By ANNA MARIE BORIA
Tension between the judges and brand new talent overflows in the season 12 premiere of American Idol.
The new season of American Idol brings three new judges into the panel. Pop icon Mariah Carey, country star Keith Urban and rapper Nicki Minaj join, music producer Randy Jackson, the last original judge.
Not even a minute passed when Carey and Minaj began bickering over a comment Carey mentioned to Minaj over a drum major inspired hat she wore, which set the tone for the first day of auditions.
The first round of auditions took place in New York City. The Big Apple displayed a range of talent from people all over the world. Stand out auditions from different countries included Shira Gavrielov from Isreal and Gurpreet Singh Sarin nicknamed “The Turbinator” from the Middle East.
An addition to the show is the possibility to nominate someone to audition over the Internet by showing the talent from the person being nominated. Then a judge personally invites that person to audition. The first person nominated Jessica Kartalis unfortunately messed up her audition by singing in a different key then the one she was playing on guitar and after starting over four times did not continue in the competition.
Unlike past judges, the new panel encourage the less than stellar contestants to try other things in the music business, like disk jockeying, instead of crushing their dreams all together.
In the New York City auditions, 41 people proceeded to Hollywood. The second half of the premiere airs Thursday, Jan. 17, at 8 p.m. on FOX.