Trama

"American Idol" - Auditions #7: San Francisco - Feb. 9, 2011

The cold open is a tearful woman who claims she was rejected because she farted.

Ryan says the judges claim they'll be tough.

First up is a very confident young girl from the Ukraine whose belly dancing and yoga poses and cutesy girlishness impresses the judges but her version of Air Supply's "All Out of Love" does not. She is all dramatic and tearful on the way out.

We get a montage of the rejected and people being pooped on.

We get snippets of several auditioners who were put through Brittany Mazur, Lara Johnston, Matthew Nuss.

Our first up close and personal story tonight is that of Stefano Langone who survived a horrible accident in 2009 that put him in a wheelchair for a few months. He overcame the ordeal faster than expected and the accident did not injure his voice which bowls over the judges when he sings "I Heard it Through the Grapevine." He gets three yes's.

Next is karaoke host Clint Jun Gamboa. He's been told he should do more with his singing. He does when he wows the judges with his rendition of Travie McCoy's "Billionaire." He's going to Hollywood.

We get a montage of the "crazy" folks hanging at the auditions and a quick montage of some awful auditions. Taking the cake is a young man who has made himself a very impressive looking "Transformers" outfit but clearly isn't serious about singing.

Next is snippets of five California girls who get put through, none of whose names we learn.

That's because we needed time to hear the story of Julie Zarilla whose parents fled war-torn Colombia when she was 8. The judges love her shoes and the producers love her story. It's her birthday. Her version of "Summertime" is good enough to get her the best birthday present ever: a golden ticket. Randy is especially impressed. They speculate she might even be good enough to win.

Steven Tyler likes Dave Combs' long hair but not so much his take on the Beatles "Oh Darlin." This is the start of a montage of bad singers who drive Tyler crazy prompting him to be the "mean" judge.

For a change of pace we get the truly sad story of Emily Anne Reed whose house burned down the week before the auditions. Her jazzy, Blossom Dearie-like version of "You're Getting to be A Habit With Me" is very charming. Steven says no but Randy and JLo put her through.

As is custom the final auditioner has a touching tale to share as well as a song. James Durbin never really knew his dad and then he lost him to a drug overdose when he was 9. He ended up being diagnosed with Tourette's and Asperger's and was bullied at school. His girlfriend changed his life and they have a baby son. He's unemployed and doing the best he can. He's worried about his Tourette's in front of the judges even though he hasn't had any problems with the interview. He sings and shows off a very big voice in the Adam Lambert mode. They ask for another song and he asks Steven's permission to sing "Dream On." They love it. He's going to Hollywood.