight’s episode was the final round of auditions.  After visiting seven cities and auditioning over 100,000 contestants, Ryan Seacrest announced that they saved the best for last.  But honestly, I didn’t see any evidence of that in tonight’s show.

What I did see was that it was a night of second chances.  Both Chikezie Eze from Inglewood, California and Danny Noriega from Asuza, California auditioned in previous seasons and were rejected.  They both sang so well I had to question why they were rejected the last time around. 

But then again, if there’s one thing I’ve witnessed over and over again on Idol, is that the judges’ decision is sometimes based on their mood at the time of the audition.  On tonight’s show Simon said “No” to both Cardin Lee McKinney from Nashville, Tennessee and Joanne Borgella from Hoboken, New Jersey.  Both contestants had exceptional vocal ability so I was pleased that Paula and Randy agreed to put them both through to Hollywood. 

In fact, Joanne Borgella was my favorite of the night.  Joanne is an African-American plus-size model that radiated confidence, sexiness, and inner as well as outer beauty in spite of her “plus” size.  What a wonderful example to set for young girls watching the show.  Joanne exuded self-acceptance without the arrogance and egotistical attitude that we continually have to endure throughout the entire season from those that are not only unattractive (inside and out), but haven’t an ounce of talent either. 

One last thought before I close.  Is it my imagination, or is Simon a bit on the softer side this season?  We’ve watched him embrace several emotional contestants after rejecting them, and tonight we watched him fall in love with an absolutely adorable Pomeranian puppy named Panda.  Granted he can be a bit pompous and arrogant himself, but everyone wears a mask in public to some extent, and I believe we all have good in us, even Simon.  Underneath his rude and callous exterior is a man with the heart of a marshmallow.  Sorry Simon, your secret is out.

So off to Hollywood we go.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!

Find additional American Idol 7 links on sirlinksalot.net