Today’s Idol headlines after the jump…
‘Idol’ concert about as fun as Season 6
Music review - At the Rose Garden, just like on TV, there’s great singing — and there’s Sanjaya
Despite its still-strong ratings, Season 6 of “American Idol” left a faint aftertaste of the blahs. The show spent what seemed like years showcasing blood-curdlingly weird auditioners. Singers who made the cut seemed at best pleasant and at worst — well, who can forget Sanjaya?
So when the “American Idols Live!” tour rolled into the Rose Garden Arena on Saturday night, the prospect of seeing the 10 finalists reunited in concert was an iffy proposition. Would their true talents have a chance to shine, or would they demonstrate why this seemed like a fairly forgettable lineup?
The answers: yes and yes……
Idol tour takes TV show to next level
Dancing and singing to upbeat melodies, a band behind bright lights and relentless cheers from star-struck teeny-boppers.
It was everything a pop concert should be.
And, with 10 contestants from one of the country’s most popular television shows singing old and new hits, the American Idols Tour took it to the next level.
There was something for, maybe not everyone, but most people at this show. The contestant the mom in the sixth row hated was the one the 10-year- old in the nosebleed section loved….
Kelly Clarkson, Joss Stone Outgrow TV Pop Contests
Kelly Clarkson and Joss Stone are both outgrowing the talent-show victories that shot them to fame. The two have released mature albums for summertime listening….
No sophomore jitters for songwriter Tunstall
…By contrast, the U.S. breakthrough of “Telescope” was helped by key placements for its songs, from performances on “American Idol” to the appearance of “Suddenly I See” on the silver screen in “The Devil Wears Prada.” “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree” then received a Grammy Award nomination for best female pop vocal performance.
“It’s weird,” Tunstall says. “I’m writing these songs and they’re like little oompa-loompas. They go into the world and I keep getting these postcards from them, saying, ‘Guess what? I’m in a Meryl Streep film.’ I’m like, ‘Well done, haven’t you done well.”‘…
On to Dallas
A McAllen resident’s South Texas Idol contest victory guarantees her an audition with ‘American Idol’ producers
Jasmine Rico-Garcia rocked Cine El Rey Sunday afternoon.
She danced, she smiled, and she won the South Texas Idol with the Carrie Underwood song “Before He Cheats.” She beat out 12 other finalists for the honor.
Rico-Garcia, of McAllen, told the audience she learned the song the night before, but neither the audience or the judges could tell.
She nailed it…..
American Idol 7 Auditions Kick Off
The American Idol 7 auditions kick off today at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Registration actually started two days ago on July 28, and according to FOX 6 in San Diego, thousands showed up and waited in line to claim their wristbands for the auditions. There were also three Idol hopefuls that didn’t have to wait in line. Leonora Pangilinan, Ashley Tidd, and Christiana Villalva all won guaranteed auditions in front of the judges from FOX 6…..
Rapp and Pascal Together Again in Broadway’s Rent
…”American Idol” veteran Tamyra Gray is Roger’s Mimi…
Local siblings to audition for American Idol
While Belhaven gave the world the talented “Little Eva” Boyd, who took “The Locomotion” to the number one spot in 1962, another Beaufort County community just may produce the next musical phenomenon.
Siblings Ferando Warren and Candy Blanch, both of Washington, will temporarily leave their jobs at Southern Cheers in a couple weeks to take a shot at stardom. They’ll be among the hundreds — better make that thousands — of hopefuls auditioning for the chance to perform and compete in season 7 of American Idol……
Sports Define Many Lives
…Simon Cowell, from American Idol, talks about several embarrassing moments in his sports career playing soccer and running track. He was asked if he would advise his kids not to play sports. “They absolutely will,” he responded. “Play — win or lose — but play. Know your limitations…and you’ll learn about yourself. Most of all, sports teaches communication and teamwork. Find me a TV show without good teamwork, and I will show you a bad show.”…
Making A Difference In Hollywood
…The Cavaliers are extremely popular in Hollywood. Recently “American Idol” contestant Katharine McPhee has adopted one of these prize pooches. She sports around Hollywood with the adorable doggie….
