My Road to American Idol 2009 Part 6: Meeting the Idols - Day 1

Man! It's been a while since my last post on my American Idol experience. It's just that I've been finding a lot of other interesting stuff to post that I keep postponing putting my experience down into words.

Ok, better start again or else it's gonna get fuzzy and slip away...

After we left the Nokia Theater, we noticed a crowd building up at a big tent that was set up outside. So we decided to be a couple of busy bodies to check it out. And lucky thing we did! The Idols were scheduled to come out to talk to the press and meet the fans!

So after a short wait, the first of the Idols arrived! Here come the ladies!

Post-show Press Tent

The TV reporters from the bigger networks got first dibs at the Idols, and this was done most at the center of the tent. The other reporters from the smaller news stations were sandwiched between an inner barrier and an outer barrier, which was where all the fans were. So most of my photos from this all had either a reporter or TV camera in it, like this...

Lil Rounds

I have to admit that I wasn't really a big fan of Lil during Season 9. It was obvious she could sing but she never really blew any song out of the park, like Fantasia before her. But she'll always mean something special to me because when I won the ticket to see the finale, each contestant had to wear a t-shirt with a name of an Idol contestant on it, and mine was Lil Rounds. So - Thanks Lil for bringing me good luck! =)

Jasmine Murray

Jasmine Murray looked really great in the long evening gown she was wearing. But I felt really bad for her when a woman kept calling her Paris. Wrong season lady! Don't think she got an autograph...

After a while, the Idols started meeting the fans. We were located at the side and they kept going to the front where the majority of the fans were. But eventually, they started coming around the side and even came between the inner and outer barrier, so we got to get autographs and even some close up pictures, like this one:

Megan Joy

Megan is really pretty and was very friendly and kept signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a 1-to-1 photo as she was called away for an interview. Best shot I got was the one above. A bit blurred out, but you can still see the great tattoo on her arm.

Allison Iraheta

The above is the best picture that I got of Allison during the session. I don't know why Simon says that she has no personality because she was really bubbly and wacky through out the whole interview and meet the fan session. All her responses seemed very off the cuff and unscripted. She was really goofy, as you can see in the photo, and was wearing a pair of sneakers that had a hole in it. A stark contrast between her and the other more prim and proper Idol females!

My favourite photo of the entire session has to be this one...

Alexis Grace

Yes, you can tell from my smiley mug how happy I was to finally manage to get a photo with an Idol contestant, and a pretty one at that! Alexis spent a lot of time with the fans at the side and look really gorgeous in a purple spaghetti strap dress and jeans. Didn't realise how petite and fair she is until I saw her in person.

Ok... That's it for Day 1. Next up, Result Day! I'll probably do it in 3 posts - Red Carpet, Result Show and finally the post-show press conference. Stay tuned!