Gina Glocksen - An American Idol Dream Ended

No one can say Gina Glocksen isn't focused. She tried out for American Idol a total of three times and made it to Hollywood twice. This was her dream. She was so crushed after being cut when the field narrowed to 40 last year, that she worked the entire last year to find a way to make it this time around. Sometimes others were put off by her forwardness, but as we all got to know her better, we found a really sweet girl behind the rocker chick.

Gina started out this season walking into her audition and telling Simon Cowell that she had a crush on him, and assuring Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul that she wasn't just kissing up. She sang Black Velvet, and Simon excused himself from the vote originally, not wanting to bring any bias into it, but after Randy and Paula approved, Simon said Gina had taste, and sent her to Hollywood. With red splashed through her hair and jeans with chains, we knew we had our rocker chick for the season.

Once in Hollywood, editing wasn't doing Gina many favors. For the group performances, she had organized with three other girls, Perla from Colombia being one of them. Gina was counting on her time in Hollywood to finally get her to the American Idol stage, and Perla just seemed to be holding her back. She wasn't able to harmonize as well as the other three, and Gina finally decided if Perla looked bad, it would only make her and the others look that much better. She told the camera that she knew it might make her sound like a snob, but she really didn't care about anyone else there. She proved right, as Perla was the only one out of their group to not move on at this stage, and Gina was clearly the star of their group.

During the next step, Gina finally made it the furthest she ever had in her journey with American Idol. She became one of the final 40, and would need to now wait to sit in the infamous lone chair facing Paula, Randy, and Simon to find if she would be one of the final 24. Sitting in the chair facing the judges, they of course tried to trick her into thinking she hadn't made it, and once she heard she would be seeing much more of them, Gina said, "Shut up!" in disbelief.

Once on the American Idol stage, Gina lost her rocker chick thing she had going, and it seemed she was trying to measure up to a power vocalist, as many of the girls seemed to be doing, and with Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones in the picture, it wasn't wise, as everyone else with power vocals seemed to pale in comparison. Gina had the power in it for sure, but what she needed to do was to find what made her unique to stand apart from the others.

Simon mentioned thinking Gina was a bit confused as to who she was a as a singer. He said they put her in the top 24 for something very different from what they were hearing. They wanted something a little more edgy; in other words, they were looking for the rocker chick. That's what made her unique. She found what everyone was looking for the following week as she sang an Evanescence tune. You could just see it on her that she was comfortable and enjoying being herself. This was who Gina was, and America loved it, enough to put her into the final 12.

In the finals, Gina faced some difficult genres, that were too narrow for the rocker chick she was. For Diana Ross week, she chose Love Child, remembering back to a home video her parents have of her singing it at 4 years old. The problem with this seemed to be since it was something she learned as a child, it was hard to relearn it as an adult and put in the things she knows now that she didn't know then. While it was a good song choice it didn't come off the best for her.

The following week, the genre seemed to be much more up Gina's alley. The guest mentor was Gwen Stefani, and the Idols were allowed to sing any No Doubt song, or something by one of Gwen's favorite artists. Gina chose a Pretenders song, and it seemed to fit her just as well as Evanescence if not better. It was a way to show her power voice, yet stay in the rock genre. I began to see her as definite final six material, especially since she had now created her own unique niche within the finalists, and wouldn't become lost in them.

Gina then encountered another difficult genre, the classics, with guest mentor Tony Bennett. She picked a song with many emotions packed into it, Smile, and Tony Bennett thought she had sung it beautifully. Yet somehow, once she performed it live, it lost something. It seemed that Gina had been through so much trying to find out who she was in the competition, that she wasn't able to put everything she had into emoting. And this was certainly a difficult song. Unless you put the emotions into it, it would come off somewhat dull. While Gina sung the song beautifully, something was missing to make it stand out and encourage people to vote for her.

Once results night came, some were a little worried about Gina, but they were worried about Phil Stacey as well. And after the previous week when Chris Sligh was voted out, anything could have happened, and everyone knew that. The finalists were separated into three groups of three, and there was just no way the group containing Lakisha Jones, Melinda Doolittle, and Jordin Sparks was the bottom three. Many had been waiting for Sanjaya to get voted out, but in a group with Chris Richardson and Blake Lewis, he looked pretty safe as well.

That left the group of Gina, Phil, and Haley Scarnato, and just as presumed, they were the bottom three. Haley and Phil had been in the bottom two before, but Gina hadn't, so there remained hope. Both Phil and Gina had been very strong vocally this week, but they also were both accused of being less than exciting in their performances. Haley sounded better than she had in some weeks, but she totally misread the idea of the song, and Tony had tried to point that out, but she ignored his advice, treating the whole song like a seduction of all the men in the room. When the final vote was read, Phil and Haley stayed, and Gina was done. Our second shocker in a row.

As seems to be the the theme this season, everyone wants to look for who is to blame for this. It all just seems to get stronger every week, whether to blame the judges, the show itself, fans, contestants, etc. At the outset, the votes are to blame. But who do we blame for placing the votes that evicted someone that was well-liked? Well, do we need to blame anyone at all? Don't get me wrong, I'm hurt as well to see both Chris and Gina go, but what good is it going to do throw all the blame around? Our favorites will still be gone.

Isn't Gina better off anyway? If she struggled to find a genre that would not only please the judges and the fans, but that she would also enjoy making, she'd never fit in with the type of music 19 Entertainment hopes to make. Even Chris Daughtry says he's better off now not having won. I have to now look at Gina, and Chris Sligh as well, and think much better things are ahead. I'm so sure of that, that I decided it would be a double whammy for me. She's a local girl, a dental assistant from the Chicago 'burbs. But I think I not only missed the chance to see her perform earlier, as I didn't know who she was, but I also will miss watching her until the end of Amerian Idol, and I doubt she'll be playing the local bars here anytime soon. I think Gina has much bigger and better things ahead for her.

For more on American Idol, see Reality Shack and LauraBelle's Blog, and you can contact me at LauraBelle@realityshack.com

For more information on American Idol and Gina Glocksen see SirLinksalot: American Idol and SirLinksalot: Gina Glocksen