For your convenience–a handy guide to this week’s giant Idol Gives Back Special.
- Newsflash: According to Usa Today’s Idol Chatter blog, Bono will be appearing on the Idol Gives Back special Wednesday. Here’s the scoop, Bono will ”meet with the six American Idol finalists to talk about the work of ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History (www.one.org) and how the Idol audience can help. The IDOL contestants also will perform American Prayer, a song written by Bono and Dave Stewart about the AIDS emergency in Africa.”
- Ellen DeGeneres will be co-hosting the LIVE 2-hour Idol Gives Back special on Wednesday. She’ll be introducing the acts at the Walt Disney Theater in Anaheim, while Ryan takes his usual place at the CBS studios for the eliminations.
- Tuesday night’s performance show is 1 hour. The show will be taped, rather than performed live. Rumor has it, the taping is today.
- The remaining six contestants will be singing ”‘life anthem’–songs of compassion and hope, in keeping with the Idol Gives Back theme.” Â
- Afterward, viewer votes will, “trigger a donation to charities by the corporate sponsors of Idol — Ford, Coca-Cola, AT&T and News Corp.”
- Wednesday’s Idol Gives Back special will feature: Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Gwen Stefani, Earth, Wind & Fire, Il Divo, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Josh Groban with the African Children’s Choir, Jack Black, Helen Mirren, Rascal Flatts, Quincy Jones, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox and Sacha Cohen as “Borat”.
- There is a rumor that the “special duet” between “two of the biggest stars in musical history†that Ryan mentioned on Wednesday’s results show will be Celine Dion duetting with Elvis Presley. An Elvis impersonator will play the on-stage part of Elvis. Eep. And the Idols will sing back up. The performance, has apparently already been taped.
- Ford has produced a music video that will air on the Idol Gives Back special, Wednesday. The video, as well as other musical performances from the night, will be available for download after the show. All proceeds will be contributed to Idol Gives Back.
- Viewers will be invited to donate, through phone calls or the internet to: Save the Children, UNICEF, Malaria No More, The Global Fund and Nothing But Nets. These programs aid “youth relief programs in Africa and poverty-hit areas of the United States including hurricane ravaged Louisiana.”
- Ken Warwick did an interview with Entertainment Tonight. He says, ”…these kinds of shows can be a little bit depressing if you’re not careful. So throughout the show, there is a certain amount of humor and a certain amount of shock value, shall we say, that is going to entertain people, and that’s what we’re after. But it’s going to move people to put their hands in their pockets and make them want to watch to the very last.”
- You can donate through the Idol Gives Back My Space page.
For those of you a little confused about where your money will go, and how it will be distributed, here is some info from the Fox press release:
- Idol Gives Back will raise awareness and funds for Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (CPEF) an organization that provides relief programs to help children and young people in extreme poverty in America and Africa. Corporate sponsors of Idol Gives Back are led by News Corporation, Ford, Coca-Cola and AT&T. Allstate and ExxonMobil will make matching contributions to Save the Children and Malaria No More, respectively, via CPEF.
- CPEF is a new charitable organization established to raise money and awareness to help combat extreme poverty in the U.S. and throughout the world, particularly in Africa. CPEF’s mission is to use the power of entertainment to drive positive change to achieve its vision of creating a just world free from poverty. CPEF is inspired and supported by the UK charity that invented Red Nose Day.
- In the United States, CPEF has selected America’s Second Harvest The Nation’s Food Bank Network, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Children’s Health Fund as beneficiaries, in addition to the previously announced Save the Children. These organizations deliver support to poor children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country, providing them with medical care, food and grocery products, health and life skills, literacy programs and obesity prevention, among other important initiatives.
- In Africa, funds will be dedicated to The Global Fund, Malaria No More, Nothing But Nets, Save the Children and The U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Each organization will receive funds to support efforts to battle poverty through various health and education programs, including delivering medical supplies and providing clean water. These organizations also aim to control and prevent malaria through practical resources and programs, including providing life-saving bed nets and other activities tied to Africa Malaria Day on April 25.