He knows he’s got talent
…Finally, after nine auditions for “American Idol,” he made it to the Hollywood round last winter - but he wasn’t seen singing on the Fox show. Even during the first few weeks of the NBC show in June, he wasn’t seen on the show.
“I always felt that if America gets to see me, they’d like me,” he says by phone from Los Angeles while preparing for Tuesday’s live telecast. He has taken an unpaid leave from the countywide agency.
Viewers two weeks ago voted to send him from the top 20 acts to the top 10. “Idol” judge Simon Cowell produces the NBC talent show, hosted by Jerry Springer…
Who said winners never quit?
…And the original “American Idol,” Kelly Clarkson, is doing everything she can to transform herself from the Southern sweetheart who agreeably starred in “From Justin to Kelly” to a gloomy diva who doesn’t hesitate to dis Clive Davis…
Top praises American Idol
Duke praises reality TV for bringing real music backThe Four Tops’ Duke Fakir has praised reality TV talent shows for bringing “real music” back to younger generations.
The 71-year-old singer, who is the only original member of the group still performing, said American Idol and other talent shows “has America listening to all kinds of music as opposed to just hip hop”. ….
Rush & Molloy
…Ryan Seacrest is on holiday with several buddies. (No girls.) The “American Idol” host and his pals hit the beach the other day. Trying to avoid the $30 chair rental, Seacrest asked some ladies if they’d watch his stuff while he went swimming. Sure, they said. When he came back, he joked, “Did you take any of my credit cards out of my wallet?” Judging by their frowns, his American humor didn’t translate….
Glenn Gamboa
DROPS
…ALSO IN STORES. Korn’s latest “Untitled” (Virgin) album; Central Islip rapper Keith Murray teams up with Erick Sermon again on “Rap-Murr-Phobia” (Koch); R&B singer Mario brings new songwriters on for “Go” (J); The Starting Line moves toward power-pop on “Direction” (Virgin); rockers Puddle of Mudd return with “Famous” (Geffen); and “American Idol” finalist Mandisa debuts with “True Beauty” (Sparrow).
Nothing more than an Idol threat?
Critics say blaming the singing competition’s viewers for an anti-Toronto bias is ‘desperate’
…Canadian Idol isn’t the first Idol show whose voters have been accused of playing favourites. For the first five years of American Idol, every grand prize winner was from the American South (Texas, Tennesee, Alabama), leading to accusations that the show should really be named Confederate Idol. When Arizonan Jordin Sparks won the 2007 competition, it was considered newsworthy that Southerners had finally failed to deliver the prize to a good ol’ boy or girl.
But unlike Brunton, the producers of American Idol haven’t complained that their local people (Californians) aren’t winning. And though their boys and girls don’t win on American Idol, people from big U.S. cities still watch the show. That’s not the case in Canada. While Canadian Idol does well in some areas, it has struggled to find an audience in Toronto, and is equally unpopular in other big cities like Vancouver and Montreal. Brunton even alluded to this in his press release, lamenting the fact that “Toronto is not paying attention” to his show…
Hey Kat McPhee - nice panties! (hot pics & hot video)
Katharine McPhee has had her own little wardrobe malfunction of sorts (in an innocent good girl sort of way)…
Sun-Splashed Country Comfort
…Former “American Idol” top-10 contestant Carmen Rasmusen came through with some catchy tunes and a very friendly demeanor…
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I totally agree… and so does Elliott. He has said on many occasions that he’ll never dis the show because if not for the show none of this would have happened for him.
Take it one step further and nobody that wasn’t on Idol would have a hit record - that goes from Kelly Clarkson to Clay Aiken to Carrie Underwood to Taylor Hicks. Everyone should be thankful for their exposure on AI.
thanks, star!
If Blake truly wanted to stay underground why did he bother auditioning for idol? I do agree that he seems into music and not fame as the main priority. I’m not handwringing about Blake. I’m sure since 19 signed him, he’ll be fine. It’s just very odd that it’s August and nothing has been announced. The Perez Hilton site linked above also has a little gossip on Taylor.
Hmmm….”a major recording contract” seems kind of vague doesn’t it? What happened to $1Mill recording contract?
