Woonsocket Teen Reflects on American Idol Auditions

As American Idol moves to its final stages and only three contestants remain, Woonsocket Patch caught up with a city teenager who braved the preliminary auditions and made it to Hollywood Week of the popular reality show.

While Chandler Cross didn’t advance to Idol’s prime-time twenty-four, the bright and talented singer-songwriter, actress, and guitar player carried herself very well among the competition. The show hosted six preliminary auditions, spread across the country. In New Jersey alone, where Cross auditioned, roughly sixteen thousand hopefuls gathered. The six preliminary auditions yielded only two hundred contestants ready for Hollywood Week and the celebrity judges, Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler.

The New Jersey auditions, held last August, were “crazy,” according to Cross. Her journey included getting up at four in the morning to make it down to East Rutherford, waiting in traffic near the Izod Center for close to an hour, singing with other contestants, and a carnival atmosphere.

“People dressed up as angels, there was a guy dressed up as The Joker and he had playing cards and everything. There were a lot of crazy people there, but there were also a lot of really talented people there, too. I was there about seven hours before they took my section. So I took a nap, read a little, sang a little, and just waited for my turn.”

When it was her turn, Cross sang a suite of songs, including "Glitter in the Air," by Pink. In Hollywood, she sang "Freckles," by Natasha Bedingfield. She did not get any feedback from the judges.

“They were all just completely straight-faced. And then it’s like a chorus-line sort of thing, where they have you in the front, in the back...and 'okay, front line: congratulations, you’re staying; back line, it’s the end of the line for you.’”

That ‘back line’ included the striking young woman of seventeen with broad, almond-shaped eyes and a mischievous smile. The producer who evaluated Cross's American Idol audition confirmed for the Mount Saint Charles Academy junior that she is, indeed, “cute,” with a caveat: “They said ‘you are cute, and you sing really well, but you’ve got to get the musical theatre out of your voice,’” a challenge for a roundly talented young singer with a passion for musical theatre.

“I love both equally. I do really love musical theatre, but I also love songwriting and just singing.”

Both pursuits keep her very busy. After she returned from the Hollywood auditions for American Idol, she appeared on Fox Providence’s Rhode Show for a song and an interview, performed at the State House with her school’s glee club, joined the Mount St. Charles chorus for a trip to sing in Ireland, and then skipped to Connecticut where she was a finalist for a performance and service scholarship called Voices for Hope. As she spoke with Patch, she was dressed in a Poodle Skirt, ready for a school cabaret celebrating the history of popular music; was looking forward to a monologue performance authored by a friend; an audition for Romeo and Juliet at the ; and an audition for Spring Awakening with the Uncommon Theatre in Foxboro. Productions of  A Very Potter Musical, Little Shop of Horrors, and Diary of Anne Frank were also on the near horizon.

After that, Cross may perhaps do something a little more "outside the box" or rather, fresh out of the box.

"I have a band with my friend Katie. We both work at The Fudgerie, in Wrentham Outlets. We might start writing some songs about fudge!"