The closure of The American Idol Experience has been brought forward to this month
It looks like the theme park edition of American Idol may be in its final year at Disney's Hollywood Studios
The American Idol Experience will be back open again on Wednesday
My family took a trip to Disney in October of 2013, My daughter was only 13 at the time(to young to do the show) and the producer said "please come back when you are 14" So my daughter and I planned a 2 day trip to come back and do the show. We were just there on 1/27/14. These are all very professional people!!! They gave my daughter every courtesy. She sang for the initial producer, then on to a duo of producers who gave her the green light to join the event. She did the hair and makeup, the little arrangement thing with the vocal coach and then to her rehearsal. She rehearsed and then competed against to very good singers. The stage is IMMENSE. It is a thousand seat auditorium that they filled up both times she sang in it. She received amazing feedback from the judges. Even the one mean judge said "I can't even be mean to you" She then went on to the finals where she competed against 3 people. Two of which who were from Brazil and came to Disney JUST TO DO THIS EVENT. She won in the finals and received the Dream Ticket. If you are going to do this you have to give it almost the whole day. I am glad we really only went to Disney to do this for that reason. I am critical of most things but there is not one thing I can say bad about it. The producers were all awesome, the warm up guys were awesome, the judges were all industry professionals who gave my daughter great feedback and great Advice.... Just amazing.
I auditioned for AI Experience in early March, 2010. I was the first or second on line, as i went there as soon as the park opened,and there wasn't a crowd at all due to the fact that it is a slower time of year. I did an acapella audition for a nice woman in a small private room and made it through to the next round. One thing that she did ask was if I had plans later in the evening, and if i knew anyone who works for Disney. I do not know anyone.... but i did have Fantasmic booked.... latest time.... more on this later... You must stop and choose a few songs in the Coke Lounge from the approved list to use for this final audition. You are able to listen to the two minute arrangements on an iPod. When you choose the songs, you go into a room to audition karaoke style for the producer. He may ask you to do one , all, or pick one to try if he doesn't think any chosen songs Suit you. I had to sing two songs... The producer liked my second one, " I Will Survive", and I was put through to perform in the first show!! You have your hair and make up done, then you work with a musical director on your performance. You are then taken to the set, where you go over the show with the host and have a full tech rehearsal.... It is truly amazing! Your family is brought in well ahead of the audience, so they get to watch the rehearsal.... Very nerve racking for me. When the audience is brought in and the show starts, it truly is magical! Before each contestant sings, there is a video clip of either that person doing kooky things or of audience members cheering for you.... That was my clip... Very sweet! I was actually given the "pimp spot" or final performance spot of the show. Honestly, none of us had fantastic voices, but my co-contestants got ripped by the judges.... I also got criticism, but not as badly. The audience really seemed to like my performance. Turns out, the middle contestant won... He was a very nice nerdy guy from NJ... Sang pretty cleanly...nothing spectacular. He had also made it into a daytime show the year before.But a few people said I should have won... I could care less, as I was just so thrilled to perform, though I kind of agree. I am not a trained singer at all... I just love doing it! I am wondering what some of you are in terms of rigging.... The fact that the Lady asked me if I had late plans was a tip off after the fact. The Fantasmic show would be running at the same time as the AI finale show, and they know that these shows are booked months in advance, so if I did win, My family and i would have had to Miss Fantasmic.... I wonder what would have happened if I told her that I didn't have plans... All in all, this is an amazing experience, and I would urge anyone who likes to sing to audition, whether you are trained, experienced, etc or not.... You just might get lucky!! I plan on getting back to Disney this year, and I am going to give it another shot!! Not sure what will happen this time, but I plan to have fun! And I also plan to say NO when asked if I have plans later in the night! I did get a quick peek from outside of the end of the finale show that night... Plenty of contestants.../ and the nice guy from my show didn't win, but an older gentleman who sang a country son did.
This experience was as legit as possible. My husband and I went to Disney and he auditioned not really knowing what the experience was. He made it through all the rounds and won the Dream ticket. We actually went into the whole thing thinking that it was all set up for everyone to win and did not know anything about the dream ticket. He performed with many other talented people, but he was the best singer there. It was not rigged. I can honestly say that the majority of the people in the audience voted for him. Hope he makes the show this coming up auditions!!! Vote for Matthew Nealey ; )
My family and I have been going to Disney World for decades, being that we live in Ft. Lauderdale it's only a 3 hour drive. When we heard they were adding The American Idol Experience we were thrilled! My daughter and I are both singers and wanted to give it a shot! It is truly an amazing experience! They did such a great job in re-creating the actual American Idol TV set. The whole process is amazing....you start out singing an a capella audition in a small sound quality room. (This is actually better then the real show where you audition in an auditorium with NO acoustics). If you pass the first audition, ( I suggest not holding back with your voice and personality to get by this first step), you then move on to the producers room where you sing two songs to a musical track. (I highly recommend you go online and look up the "American Idol Experience Song List" of over 120 songs. After you find a few songs you like I also HIGHLY recommend you go on YOUTube and search for that song + American Idol Experience. see if anyone has posted that song and learn the track ahead of time! They cast 5 shows a day, 7 shows during peak times. The audience votes, which makes a total of 5 winners. Those winners go on to the Grand Finale show later that night. The winner of the Finale gets a "Dream Ticket". Which gives them a "Front of the line pass" to any audition to The TV Show. The very cool thing which also make this so credible is: 5 of the top 13 contestants for last year's American Idol TV show won the Dream Ticket at Disney's American idol Experience. My daughter and I have been on the show many times and continue to come back as regulars!! If you like American idol ....you must go and experience this! If you Love to sing.....give it a try!