Archive for February, 2009

Jason Yeager vlogs the Week 2 semis and it’s even more awesome than last week!

Like many of us, Jason thought 2 girls should have gone through instead of 2 guys and says, “Kris Allen has no business being in the Top 12.” His favorite was Megan Joy Corkrey, despite finding her performance style “awkward” and “distracting.”

Plus, he bitches a lot about the new format, and goes off on a rant about Nick Mitchell, accusing Nick of not taking the contest seriously.

He compares Jeanine Vailes looks to Mr. Potato head and then tells a really dishy story about Mishavonna Henson.

Like Jason, Mishavonna was a Season 7 contestant. According to Jason, she was “balling her eyes out” when she was cut from Hollywood, while her mother “ripped into her…said awful things to her…broke her spirit.”

“She was a mess,” says Jason. He claims Misha’s mom is the worst kind of stage mom and that he, David Cook and Michael Johns were all “really upset.”

About song choice, “The judges are always harping on song choice, song choice, song choice, but you’re given a very short list of songs they have paid the rights to air on television and you pick 3 songs off of that list and the producers tell you which one you’re going to do..”

Interesting!

Do watch the video after the JUMP!

thanks for the reminder, vftw.

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Here’s Adam Lambert singing “A Change is Gonna Come” at the Zodiac Show in Hollywood, 2004.

An Idol staple that’s been covered by the likes of Syesha Mercado and Taylor Hicks, part of me would kill to see Adam bust out with this Top 12 week, with the over-singing and the glam getup intact.

But then, the other part of me wants Adam to stick around on my TV for a few weeks, at least.

Entertainment Weekly posted an update on 15 of your favorite Idols. I’m posting a summary here as some of this information is new to the blog.   I added a few song links to top it off!:

• Kelly Clarkson – Her album, All I Ever Wanted is out March 10. But you knew that!
  
• Ruben Studdard – His Hickory Records release, Love is On the Way, is out May 19. Listen to his single, “Together” HERE.
• Clay Aiken – He parted ways with RCA recently.   He’ll be a guest judge on the April 8 episode of America’s Next Top Model.
• Fantasia – She’s recording her 3rd studio album, and will appear in a 10 week run of The Color Purple.   She’s currently shopping around a reality show about her return to high school (Seriously?)
• Carrie Underwood – She’s writing her third album (and collecting award trophys!)

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David Archuleta performs a song, “Zero Gravity” that didn’t make the cut for his album, David Archuleta in Richmond VA on Wednesday.

David’s next tour stop is tonight at the Chameleon in Lancaster, PA. More videos from Richmond: Somebody Out There, Angels, To Be With You, Waiting For Yesterday, My Hands, Barriers and 1000 Miles.

thanks mcamy1

The latest Season 8 contestants to advance to the Top 12 were interviewed by the press yesterday afternoon. I posted a few quotes from Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen HERE.

In this interview from Entertainment Tonight, the kids namecheck their musical influences. For Kris, it’s the Beatles, Allison? Pink. And for Adam, David Bowie, of course…

For even more quotes from the press conference, read on:

Adam Lambert:

• On being a polarizing contestant, “Obviously, I’m a risk-taker. I’m not easy listening, you know? I’m not going to always be the most digestible thing for everybody across the board. I’m specific, and I kind of like to blow it out the box. And either you like it, or you don’t.”
• Idol experience vs theater experience, “You have to be on your game with the theater world. You have to be ready to go at any moment. I mean, this machine is turning real fast. So I think theater has definitely trained me to sing under any condition and just go at the drop of a hat.
• Is he hoping for a Broadway Week? “No, I hope they don’t. Not because I have anything against it, I just don’t see myself doing that as a recording artist in that way.”
• Who is his musical Hero? “I think David Bowie has been a really, really, really, really cool artist, just considering that he’s reinvented himself. He took a ton of risks, both visually, lyrically and musically. Obviously, vocally we are very different, but I think that along those other lines, we have some similarities, and someone like that is a great model for me.”
• His first theater role, “I actually was cast in a production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown when I was 10. I played the role of Linus with the blanket… I got to sing… I don’t remember the song!”
• On backstories, “I think it does make a difference. The audience can empathize with that person and they can relate to you singing a song that means a lot to you. That really evokes quite a reaction from the audience.”
• On having a “different” singing style, “I’ve been watching the show for years and I haven’t really seen anybody that I could compare myself to. I do have an advantage because it’s something different. The more individual we all are, the more chance we have at garnering a fanbase.”
• Not his favorite genre, “I’m kind of competitive and I like challenges so I don’t think range-wise there’s anything I’d be scared to attempt. There are maybe certain styles I’d want to stay way from. Country week would be a slight stretch for me, but I like all types of music and would try to sing all types of music.”
• Does he check out the internet? “I try not to dwell on it too much but I have seen things here or there and it does help. I don’t take it personally, good or bad. I try to remain objective. It’s like market research, it helps you find out what the fans think.”

