"American Idol" visited Oklahoma City in their final round of auditions for the twelfth season. The city found an interesting assortment of talent, outlandish characters, and one too many attempts at banter from the judges. So what were the highlights?
Karl Skinner nervously kicked off the night and was able to win the judges over with his guitar and an original song. Though his voice wasn't the best, his personality pushed him through to the next round.
Nate Tao, who grew up with two deaf parents, said his parents were initially unsure of his choice to pursue music because they had no idea if he had any talent. Nate did them proud with his rendition of "For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wonder, earning him a golden ticket to Hollywood.
Things got interesting when Halie Hilburn took to the stage with Oscar ... her puppet. The judges were impressed with her voice and passed her through, but they told the ventriloquist it might be time to ditch Oscar and go it alone.
Halie's ventriloquism act was nothing compared to the insanely confident and ridiculous Zoanette Johnson. As soon as Zoanette took to the stage, it was evident it would be an interesting performance, but whether she was good or bad was up for debate. Zoanette belted out the National Anthem at full volume, forgot the words one to two times, and managed to fit in a quick bout of tears. But somehow Zoanette ended up with a ticket to Hollywood. It's hard to say why exactly Zoanette got passed through, but Nicki seemed convinced that she will be the next big superstar. We'll see how that goes.
"American Idol" airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.
28 Drag Kings
Anastacia Freeman, on the other hand, was not able to impress the judges. Though she claimed to be sent to the "Idol" auditions by God, her tone-deaf version of "Unbreak My Heart" could not be saved.
Tonight's inspirational story came in the form of Kayden Stephenson, a 16-year old boy living with Cystic Fibrosis. Kayden chose a Stevie Wonder number and charmed the judges with his positivity and sweet voice.
The evening ended with a surprise appearance from former judge Steven Tyler dressed in full drag. Tyler claimed to just be stopping in to say hi, but let's be real, he obviously came by to keep the divas of the season in check.