American Idol: Portland Recap!

The spotlight fell on Portland, OR this evening for the very first time in American Idol audition history. Open-call auditions were first held in the Rose City back in July 2011, followed by call-backs in October. And, it was during day 2 of call-backs that a lucky group of Jennifer Lopez fans got to hang out on set – thanks again to Jennifer for taking the time to do our meet & greet!….

Could the Portland stop bring us the next American Idol winner? The judges seemed pleasantly surprised by the talent pool they met up with and sent a total of 45 hopefuls through to the Hollywood round! One note-worthy moment came during contestant Britnee Kellogg’s performance of Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good”. Her touching story and heartfelt rendition triggered an excited Jennifer to sing along to a few notes and yell out, “Britnee! I’m feeling you right now!” Before voting on sending Britnee through to Hollywood, JLo was asked a question about motherhood she gets quite often – watch Jennifer’s motivational response and more episode highlights below:

Tomorrow’s show takes us to St. Louis, the last audition episode before Hollywood week!  – Tune in on FOX at 8pm ET/PT.