As I alluded to last night, and as it had seemingly been unofficially confirmed by many others too, the individual identities of the two manufactured groups have been disclosed. The two groups, InTENsity, and Lakoda Rayne, have been added to the group competition and it will be very interesting to see if the two fostered groups are the two most successful. This is not my most detailed synopsis but since we are still just getting introduced, there is little to go on up to now. I will blog more after tonight's episode.
Lakoda Rayne
This is by far the smaller group. Paige Elizabeth Ogle, Dani Knights, Hayley Orantia, and my fellow New Jersey native Cari Fletcher make up Lakoda Rayne and it appears so far that they are more country oriented. I believe Dani Knights already alluded to wanting to specifically become a country singer earlier on the show and this group could be a stroke of genius by the Simon Cowell juggernaut. I do accept the premise that perhaps all four individually might not have survived the competition, but only to an extent, and if any of the four also play instruments, particularly the guitar, than we could be looking at the next Dixie Chicks folk-country group. Otherwise, it could still be a lost opportunity. On the other hand, I am really curious about this foursome and would love to see them have success both on and past the show. Fletcher has perhaps been overly criticized up to this point and both Knights and Ogle could be potential leads while we are still waiting for FOX to show us a larger sample of Hayley Orantia. I suspect FOX has been purposely holding back on us because they feel they have something. We'll find out just what exactly that is shortly.
InTENsity
This could be either a brilliant move or a brilliant mess. It could even be both. It could also be an unfair advantage or disadvantage because with ten singers both mistakes and raw talent are easily covered up, which makes InTENsity perhaps the biggest wild card of the entire competition at this point. We have seen some snippets of talent between Ellona Santiago, Nick Dean, and Ma-at Bingham Shango, and we still need to see more from Arin Ray, Franccesca Duncan, and John Lindahl. We have seen enough so far though to see the semi-controversial group Ausem, comprised of Austin Percario and Emily Wilson, and Emily Michalak is a hidden star ready to burst her own under the radar bubble. My guess is that if the girls in Lakoda Rayne weren't all some variation of pop, folk, and country and there was room for more components, that the two groups would have been more evenly divided numerically. Young girls will love Dean and Lindahl while Santiago and Michalak could be the real winners from this group because they might have the best crossover appeal from a group-solo perspective. I am still very surprised that they didn't just put Michalak in the girls category but the judges probably felt they would have to lose somebody else they didn't want to lose and this was a way of protecting the overall talent quota. John Lindahl is perhaps the inner-group dark horse star. After taking a beating from the judges, Emily Wilson took it on the chin like a champ and has much to prove but has the willpower to do it. Her Ausem partner Austin Percario could be a very nice blend in this group from both a vocal and harmonizing standpoint.
Either one of these groups, or both, could go very far into the competition. They are probably the two biggest wild cards in the entire competition so it will be interesting to watch unfold.
Will be blogging more later.
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