Music Monday - Living Room Idol

This week's column takes a look at a wonderful combination of two things I already love on their own... Karaoke and Video Games!! And not just any video games, but my beloved Nintendo Wii! (you know, the one I stood in line for at 5:00 in the morning back in November of 2006... yeah that one...) It also adds to the mix, the American Idol experience, something to kick the Karaoke game up a few notches! Here's how we were introduced, and subsequently hooked, on this game...

Saturday night, my niece Alicia and her husband Daniel came over for an evening of fun with the Brinkerhoffs! Along with themselves, they brought one of their new favorite pastimes:

Cindy and I hadn't played this game yet, but read about it on Alicia's blog and were very eager to try it out. After a few warmup rounds, it was time for a 4 way American Idol Tournament! I had done very well on my warmups, so the group decided I had to play on the "hard" setting to even the playing field.

ROUND ONE:

At the end of round one, I thought I was going to be just fine with that arrangement! I had sung "Copacabana" and nailed it! Simon said that he hated the song, but that I made him love the performance. Paula (who I think was drunk) blabbed on about how I'm a natural performer, blah, blah, blah, and Randy called me a Dawg who Brought It, Yo. Ummm, Thanks Mr. Jackson! The girls did really well that round too, but poor Daniel was told by Simon that he "invented notes that had never been sung in music before..." But round one didn't have any eliminations so we all went on to round two.

ROUND TWO:

By now I was feeling pretty comfortable in the game... I decided to tackle the Phil Collins classic, "In the Air Tonight." BAD. SONG. CHOICE. Not that I couldn't sing it, but without warning, it started IN THE @#^%#$ MIDDLE OF THE SONG!!! I'm all poised to sing a nice, gentle "I can feel it..." and suddenly the words on screen are "Well I remember..." Took me a couple lines to transition to that part of the song, but then I did ok. At the end, Randy said that I started off weak, but brought it together at the end yo, dawg. Simon & Paula said it was a bad song choice... I agree! What I didn't expect was that it would be my LAST song choice! I was eliminated in round two!!

I was playing as Scott, by the way. To help understand the situation, Soo Ling = Daniel, Angela = Alicia, and Sammy = Cindy.

ROUND THREE:

It turned out to be an all girls final, because in round three, Soo Ling Daniel joined me on the couch to watch the final showdown... it was JUST like Fantasia vs. Diana in season three! WOW! The DRAAAAAAMA!!

ROUND FOUR:

Okay, so we settled in for the Girl vs Girl smackdown. Angela Alicia was up first, and she did pretty good. All the judges were impressed!

Finally, Sammy Cindy got to give it her best shot, and didn't just do well... She nailed every single note in the song, earning a DIAMOND rating! What's more, she did it on what I had hoped would be MY signature song....

Still, since Angela Alicia had done very well in all the prior rounds, it was really hard to guess who would come out on top. And we'll find out.... Right after this word from Coca-Cola! Oh wait, no, that's one way that the game is better than the show, you don't get Seacrest building up the tension just to cut away to a commercial... We got the results right away, and the winner was...

Representing the home team, the winner and June 28, 2008 American Idol, it's...

CINDY BRINKERHOFF!!!
WOOOOOOOO!!! (the crowd goes wild)

I'm still kinda miffed about getting cut so early in the game, but I'm working hard to improve my chances for next time. How, you ask? Since the game was brought over by visitors??

Oh, don't you worry, dear readers... We are now the proud owners of our OWN copy of Karaoke Revolution American Idol!! And we'll welcome any challengers who want to take on the CHAMPION!! (...and her husband...)