Video Introduction
Hi, my name is Taylor Levine. I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina, I’m 22 years old and I think this is my best opportunity, I’ve tried for the past three years to get my music career off the ground and so I think this is really my best route to achieving what I want to achieve, I’ve played the small clubs up and down the US and I know who I am as an artist because of that but things haven’t taken off for me yet which is why I’m auditioning for American Idol. I think that these kind of shows have failed to create artists in the past but I believe that I can win this and be the kind of artist that they’ve been promising and failing to find since the show began. I think this is my time now and I’m ready for it.

The Audition
Taylor Levine walks out onto the large stage, he looks around at the audience for a moment and seems a little overwhelmed, he makes his way over to the centre of the stage with a microphone in his hand, he mumbles into the microphone “hey, I’m Taylor Levine, it’s nice to meet you all”. The crowd cheers a little before the judges speak.

Randy Jackson: Hey dawg nice to meet you too, feeling confident?
Taylor Levine: Yeah, I’m feeling good, just ready to go now (grins)
Steven Tyler: Good man, well whenever you’re ready!

He holds the microphone close enough to his mouth and steps back slightly, he waits for the music to begin and then starts singing with a soft breezy vocal to begin with.

“I’ve been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see
Painted faces fill the places that I can’t reach
You know that I could use somebody
Yeah, you know that I could use somebody
I could use somebody

Someone like you and all you know and how you speak
Countless lovers under cover of the street
You know that I, I could use somebody
Oh I, I could use somebody

I could just use someone like you.
Off in the night while you live it up, I’m off to sleep
Waging wars to shake the poet and the beat
I hope it’s gonna make you notice, someone like me
I hope it’s gonna make you notice, someone like me

I’ve been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see”

He then puts his hand down by his side as the music stops and looks at the judges and waits for them to give their opinions.

Steven Tyler: (nods his head) Yeah man, that was good, have you had auditions in the past?.

Taylor Levine: Uhh, no to be honest with you, this is the first. I’ve spent the past couple of years just doing club gigs, which I’m sure you know is pretty inconsistent, always travelling to wherever will let you perform.

Steven Tyler: Yeah, we’ve all got to pay our due’s man, but seriously that was good. Not perfect, some notes could weren’t as effective as they could have been, but when your singing a song like that it’s more about putting the emphasis on the words, it was good. It’s a yes from me.

Jennifer Lopez: Yeah, I think already from a first audition we have a good idea of the kind of artist you’re gonna be and that’s a great thing from a first audition. Like Steven said, it wasn’t perfect vocally, but that wouldn’t have worked because it’s not that kind of song. But all in all it’s a very good first audition. It’s a yes.

Randy Jackson: It was a good enough audition, but I think what you gotta do next is show us a little something different from what we’ve already got, we’ve got the soft acoustic guys like John Mayer and Jason Mraz so you gotta go, this is what I can bring to the table. It was just a good audition, but it was good enough for me, it’s a yes, you’re going to Hollywood.