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BigShady and I made it into the AI audience yesterday to cheer Kat on in her performance of "Something." Beforehand, for most of the afternoon, we stood in line worrying we wouldn't get in (which is what happened last year when I went.) At one point, Melissa phoned to say "meet up with Dennis," who was also there -- he got there four hours before us. Dennis was nice. After several hours of waiting in line, we finally made it to the studio entrance where a show employee handed us a shiny, laminated blue ticket. "Does this mean we're in?" I asked. "You're in!" I spontaneously broke into a few bars of, "I've got a golden ticket," hoping people would understood. Once we got the studeio inside, we looked and looked for our seats but realized they were nonexistent. No joke. Our tickets were for section F, row 9, but section F ended at row 8. No matter how hard the ushers and we looked, there was no such row. We thought for sure they'd boot us out saying, Oops, sorry for the mistake. But it worked out and we ended up getting better seats, four rows behind the mosh pit (three rows behind Jim Carrey). You can see BigShady and me for a split second behind Jim Carrey's right elephant ear when he leans to the left, haha. Most of the audience had pre-printed tickets which clearly stated there would be a special performance by Katharine McPhee, but no one on the show seemed to know that. The whole time, they kept making it seem like the guest performer was some big secret. The warm-up emcee said he would't divulge the name (which we already knew). At one point, he peeked over at the sheet music resting on the piano and said, I know what she'll be singing tonight. (Tell us! Tell us!) "But I'm not going to tell you." Up above, I saw several violinists tuning up in the orchestra and wondered if they were getting ready to accompany Katharine on some beautiful ballad. Boy, did they. Before Katharine went on, I overheard a nearby security guard say to another: "They're in the hallway, where the talent is." The Talent! Kat! Whoop-whoop. (Where is the hallway and how can I get there?) During the pre-taped listener call-in portion, Ryan was goofing around and at one point divulged, Hey, Kat McPhee will be on the show tonight. Again, most of us already knew this, but the producer? stage manager? shook her head and admonished Ryan, telling him the performer was supposed to be a surprise. The stage manager/producer, by the way, is this woman dressed all in stage black with black beret like the one in Kat's Love Story music vid. The woman runs a really tight ship, and considering she pulls off a live show every week, does a really good job. Incidentally, it was her black-gloved hand you saw handing Ryan the mic for David's exit song when Ryan says, "Well, that was well-choreographed." Regarding Kat's performance, to be honest, what you saw was what we saw: sheer magnificence. Kat really did own the stage. She has this amazingly powerful voice that, like during the Leno rehearsal, always threatens to blow out the speakers during her power notes. While she performed, the judges watched in rapt attention -- even Simon, who kept his head down for both David H's and Kristy Lee's performances (Syesha's he watched). Paula watched with a big smile on her face. I couldn't see Randy's face, but he was definitely watching, too. I ended up sitting next to Randy's daughter, by the way, who was there with her teenage friends going crazy over David Archuleta. They also couldn't stop saying how beautiful Kat was. After the mini-interview with Ryan, Kat leaned over the mosh pit and shook hands, waved, winked, and smiled at lucky viewers in the pit. After what seemed like a long time, Kat walked over to the judges' stand -- I'm pretty sure David Foster was by her side. I was curious to see how the judges would interact with her, especially Simon since he recently made that stupid credible artist remark. Kat and Randy had their arms around each other pretty much the entire time; Paula and Kat were nice and friendly; but Simon he kinda seemed like he didn't know what to do with himself (Kat rocked it; Simon, you know what you said will another apology be forthcoming??). Not that Simon purposely looked away or anything, but they didn't embrace -- I think maybe they briefly shook hands -- and Kat never made her way over to Simon's side of the judges' stand. After that, I hoped Kat would exit out the side floor entrance, which meant she would cross in front of us on our side of the studio but no such luck. She exited back across the rear of the stage and, poof, she was gone like the magical singing goddess that she is.
Thanks so much for the detailed report! You painted such a clear picture that I almost could feel myself there with you! I'm so happy that such dedicated and devoted fans were able to experience the magic that Katharine and David made together!
Who cares what Simon thinks and how he reacted anyway?? Unkind words do have a way of coming back to haunt!!! He was just lucky that such an etheral performance by Katharine was done with pure love and no malice whatsoever towards any of the AI family!
Thanks from me too!
Thanks! You answered my burning questions, did the "judges" pay attention to her when she was singing and...how did they treat her. I'm not surprised at all with Randy since they just recorded Real Love together not so long ago... Way to go Kat...I am and will always be a PROUD fan!!
Thanks, Steve. That's really nice of you to say. I always feel kind of funny writing these recaps. If you enjoyed hearing some of the behind-the-scenes details that makes me happy.
Richard Rushfield, a Los Angeles Times Staff Writer and long-suffering Idol watcher, wrote an article