A lot happened in the finale of American Idol so I’m sure that the 97.5 million votes that came in deemed the show worthy. All of the top 12 came back on the show to perform. David Cook and David Archuleta sang Chad Kroeger’s ‘Hero’. There was a Mike Myers as the guru skit. Syesha Mercado and Seal sang ‘Waiting for You’. Jason Castro reprised ‘Hallelujah’. The top 6 girls performed Donna Summer songs with Donna singing a new single at the end. Carly Smithson and Michael Johns sang ‘The Letter’. Jimmy Kimmel did a roast of the show. The top 6 guys sang Bryan Adams songs with Bryan coming out as well. Cook performed ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ with ZZ Top. The Jonas Brothers did ‘SOS’. Archuleta sang ‘Apologize’ with OneRepublic. Jordin Sparks did her new single. Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black acted as the Pips to the virtual Gladys Knight. Carrie Underwood performed ‘Last Name’. The top 12 sang with George Michael. And at the end of it all – your American Idol – David Cook.
American Idol really played into the battle theme by laying a boxing theme for their final performance show featuring David Cook and David Archuleta. Each contestant sang 3 songs – first was the choice of record producer Clive Davis, second were songs from the songwriters contest and third were songs the Idols chose, whether a reprise or a new song. David Cook sang U2’s ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, Emily Shackelton’s ‘Dream Big’ and Collective Soul’s ‘The World I Know’. David Archuleta sang Elton John’s ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, Ryan Gillmor’s ‘In This Moment’ and a reprise of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Which David did you vote for?
American Idol champ Carrie Underwood joined Brad Paisley in a live special tribute to country music legend Eddy Arnold during the 43rd Annual Academy of County Music Awards which was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday. The event was hosted by Reba McEntire for the tenth time and was attended by country music’s best. Carrie being chosen to be part of the tribute shows just how much she has grown as an artist since her American Idol days. The show works – for some people that is. And Carrie’s a big sweetheart anyway. Everyone absolutely loves her.
We’re one week away from crowning a new American Idol but before that, someone has to go. Over 56 million votes came in, in support of the top three finalists David Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado. And after the votes were cast, Syesha was given the boot. That means that it’s going to be a David showdown next week. Was there ever any doubt once they dwindled down? I can give Syesha props for improving week after week but she just doesn’t have the same appeal as even half of either David. Sorry girl, you’re just out of luck.
Carrie Underwood has just released a music video for the third single off of her sophomore album ‘Carnival Ride’. The song is called ‘Last Name’ and it was composed and co-written by the 25-year old American Idol champ. The video shows Carrie eloping in Las Vegas after having several drinks. When she wakes up the next morning, she discovers that she doesn’t even know her last name. To put it simply, Carrie married the man while she was wasted. And she wrote this song? I wonder if Carrie is actually trying to tell us something. Most country songs are pretty much autobiographical aren’t they?
Classic songs have been massacred every week on American Idol and it’s not any different this week. I just find it really sad that they still end up butchering the songs that inspire them. Michael Johns did piss poor with Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’, Syesha Mercado lost herself in Fantasia’s ‘I Believe’, David Cook got called on unoriginality with Our Lady Peace’s ‘Innocent’, Carly Smithson got pitchy on Queen’s ‘The Show Must Go On’ and Brooke White was just plain fine on James Taylor’s ‘You’ve Got a Friend’. Sensational performances though from Jason Castro with a reggae version of Judy Garland’s ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, Kristy Lee Cook with Martina McBride’s ‘Anyway’ and David Archuleta with Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’.
Jesse McCartney is out to show everyone that he’s all grown up with his new music video for his song ‘Leavin’. And let me tell you, ‘steamy’ can barely express my thoughts on it. The 20-year old shirtless young man was directed by Sanji, who most recently did American Idol alum Blake Lewis’ music video for ‘Break Anotha’. ‘Leavin’ is the first single off of Jesse’s upcoming third album ‘Departure’. It’s said to be his most personal solo record yet and is expected to be released on May 20. The video is already all over the net for everyone to see. But if you’re going to watch, be warned. It’s overly sexual.
He may have a great voice but there are still some thing that you wish didn’t come out of American Idol wannabe Michael Johns’ mouth. Sources close to the Australian-born hunk reveal that back in his bachelor days, Michael used to wow the ladies with his rendition of ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ at karaoke bars in the Big Easy. But when women would come up to ask the Idol to ask if he was single he would respond with cheesy one-liners like “Baby, the question is, are you single?†It’s amazing that someone actually fell for it and married the 29-year old.