Sources: MTV: Adam, Allison, Kris. Zap2it: Adam, Allison, Kris. Associated Press, Entertainment Tonight, American Idol Buzz

Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen after the JUMP…

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American Idol: Is This The Season of the Worship Leader?

Last night, I was wrong about my American Idol predictions, and I’ve never been so happy: Kris Allen (pictured) made the Top 12! He, along with Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert, join Alexis Grace, Danny Gokey and Michael Sarver in the Top 12.

I love Kris Allen but wasn’t sure that he’d get enough votes to put him through. Lo and behold, he made it! (I have a hunch we’ll see Norman Gentle back for the Wild Card round.)

That means that of the top six contestants, three are church worship leaders:

Beliefnet.com

“American Idol” so far: a race with no horses

I thought Seattle Times arts critic Misha Berson made a great comment yesterday: “I need a horse in this race!” I agree completely! Because of either a lack of talent or the change in format, I’m just not getting a buzz from any of the six who have made it through so far.

In previous years, it’s been fun to latch onto a favorite around Top 24 time and become emotionally invested in their fate. Sometimes there’s even a nice battle of genres.

Seattle Times

More Idol Headlines after the JUMP…

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Kelly Clarkson is set to appear on Saturday Night Live as the musical guest, (Tracy Morgan of 30 Rock will host) on March 14. Her album, All I Ever Wanted is set to be released in the US on March 10.

Recently, Kelly had some guest appearances in the UK. Watch her perform her hit single “My Life Would Suck Without You” on Channel 4’s The Paul O’Grady Show

O’Grady also interviewed her HERE, and Kelly helped introduce some doggies who need homes HERE.

After the jump, it’s Kelly singing “My Life Would Suck Without You” on Channel 4’s The Chart Show and acoustic style at an HMV record store.

Video after the JUMP…

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In a brief interview (her first since the tragedy) on the Oprah show today, Jennifer Hudson never addressed the murders of her mom, brother and nephew in October, but when asked how she was doing, Jennifer answered, “I’m just glad to be back and be back to work again. Just doing what I love to do is like therapy…I’m in a very good place.”

Afterward, Jennifer performed her new single “If This Isn’t Love.”

I’m hearing hit potential…

Video after the JUMP…

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Kris Allen, Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert, the three contestants who advanced to the Top 12 on American Idol this week, just finished a satellite press conference.   Here are a few quotes:

From Adam Lambert:

Theaterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s what he does, not what he ISà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦, “In certain ways, there’s certain elements of the theater training that could be detrimental to the ‘Idol’ experience because that’s not really the sound I’m going for–I’m not going for a Broadway sound. But this is finally allowing me to be myself. I mean, I don’t listen to show tunes in my spare time. I can assure you of that (laughs). The musical theater thing was just kind of the way that I was paying the bills. I mean, we all gotta have a job, right?”

On his strategy going forwardà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦, I’m not planning on wailing at the top of my lungs every week. I mean, I think the audience would grow tired of that. I intend on making it interesting by varying up the mood and the style of the song that I’m singing week to week.

On all his screen time, Of course it’s helped, I mean, it’s exposed me to people more and more times and so they get the feeling like they know me and that’s really exciting, and they get to hear me talk and hear my opinions, which are many (laughs). Yeah, no, of course it’s helped and I’m really really thankful to the producers for featuring me in such a way.

On what kind of album he wants to make, “I, think picking one singular genre wouldn’t apply to me. I think I would try to fuse a couple of different vibes together. Um, definitely there’d be elements of rock. There’d be elements of Pop. I think there’d be elements of electronic music–something that kind of blended all together. There would definitely be elements of funk as well. So, a little of everything, I would hope.”

