High Hopes in the Mile High City for American Idol Denver Auditions

I enjoyed the American Idol Denver audition show. Maybe it's because there were so many good contestants, or maybe it's because the auditions are finally almost over, but it was much better than last week's train-wreck filled shows.

Victoria Beckham a.k.a. Posh Spice was back as guest judge, and it seems her main role this time was to point out to the regular judges which contestants were attractive enough to get a golden ticket.

Many of the hopefuls in Denver had children. Mark Labriola has a young son. He hit the audition room with a weird story about being on the run when he was younger, which prompted Simon to question him at length about living in Maui. I thought Mark would be joke contestant, but it turned out that his singing was not too shabby. He has a fairly good pop voice. The judges all said yes to him going to Hollywood, though I guessing that's where Mark's Idol dreams will end.

Kimberly Kerbow brought her 5-year-old daughter to the auditions. Kimberly flirted with Simon, saying she'd buy him Rogaine. I don't know what all that's about, but she does have a cool "indie girl" sound, and she's very cute. She may do well in Hollywood if there aren't too many similar girls.

Live karaoke host and cover band singer Danielle Heyes had a child with her as well. She has a rather unique raspy rock voice, but her rendition of "I'm the Only One" was sung in a strange off-tempo. Perhaps the fact that she seemed "almost broken" (according to Simon) helped her get the golden ticket. I don't see her going far in the competition.

Someone who may go far is Casey James, thanks to Victoria insisting that he let down his hair and take of his shirt. I couldn't tell much about Casey's singing other than his voice was pretty good, but if he makes the Top 24 he could be the token "hot guy" of the season. Of course, hot guys never win Idol. Just ask Ace Young or Chris Richardson.

Another contestant who benefited from Posh digging her look was Tori Kelly. Tori actually went so far as to bring her little sister Page into the room to show off her drawings of the judges. The judges loved the pictures and Tori got a golden ticket. Oh, and she sang something. I thought she had a very nice voice, but Simon found her singing annoying. We'll see how that worked out for Tori in Hollywood next week.

Nicky Nix has to be a producer plant, right? Who flies all the way from Florence, Italy to audition for Idol? Anyway, Nicky's helium-sucking speaking voice wasn't nearly as annoying when she sang, and Posh thought she was beautiful. Nicky is off to Hollywood, but I have a feeling she'll be making the long trip back to Italy soon.

My favorite contestant from Denver was the lovely, effervescent Haeley Vaughn, who says that she wants to be the first black country-pop girl singer. She sang Carrie Underwood's "Last Name" in a register that was a bit too high, but Kara was impressed with her uniqueness. That uniqueness should serve Haeley well in the contest. I see her doing very well on Idol.

Even the bad singers were tolerable on Tuesday's show. Simon's mocking of Mario Galvan's nervous giggle made me laugh. The over blown ego displays of singing football player Austin Paul and "world's best singer" Remy Everett were amusing without being tiresome, and bikini boy Ty Hammering was hilarious.

Wednesday night we get the "Best of the Rest" audition show where we should see some of the producers' favorite pimped contestants. Next week is Hollywood week and we'll finally get to see Ellen. I can't wait!