Archive for April, 2009

In Paula Abdul’s weekly Idol rundown with John Jay and Rich from KISS Phoenix, she reveals that mentor Jamie Foxx went beyond the call of duty, spending the entire day mentoring the Idols, even taking them out to lunch.

They responded to Jamie really well as a result.

A most lolzworthy moment, though, is Idol-free and happens at the 12:22 mark, as Paula describes how she was punked by Sacha Baron Cohen for his movie “Bruno”.

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Vulture has a transcript:

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Top 36 American Idol Season 8 contestant, Nick Mitchell, appeared as a guest on the “Better Connecticut” show with Scott Haney.

Nick recounts trying out for Idol as his sketch character “Normund Gentle” and how he never thought he’d make it past the judges in a million years.

He also admits to some post-idol letdown, but is looking forward to working on his career–he’s moving out to LA in 2 weeks.

He tells Haney he’ll be free from Idol’s contractual clutches in August.

Congratualtions to this week’s American Idol pool first place finishers! The bonus questions were tough–not so many winners this week

1 Connie D
1 jz
1 JudyOhio
1 St.Lucia
1 shaunankc
1 bluegreen

Also a big congrats to our overall winners:

1 sueanny
2 dante
3 MagazineFreak
3 RemusL
3 Raymond

I’ve skipped 10 spots to #82! Yay me!

Ryan Seacrest interviews Matt Giraud on his LA KISS radio show. Ryan tells Matt he couldn’t live in a mansion that didn’t have access to “chicks”. Uh, OK Ryan.

When asked what he said to Adam Lambert as they stood together in the Bottom Two, Matt said, “You know Adam, I hope they made me a good [tape] package.” Heh.

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After the jump, check out interviews with FOX stations from New York, Philadelphia and DC…

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Ken Warwick and his fellow American Idol producers must have been crapping themselves after Apple inadvertently allowed the iTunes popularity bars for Idol downloads to be visible last Thursday.

When asked about the glitch last night, he told FOX LA: “There are no download numbers from iTunes…it’s not true…there were no numbers released.”

Well, that’s not a lie, exactly

The iTunes folks don’t release numbers on their download site for any of their artists. What they feature are popularity bars, allowing iTunes users to sort lists of songs according to their popularity.

Normally, the popularity bars are hidden for Idol tunes. Last Thursday, for a brief time, they were visible.

And I’ve got witnesses, people.

• Blog reader Primeminister was the first to notice the glitch HERE.
• Within a matter of minutes, the kids at Idol Forums were creating their own charts HERE.
• Within about 90 minutes of the glitch being discovered, I snagged my own chart right HERE.
• And Apple has screwed up before. Check out the Wildcard episode leak right HERE.

Ask Rickey from Rickey.org. He was making charts based on the iTunes popularity bars through most of last season until the glitch was fixed. In hindsight, the charts proved to be pretty accurate snapshots of where the contestants stood in the competition.

The charts are easy to create when it’s possible-just dump the songs you want to compare into a playlist, and then create an iMix out of the collection.

So Ken? Nice try at covering your ass, but unfortunately you score an EPIC FAIL. Watch him duck and cover here:

After the JUMP, check out the judges reaction to last night’s surprising bottom 3. Simon Cowell admits he’s wrong. Oh My.

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‘American Idol’: On the scene at the Top 5 results show

I entered the American Idol Thunderdome last night in a breathless rush — more on why in a second — so I almost missed a funny (and kinda prophetic) moment during the pre-show preparations. With 40 minutes to show time, the crew was still putting final touches on the lights, and the band was milling about in their civvies, Rickey Minor sporting what I believe was an especially choice Asian-tinged bowling shirt. Just as I took my seat, a bunch of the band decided to warm up their instruments and/or jam out for a bit. The song they chose? “Hit the Road Jack.” A pretty hilarious song choice for the American Idol band to play on a results night, no? Especially since it turned out to be the night that Matt “Actually, It’s More Like Three Lives” Giraud was finally and definitively cut from the show. (Due respect to Matty G. fans, of course, but you gotta admit the dude managed to make lingering into an art form.)

Entertainment Weekly

‘American Idol’ recap: Cake, rattle, and roll

To the casual observer, tonight’s American Idol results show might have seemed as routine and uneventful as, say, a pigeon on a park bench or a Kim Kardashian photo-op. Ryan Seacrest made his usual entrance via the Adam Lambert Memorial Staircase. Randy Jackson booed Simon Cowell’s introduction like an 8-year-old who’s still learning the difference between what’s funny and what’s merely annoying. And Matt Giraud, the guy everyone pretty much expected to go home, took his final bows to a heartfelt farewell from Paula Abdul (and one final lascivious look from Kara DioGuardi).

Entertainment Weekly

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹American Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ gets down to final four

Matt Giraud had more chances than anyone in recent memory on à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“American Idol,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  but the coolest cat on the show finally had the clock run out on him this week.