Oh God. Celine Dion and a fake Elvis? What a letdown.
Thanks for this, MJ. You cleared up a lot of confusion I certainly had about how this was going to be done.
That Celine Dion/Elvis thing is some sort of joke, right????
If it is a fake Elvis, they better be a damn good elvis or i will fly to LA and personally punch nigel in the face.
Oh…sad to say, considering that Celine and Elvis’ catalog both reside at SonyBMG, it’s about as hard as falling off a log to imagine that Elvis’ estate — remembering how many compilations were sold wrapped around the techno remix of “A Little Less Conversation” — that an “Unforgettable”-style duet could be the marketing hook for yet another reissue…maybe “Elvis Duets.”
I think Elvis releases a new cd every year, yet they’re just the same songs. Elvis #1s, Elvis love songs etc etc
Blake looks so cute in that pic. ! heh.
Love me some Blake. Heh.
So very cool that they get to meet Bono. :)
Eeek at Celine and “Elvis”.
And maracaibo, yeah, Blake is HOT. :)
MJ: I can’t find your email link to send you the song spoilers…did you move it, or am I just blind today…lol
Chris Richardson “If I Could Change The World”
Melinda Doolittle “There Will Come A Day”
Blake Lewis “Imagine”
LaKisha Jones “I Believe”
Phil Stacey “The Change”
Jordin Sparks “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
This is from Shmorla at IDF…Shmorla works at AI and is one of Ricky’s insiders. Every once in a while she posts herself. Here’s what she says about the taping:
I’ll give you my opinion… but no bashing on it please. Chris was up first. He sang with a guitar player. He started out low pitch so it was hard to hear him. Personally, i didnt think he sounded great and was waiting for Simon to bash him but he didnt. He made a comment about how the competition had just started now that all that other stuff was out of the way ( ie sanjaya)
Blake sang with a piano player. Imagine is such a beautiful song it would be hard for anyone to measure up to Lennon but he sounded pretty good. it wasnt amazing or anything but decent
Melinda was unbelievable. judges told her she took the song and made it sound like it was something she had just recorded.
Phil sang with piano guy. He took on a Garth Brooks song that i happen to love. Started off a bit rocky but got better in the middle. My guess is next week if he makes it he will follow simons advice and stick with something more countryish
Lakisha started off really rocky but then her big voice came out and she sounded great. i was shocked the judges dissed her. kind of made me think they want to get rid of her to make sure melinda and jordin stick around. she brushed their comments off again and said she was happy with it
Jordin sounded great but the song is one noone had heard of. so im not sure the home audience will be as thrilled. Simon told her it was a sixty year old song and he bets she could have a hit record with it now. She really looked stunning. like a true star. teared up at the end.
Here’s judges comments per shmorla at IDF:
:
Jordin - Randy told her tonite it was the best vocal by any Idol on any season
Chris R. - All three judges liked him. Paula thought one of his best
Melinda - a rock star as always. they all loved her.
Blake - Randy didnt like. paula impressed with his emotion. Simon liked his emotion too.
Phil - Randy and Paula thought he was great. Simon liked it but told him to continue going for the country style songs
Lakisha - audience loved it but judges slammed her. Simon thinks she shout sings.
Also, 2 phone lines for each:
yes. two phone numbers tonite for each
1 and 7
2 and 8
3 and 9
4 and 10
5 and 11
6 and 12
The phone lines will be opened for 4 hours instead of two for Idol Gives Back.
Thanks Mila…
I’ll post those out front in a bit. When I moved my server, I didn’t reconfigure the email… I’ll do that in a bit…
Oh good, at least it’s not me…as it usually is…lol
Eeek - 4 hours of voting!
So was it a choice between Ellen Degeneres and Brian Dunkelman to host at the second venue? I can’t imagine why they went with Ellen!!
Go Jordin!! What does Shmorla mean no one ever heard of “I’ll Never Walk Alone”? I’ve heard of it, it’s from Carousel. It’s actually fairly well known among us “60-years-olds.”