More after the JUMP…

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ETA: Entertainment Weekly is reporting Idol had an average of 20.7m viewers last night. The numbers are down 26% from last year…

Season 7, the comparable episode (Top 20 results, also on a Thursday) had 26.2M viewers and a 9.1/24 rating in the key demo.

The programming insider breaks the numbers down further. From 8-8:30, Idol averaged 19.4M viewers, the numbers increased at 8:30-9pm to 21.9M:

ABC 8:00 1.8/5 6,676,000 UGLY BETTY
CBS 8:00 3.8/11 11,920,000 SURVIVOR
NBC 8:00 1.4/4 3,991,000 KUNG FU PANDA: SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE (S)
FOX 8:00 6.5/19 19,433,000 AMERICAN IDOL (S)
CW 8:00 0.7/2 2,113,000 SMALLVILLE (R)

ABC 8:30 2.0/5 6,898,000 UGLY BETTY
CBS 8:30 4.1/11 12,647,000 SURVIVOR
NBC 8:30 1.5/4 3,448,000 KATH & KIM
FOX 8:30 7.5/20 21,890,000 AMERICAN IDOL (S)
CW 8:30 0.7/2 2,091,000 SMALLVILLE (R)

Idol moving to Thursday was bad news for it’s competition:

From TV by the Numbers:

Thanks to the Presidential Address on Wednesday, American Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s visit to 8pm Thursday was unwelcome by Survivor which was down about 10% in the demos from last week, and even less so by Ugly Betty which was down about 20% for its lowest original airing ever. My kids love the Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five short movie, but it went nearly unwatched. Kath & Kim was nearly as invisible at 8:30, hitting a series low.

Newly minted Top 12 contestants, Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen are on rethe interview circuit today.

The Seacrest interview this morning:

Adam Lambert says he hopes to see Matt Giraud back for the Wildcard.

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Allison Iraheta is super excited to talk to the Good Day LA people. She watches them every day! Adam, also from LA, could care less.

“Norman was brilliant,” says Adam about Nick Mitchell. And Adam, without naming names, hints strongly that no one got along with Tatiana Del Toro.

Good Day LA

Good Day New York asks Adam about his professional experience, and he admits he has a lot of theater experience, but very little on TV and that he’s still getting used to it.

Kris Allen so far? Boring as a rock.

Interview with Good Day New York, after the JUMP…

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The rule change–20 points had to be divided amongst 3 contestants–made things a little more challenging this week.

We only have 11 first place winners this week

1 melverine
1 Aifan100
1 archiecutie
1 jbean48
1 BPC
1 abdul’s awesome
1 Brodi
1 joebass FTW!
1 anubha
1 pemberton123
1 flea

And our overall 1st place winner so far is…

Archiecutie!

Congrats to all of this week’s leaders!

David Archuleta cracks me up. He’s just so…random.

Check out his latest Vlog from a gift shop at the Atlanta Airport. Need I say more?

Currently, Archie is in the midst of his spring tour Saturday night he performs at the Chameleon in Lancaster, PA.

Thanks to Maura Johnson from Idolator for the tip.

Ryan Seacrest twitters these scintillating, behind-the-scenes tidbits from last night’s show:

bout to go on the air at Idol…gonna ask Simon sarcastically why he’s so brilliant. – Ryan

Prob shouldn’t be twittering during commercial breaks…but you should know it took 8 guys to get that piano off the stage at idol. – Ryan

Fascinating!

Rushfield Review: In defense of the format

I would like to enter into evidence exhibits in defense of the format.

I would like to start out by conceding, for the moment, the validity of all the prosecutionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s points. It is true this format gives us less time to get to know the contestants at the outset (although somehow it seems we have relived every inch of Danny Gokeyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s life with him); it is true that flukes may happen, that there is enormous pressure now on one song.

Still, the prosecutionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s case rests on a bed of quicksand. Its flaw is this: While pointing out the shortcomings of the new format, they suppose that all was a bed of roses under the old regime.

LA Times

Is Nick Mitchell (aka Norman Gentle) ruining American Idol?

Nick Mitchell never should have made it through to Hollywood week. He is the guy who makes it onto the audition episode mainly so people can make fun of him. He broke the cardinal rule of auditions: He dressed up in costume. The judges, especially Simon, hate costumes. I don’t care if you’re Aretha Franklin herself. If you come dressed up in a bunny costume, you’re not getting to Hollywood week. That’s just a fact.

TV Squad

More Headlines after the Jump…

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