Kelly Clarkson continues to work hard and it seems like it’s paying off. The original American Idol rocked out the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, Australia last Thursday night. Over the weekend, the 25-year old singer performed at two more locations in Australia, more specifically, the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in Broadmeadow, New South Wales and the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall, Queensland. Opening the show for Kelly in Australia was none other than Mandy Moore who spoke about wanting to perform in Australia for quite some time. After her stint in Australia, Kelly went off to jolly old England for the European leg of her tour.
Before he got eliminated from the show, American Idol was trying to make Robbie Carrico into season 7’s version of Chris Daughtry, except maybe for the hair. But after careful research into Robbie’s history, it’s pretty obvious that he’s a lot closer to being the next Clay Aiken instead. Before putting on a hairpiece, Robbie had the trademark gelled locks of a boy band member from his 2001 boy band called B-Factor. A snippet of the group’s song ‘Caught in the Middle’ has made it on to the internet and trust me, you don’t need Simon Cowell to tell you just how bad it is.
Some tour riders of fallen idols have been revealed and boy, it’s a doozy. Too bad none of them could get anyone to do this for them anymore. Before fading into obscurity, Ruben Studdard and Kimberley Locke could get their dressing rooms fitted to their liking. Kimberley often requests very simple things in the form of ‘Fit Club’ friendly items like salsa, tortilla chips and fruit, more specifically melons and cantaloupe. Ruben on the other hand, asks for an entire ‘loft’ of wheat bread. I’m wondering if that was a typo or something. That’s a whole lot of PB&J sandwiches if not.
The Top 24 contestants for the seventh season of American Idol have been revealed… sort of. The contestants all held up Simon Cowell face masks for their first photo shoot. Randy, Paula and Simon will reveal to their identities to the rest of the world this Wednesday.
The Top 12 Guys are Chikezie Eze, Colton Berry, Danny Noriega, David Archuleta, David Cook, David Hernandez, Garrett Haley, Jason Castro, Jason Yeager, Luke Menard, Michael Lee Johns and Robbie Carrico. While the Top 12 Girls are Alaina Whitaker, Alexandrea “Alex†Lushington, Amanda L. Overmyer, Amy Davis, Asiah Epperson, Brooke White, Carly Smithson, Joanne Borgella, Kady Malloy, Kristy Lee Cook, Ramiele Malubay and Syesha Mercado.
Katharine McPhee, former American Idol contestant and now singer/actress, married her fiance Nick Cokas. He is a producer.
The two met when they worked together in an L.A. production of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Eventually, the friends became a couple around the time she auditioned for American Idol.
Katherine was engaged to Nick in 2007 and the two were married Saturday in Beverly Hills.
American Idol wannabe Sanjaya Malakar was spotted getting cozy and walking arm-in-arm with an unidentified female friend in Los Angeles on Sunday. Third wheel sister Shyamali also accompanied the pair for lunch. The brother-sister pair now share a house in LA.
Sanjaya recently talked to People about his music career saying “I’m not in the recording stages yet. I’m writing music and starting to interview producers. If I had to define it, it would be alternative pop rock, like Paolo Nutini or James Morrison.†He also hopes to do a variety show similar to ‘Donny & Marie’ in the 1970s saying “[Shyamali and I are] Donny and Marie for the next generation!†You wish!
American Idol alum Katharine McPhee was recently dropped by her record label RCA. Her debut album only sold 366,000 copies and even failed to go gold. She joins the likes of Idol winners Rubben Studdard and Taylor Hicks of dropped Idols.
But that doesn’t mean she has to give up her so-called star status. The 23-year old wannabe singer hit up the Golden Globes gift bag event on Wednesday at Voda Spa in West Hollywood with one of her gal pals. Too bad that the Globes aren’t going to happen either – just like her career! Except, no one is on strike for Kat. She just got fired.
Get ready to put your hair up in a pony-hawk and put your earplugs back in because American Idol alum Sanjaya Malakar is about to sing his heart out again. If that’s what you call singing.The 18-year old wannabe crooner is hitting the stage for a solo performance in the holiday production of Langston Hughes’ ‘Black Nativity’ in Seattle on Sunday.
It may not be as big like Kelly Clarkson getting a Grammy or Carrie Underwood scoring another hit album, at least Sanjaya can say that he hasn’t received the same fate of some Idols singing at the opening of a housing development, an outlet mall or a regional balloon festival – yet.
