"American Idol" Week 3: Boricuas in the House!

Ah, the moment we've been waiting for. Idol finally touched
down on the shores of San Juan last night, and—well, it was pretty much
as bad as we'd feared. Except for one man!

Blessed with eerily similar pipes to Marc Anthony, 20-year-old Jorge Nuñez impressed the judges with "Mi Manera" (Frank Sinatra's "My Way," in Spanish), then did his thing in English with "What a Wonderful World." (Click here to watch his audition.) The latter song got a mixed reception, as new judge Kara DioGuardi
gave Nuñez a bit of a hard time for his accent: "When you sang in
English, there was definitley some pronunciation issues." But, wonder of
all wonders, Simon Cowell came to his defense! "We're here because we
actually wanted to find somebody who sings with their accent, otherwise
we could just go to Omaha." Preach, Simon! Just like that, the adorable
Nuñez was whisked into Hollywood...and we can't wait to see him there.

On the complete opposite tip was Joel Contreras (pictured above), who called himself "el rokero loco" and was easily one of the most shameless camera-whores we have ever seen on Idol
(not an easy group to crack). He showed up dressed like a
long lost member of the Pinker Tones, carried a giant cardboard iPod
and just generally acted like an ass. For this, Contreras was
ultimately rejected by the judges, but the camera did follow him around
for several minutes afterwards as he backflipped into the hotel pool
like a crazy person. Mission accomplished, we guess!

Not as offensive to my sensibilites were the two boricua ladies who
passed the audition test: 16-year-old Monique Garcia Torres, whose
unbelievably cute little brother singlehandedly turned the judges into
softies and got his hermana through to the next round, and Patricia
Lewis Roman, whose parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins started
a spontaneous conga line when she made it to Hollywood. Because how
else would a Puerto Rican family celebrate, right? Ugh. 

Next week, we arrive in Hollywood, where the real frontrunners emerge and the undeserving get mercilessly cut—i.e., my favorite part!
Till then, Idol-lovers...