Only time will tell if the bottom 5 and the castoffs from past seasons will be successful. Only Jennifer Hudson to my mind came in the bottom 5 and is a super-stah! Can someone name another Idol who came in the bottom 5 and is a super-stah? Maybe Kellie Pickler, who is on her way but hasn’t arrived yet.
Is there a castoff that’s a super-stah? I don’t think so. Most of the bottom 5 and the super-stahs are doing small events, summer festivals, nothing really significant. They’re not even opening acts for major stars.
For me personally, I don’t give anyone the classification of “SuperStar” until they have a on-going viable career. One album, one movie, one shot after AI doesn’t tell me much. There’s been SO many people who hit it big *once* and they you lose track of them after a year or so.
When any of them are still a force 5 or more years down the road, then, I think , we can have a better grasp on “superstardom”. For all we know, Jennifer Hudson may not make another movie or maybe the next movie will flop - same for those making albums. Let’s see longevity that matches the careers of an Elton John, Bob Dylan (who hit #1 on Billboard 40 years after his first album), The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon or Paul McCartney. Those are superstars to me.
Alas, I’ve wandered into Wonderland again.
Today at work I finally got to watch Blake’s performance of “She Will Be Loved”. I’m not a huge Maroon 5 fan, but liked Blake’s version much better than Maroon 5’s, though I wished the sound quality had been better. And that loop pedal setup - man, one word - Yeah! Very creative, that Blake. He seems to have a lot of tween fans as well as a lot of age 20-plus year old fans, so I think he’ll be fine! Audio Day Dream, love this CD title.
To weigh in on the Taylor AI 5 performances, I’ll have to agree with Abilymom, griz and SODF. Try A Little Tenderness, to me, stands as his best performance evah on AI, and Ricky Minor and the band were totally hittin’ on that song. This, followed closely by Trouble, In the Ghetto and You Send Me. He totally branded all these songs. Actually, he put his stamp on everything he did, imo. “Country Roads” is the only performance that I did not burn onto a CD.
Ace also rearranged a few songs. He did a great job on “In the Still of the Night.”
And apparently, Queen and Ace came to an agreement on his rearrangement of “We Will Rock You” and Brian May defended him on his blog b/c they made it look like they didn’t like it.
Anyway, Blake didn’t hit it out of the park with all his arrangements, but I appreciate anyone who makes it into something more than a karaoke contest.
I really didn’t notice any MAJOR changes in Taylor’s arrangements other than a few woos and fitting the time. He didn’t impress me so much on the show, so perhaps I wasn’t paying enough attention. I learned to appreciate him more after I saw him with Limbo.
I don’t know what Taylor personally did to the songs themselves. I had read that Ricky Minor said Blake was the first to do the arrangements himself without major input from the studio musicians. All of the contestants have “different” arrangements and of course, they can suggest to Rickey how they want it all to sound, but from what I understand, Blake actually had a major hand in charting it all out. Of course, Taylor has the capability to do the same thing as well. However, based on how TPTB treated his poor soul on the show, I highly doubt they’d ever give him credit for any of it. I personally think Taylor is 100% better in life than he was on Idol. On the show, he sometimes came off as a joke, but in reality, he’s anything but.
I’ve jumped through the Looking Glass!
I was reading the season 7 auditions thread over on the AI boards and one person that auditioned said it was announced that Nigel was allowing musical instruments this year. Don’t know if that means for the audition only or for the show, surely just for the auditions? Just thought I would mention it in case anyone reading is going to audition and plays an instrument.
This is the first season that musical instruments have been allowed on Canadian Idol. The contestants used them for the auditions as well as the competition. AI just might be following suite.
If they allow musical instruments IMO it should be during the auditions and/or during the final 10 performances. Otherwise it won’t matter, because they still have to SING IN KEY! LOL!
question to the board: Now that Sundance and Sabrina have a Motown contract…..what exactly does that mean? Because Motown hasn’t been a major player in recordings in over a decade….does that mean they signed a contract and got upfront advance money? or does that mean they just signed a contract and will be in the studio recording covers and no money involved?
I’m always confused about these record signings. AI says $1Mill rec contract, which I interpret to mean, you will record XX amount of CDs and we will advance you $1Mill.
Somebody school me. Thanks.
And, I just fell down the damn rabbit hole.