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Idol Dreaming

She ate her bacon-egg-and cheese sandwich and applied her pink lipstick. She was provided hair and makeup. She then proceeded to sing “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” on stage in front of couple hundred people.

This isn’t referencing KT Tunstall, or any other famous singer for that matter, rather, it’s the experience of Sami Jurofksy ’11, who tried out for the popular reality show “American Idol” when at Disney World in Florida last July.

When Jurofsky arrived at Disney with her sister and parents, they all noticed, and then followed, the signs for American Idol tryouts. “My sister is a really talented singer and wanted to try out, but needed a motive,” Jurofsky said. “So I told her I would try out if she did.”

Jurofksy has never taken voice lessons before, and although she definitely isn’t shy, she admitted to being nervous.

“I am not a singer and my sister is amazing, so I didn’t want to look funny going up after her,”

Jurofksy said. “I dealt with my nerves by making jokes out of everything unintentionally.”

In the beginning, she was taken a small room with two casting people, and sang for them. Jurofsky received one of those infamous slips, and was told to come back the next day to perform on stage at Disney, to her surprise.

“I never expected to make it,” Jurofsky said.

The next day, Jurofsky went through the aforementioned bacon-egg-cheese and lipstick ritual, and received a rather interesting hairstyle.

“The hair people gave me a wacky curled side ponytail that made me look like a ditz,” Jurofsky said.

Regardless, once Jurofsky took to the stage, her hairstyle didn’t matter one bit. It was a warm sunny day, and she thoroughly enjoyed the spotlight.

“It was really cool being on the stage and performing because it was an exact replica of the stage in Hollywood that the finalists perform on,” Jurofsky said.

“A memorable moment was when I spotted my sister and dad in the crowd and they seemed proud of me for getting up and performing in front of so many people.”

With regards to her song choice, “I sang ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’ cause it was one of the first songs on the list.” Jurofsky said. “I liked the song, so I just went with it,” Looking back, Jurofsky was happy with her singing. “I think the performance went better than I had expected it to,” she said.

“They had judges that were supposed to be Paula, Randy, and Simon, and shockingly, they all had nice things to say about me.”

Unsurprisingly, Jurofsky’s sole complaint was about the man who portrayed Simon. He put down her sister in his compliment to Jurofsky, and as Jurofsky said, “My sister is hands down a thousand times better than I at singing and performing,”

Jurofsky doesn’t intend to try out next year. Although she calls July’s audition “a fun experience,” as she is an extremely down-to-earth person, and knows not everyone can be the next Ruben Studdard (her favorite idol), the2003 American Idol winner, or 2009 runner-up Adam Lambert.

“Although I love to sing and it would be amazing to be a rock star, I think I should set realistic goals,” Jurofsky said.

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    DonyellNov 13, 2011 at 7:25 pm

    All of these artilecs have saved me a lot of headaches.

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