The dueling piano player from Kalamazoo, Mich. earned a wild-card berth into the final 13, and a judgesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ save kept him around two weeks ago. After a Tuesday night where everybody performed well and more than 47 million votes were cast, he couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t muster up quite enough support to stay the game.

MSNBC

More Idol Headlines after the JUMP…

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Next week, the Top 4 finalists–Kris Allen, Danny Gokey, Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert–will receive advice from guest mentor Slash and then take the stage Tuesday to perform rock songs.

On Wednesday’s results show, Daughtry is set to debut their new single “No Surprise” from their upcoming album, due out later this year.

Plus a re-united No Doubt, take the Idol stage to perform.

Rock music is such an amalgam of influences, “Rock Week” could end up being a pretty broad theme, depending on how the producers define it.

This week’s iTunes performances come with an “exclusive” autographed photo. So, download now…

ETA: Make sure to click “Buy Album” if you want the photo!

Click the link, help the site!   Thank you.

Later, look for my reviews of this weeks downloads…

• Kris Allen – à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The Way You Look Tonight” – VIDEO – iTunes
• Allison Iraheta – à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Some One To Watch Over Me” – VIDEO – iTunes
• Matt Giraud – à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“My Funny Valentine” – VIDEO – iTunes
• Danny Gokey – à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Septemberà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  by Earth Wind and   – VIDEO – iTunes
  
• Adam Lambert – à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Feeling Good”   – VIDEO – iTunes
  

Download songs from the original artist right HERE.

American Idol Extra interviewed Matt Giraud right after his elimination last night.

BONUS: The Idols talk about their favorite movies..

Videos after the JUMP…

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Taylor Hicks is interviewed by Jillian Reynolds and Season 5 buddy Ace Young on American Idol Extra. Later, he performs the single “What’s Right is Right”

BONUS: Idol musical director, Rickey Minor, talks about this week’s song choices, and Constantine Maroulis is in New York City with fan questions for the Idols.

Videos after the JUMP…

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Matt Giraud is eliminated from American Idol, Adam Lambert, Kris Allen in the Bottom 3

Front-runner Adam Lambert in the Bottom 2? OMG!!! Is it a conspiracy? A set up? Or just an old-fashioned case of fan complacency plus vote splitting? Hm…

“Who will get the SHOCK tonight?” asks Ryan Seacrest…over 47 million votes came in last night.

Simon said when he watched it back EVERYBODY was good. Hmph. Taking back his words?   He says it was the best show so far.

Taylor Hicks, Natalie Cole and Jamie Foxx will perform tonight.

• Ford Video – “Energy” – VIDEO
• The Top 5 perform “It Don’t Mean a Thing/I’ve Got Rhythm” – VIDEO
• The Idols celebrate Allison and Danny’s birthdays with a flour fight – VIDEO
• Adam Lambert chooses the wrong group, he’s in the Bottom 3 with Kris Allen and Matt Giraud. Kris Allen is sent to safety – VIDEO
• Natalie Cole performs “Somethings Gotta Give” – VIDEO
• Jamie Foxx performs “Blame it” – VIDEO
• Taylor Hicks performs “7 Mile Breakdown” – VIDEO
• Matt Giraud is Eliminated – VIDEO

Live Blog After the JUMP…

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More music has leaked from Kris Allen’s pre-Idol album “Brand New Shoes”   I posted a few cuts that leaked back in March right HERE.

The new song is called “Land of Smiles.” It’s spare, melodic arrangement is set to some strings and acoustic guitar.

Check it out here:

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Jason Castro is answering questions and will perform one of his new songs at the end of the hour.

The live webcast is going on right HERE.

Jason recently signed with Atlantic records and plans to release an album later this year.

He’s singing “Sweet Medicine” right now, as a matter of fact.

Check out this recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.

ETA: Oops it’s over. Sorry for the late notice. Looking forward to his debut album…

Check out the recorded stream HERE.

Bottom 2: Matt Giraud, Allison Iraheta
Going Home: Matt Giraud

Five songs. One hour. So much filler. It really pisses me off that the judges’ inability to keep their critiques short and sweet forced the producers to ditch the two-song format for Top 5 week. They tried–the contestants were rehearsing two songs, and the AI site initially promoted a 10 song episode–but in the end the decision was made to cut one of the contestant’s songs and hire a mentor to fill up the time.

Thank Jeebus for small favors–Jamie Foxx proved to be a helpful and entertaining mentor. But, now I’ll never know how the kids would have handled two standards. Boo.

And guess what? I heard that Debbie the stage manager told yesterday’s dress rehearsal crowd that next week might feature the two-song format. Might. Oh, and despite this week’s reconfiguration, the end of the episode was still rushed! So, I’m not holding my breath.

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Idol mentor, Jamie Foxx spoke with Ryan Seacrest on his LA KISS radio show this morning. He had glowing praise for all the kids, but seemed to love Kris Allen and Adam Lambert the most.

Jamie said “That Kris Allen cat is going to have a significant, significant career.” And about Adam he said, “That dude is going to shoot through the stratosphere.”

Tonight Jamie Foxx is set to perform his song, “Blame It”

Check out the interview here:

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