Honestly, I love her. Something about her just makes me feel for her; she’s not annoying, she’s not creepy….I don’t know. So, I start this off by saying that I want her to succeed.
Unfortunately, her debut release Tattoo isn’t doing so well. Last year it was Taylor Hicks - he won the record for the weakest debut yet of an American Idol winner. Now, it look like Jordin may just take that title from him.
Is it Jordin that people aren’t smitten with? Or is it just that the American Idol fever is wearing off? Who can really say? I guess we’ll find out when American Idol returns to television with a new season in January.
It could be the lack of hype surrounding Tattoo. Or it could be that Jordin’s album was released among new albums from the likes of Alicia Keyes, Garth Brooks, and Josh Groban.
Whatever the case, will we see Sparks fly in the end? Or will she fizzle before she flames?
Kelly Clarkson is about to work her not-so-impressive songs much more as she and country legend Reba McEntire are reportedly going on tour together. The joint tour will kick off on January 17th in Dayton, Ohio and ends by February 16th in Kansas City, Missouri.
That’s 1 night, 1 band, 2 singers. Too bad everyone will have to sit through all the crappy songs from Kelly’s new album with a few sprinkles of her past hits but we’ve all got Reba to look out for.
Kelly has been a lifelong fan of Reba and even hired Reba’s husband as her new manager this year.
Jordin Sparks’ season 6 American Idol victory can mostly be attributed to her uncanny gift to cover ballads with that powerful set of pipes. On this lead single from her post-Idol debut, Jordin elects to give fans more of what they like with “Tattoo,†a catchy, down tempo track crafted by the red-hot production duo StarGate.
Throughout “Tattoo,†Sparks gorgeously reflects on a burnt out relationship over melancholy strings and piano. Whether genuine or not, the songstress has a gift for pouring just the right amount of emotion into each lyric. Even with cheesy, cringe-inducing lines such as “You’re on my heart just like a tattoo,†Jordin is able to sell the track by singing each word like she means it.
Although it will certainly be interesting to hear what Jordin can do on an up tempo record, it is still nice to hear what she does best. There is certainly nothing wrong with playing it safe early on in what appears to be a very promising career ahead.
Carrie Underwood has put rumours her ex is now dating Britney Spears behind her by claiming the top spot on the new albums chart. It’s a great week for country music on the Billboard 200 - the top three albums are all debuts from country acts. I personally think that she and Kelly Clarkson are the two best things to have come out of America Idol reality show. The others are good too and I am not going to name the others who are bad and who are good because you never know the ones we often are most critical they are the ones who most of then not come out trumps and we have to eat our words. Carrie is the one for the future and despite everyone thinking that she is not made for the toughness of the music industry and that she should be sitting at home chewing on her nails she has been successful and will continue to be much to the despair of her rivals.
Is it the month for the slim downs? First we saw a skinny Lily Allen and now a slimmed down Jennifer Hudson.
The American Idol alum/award-wining actress showed off her downsized body at a Project ALS party in New York City on Tuesday night. And boy was she hot! She’s working the boobs real well people.
I just hope that she doesn’t lose too much weight. She has to keep representing that big is beautiful. Whether you’re a singer or actress or host or business woman or just the average female, Jennifer’s one of few remaining who serve as a positive role model for kids.
Britney Spears – the next Sanjaya? American Idol, which seems to specialize in turning embarrassing performances into gold, has offered to do a little of the same for Spears “We have decided we can bring Britney back,” Idol judge Simon Cowell says in offering to help Spears’s career. “We are serious. We plan to buy her underpants, get her bigger shorts to perform in and get her away from her stupid friends.” So the idea is simple get her under garments so that her fat ass is not exposed again, nice boxing shorts so she looks like more fatter, and get her away from her stupid friends and then have Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon as friends who are even bad if not worse. This is the mantra that the American Idol judges have to ruin a career that’s finished and being thrown into the ocean already. Please the only help she needs right now is to forget her and do not pay attention to her, she’s a grown lady and a mom, she can take care of herself if someone allows her to do so.
Carrie Underwood sure is glad that she listened to Clive Davis. And that fact alone may be one of the things that Kelly Clarkson is furious over.
Carrie’s first single off of her new album is looking to be a big hit. The gorgeous and radio-friendly power ballad ‘So Small’ has been out less than a handful of days and it’s already at #3 on the iTunes singles charts. In addition to that, the song is also tracking very well at radio.
Yup, Kelly has a lot to be jealous of. She’s no longer American Idol’s sweetheart. Hail Queen Carrie!
