American Idol is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s fascinating how they put together the show – especially the audition rounds to add narratives to what is otherwise a series of very similar clips. For example, they’ll show a montage of one judge being mean to every contestant only to cut to them being blown away by someone else. Simple trick but effective. Or doing montages of similar performers.
Or how they always save the best/most heart-wrenching/unique story for the final clip of each episode. In this case, a song by a NYC subway busker which the judges call the best audition of the season. It’s a song that, with a few tweaks to the lyrics so they’re less personal and more universal, I could easily see becoming a wedding first dance standard…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxHi_o_2_IE
“My Best Friend” – Hollywood Anderson