Today’s Idol headlines after the jump…
Tim MacMahon’s In the Know
Pride of Burleson has had better performances
I’m not ashamed to admit that I sung along with “Since U Been Gone” a few times despite the grammatical incorrectness of Kelly Clarkson’s hit.
OK, actually, it is kind of embarrassing to admit that. Almost as embarrassing as falling on your rear end with a stadium full of people watching.
That’s what happened to one of Clarkson’s backup singers as they went on stage during halftime Thursday. Some might not have seen it through the smoke, but I’m pretty sure it left Clarkson rattled.
Or maybe Clarkson, a Burleson native, was thrown off by the cold weather. Whatever it was, something wasn’t right with the ex-American Idol star. I’d hate to hear what Simon Cowell would have said about Clarkson’s off-key halftime performance.
I hate to write about a local gal without saying something nice, so I’ll mention that Clarkson was outstanding the other time I saw her perform. She ran a crisp out route and showed soft hands while catching a pass from Tony Romo in a Valley Ranch appearance to promote the Salvation Army Red Kettle Christmas Campaign.
Jordin Sparks at Thanksgiving Parade
Hundreds of thousands of cheering and smiling spectators soaked up the sights and sounds of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York. They came to see the balloons, floats and celebrities. Among them was “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks. Anne Craig caught up with the singer, whose debut album recently came out…..
CARRIE’S CARE BEAR LEADS CHARITY TOY AUCTION
Country queen CARRIE UNDERWOOD has found something new to hug in the shape of a cuddly Care Bear she designed for charity.
And the pretty singer’s ‘Bling Bear’ is proving to be quite the Christmas must-have as her teddy competes with stuffed toys given makeovers by Faith Hill, Cindy Crawford, Daisy Fuentes and Lara Flynn Boyle.
Bosses at CharityBuzz who are offering up the decorated Care Bears, as part of an online auction, expect American Idol star Underwood’s teddy to be the headlining item, when the auction ends on 30 November (07).
Internet bidding was expected to end this week (ends23Nov07) but charity bosses have decided to extend the sale after receiving new Care Bears from Courteney Cox and The Hills’ Lauren Conrad.
In the certificate that comes with her rhinestone-clad country bear, Underwood reveals she played stylist to the cuddly toy on the same day her last album was released.
She writes, “She (bear) represents everything that sparkles and shines.”
Aiken finds it’s hip to be square
The former “Idol” runner-up will perform a holiday concert at Central Christian Church.
Clay Aiken - despite the stylishly shaggy ‘do - still isn’t hip.
“I’m never going to be, and I’m fine with that. We all must embrace our inner dork,” he says with a laugh.
Aiken has still managed a successful post-”American Idol” career as the soundtrack of choice for enthusiastic grandmothers.
“People always come up to me and say, ‘My grandmother’s your biggest fan,’ ” says Aiken, 28. “There’s a misconception among these ladies that I’m cool and hip and now. And they think that by liking me, it makes them cool and hip and now.
“But shhh. We aren’t going to tell them that I’m not cool and hip at all.”
Aiken, whose holiday tour brings him to Central Christian Church on Monday, took time recently to answer a few questions.
Fans still get worked up over you. What’s with the enduring Claymania?……
A prince, his court and Saudi justice
….Faisal and Asyia were novelties in local society. Invited to speak to the Rotary Club of Columbus, he lambasted the country that was his host. The royal couple were godparents to WTVM news director Kathy Pepino’s baby. You know him as Justin Guarini of “American Idol” fame….
Idol Sparks aims for all ages with 1st album
….To that end, the “Jordin Sparks” CD is decidedly family-friendly - much like the talent competition that launched her career. Thanks to her “American Idol” success, and her age, Sparks’ fan base has a large kid contingent, but also includes the parents and grandparents who, along with their children, watched as the Arizona teen went from a potential also-ran to the odds-on favorite to win it all.
Sparks wanted to make sure that she didn’t alienate any age group with the material she chose.
“I never really thought of targeting a specific audience. I just want to make music and whoever likes it likes it,” said Sparks, speaking via phone a few days prior to the CD’s release.
“I do love the little girls who come up to me and they are just so excited, and I like meeting the older women who are like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we love you . . . ‘ It’s really cool,” she said. “I’m kind of just making good music, so hopefully there’s sort of a balance there to where adults will like it but it’s not so adult that little kids won’t be able to listen to it.”….
Holiday TV preview
Seasons greetings from TV land
Dec. 24:
Christmas at Belmont 2007 (9 p.m., KUED Ch. 7). “American Idol’s” Melinda Doolittle hosts the annual musical special from Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Gotta love it!
…READ: “A Murderin’ Idol!” in “Tales from the Crypt”
The classic 1950s horror comic “Tales from the Crypt” is back from the dead and putting a modern spin on creepy doings in the best possible way. In “A Murderin’ Idol,” a would-be singing star resorts to using demons and murder to win “American Idol,” but finds that show business can literally be hell when he comes up against the show’s British judge. Along with chills and laughs, this tale delivers a smart, sharp jab at celebrity obsession - proving once again that comics are for smart kids. $3.95, where ever comic books are sold….
Hey, Sparks, sing a song at Glendale Glitters
Today is Black Friday, when malls are at capacity and credit cards fly out of purses and wallets. Take a break from running up debt and head to the Glendale Glitters Spectacular and its 1.5 million twinkling Christmas lights. Jordin Sparks of American Idol fame will flip the switch in the downtown area. Glendale officials are mum on whether she’ll sing. I have a piece of advice: She had better or there’ll be thousands of disappointed fans.
Music to boost your spirits
….Smith is celebrating Christmas with the release of a new Yuletide CD, “It’s A Wonderful Christmas.” This CD will set bells ringing in your heart as you hear classics ranging from “What Child Is This” to “Sing Noel, Sing Hallelujah” that have that peace-on-earth-good-will-toward-men feel to them.
Smith’s soothing tones team up with those of former “American Idol” diva Mandisa for the tune “Christmas Day.” This song will paint images in your mind about warm, cozy fireplaces, stockings and a house full of family on Christmas morning…..
Jingle All the Way
Sing along with ‘Messiah’ this holiday season
….The Ides of March will present its Christmas show at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8 at The Dellora A. Norris Cultural Arts Center, 1040 Dunham Road in St. Charles.
The Chicago rock band, best known for its 1970 hit Vehicle, will be joined on stage by American Idol finalist Leslie Hunt and the St. Charles East High School Choir….
Related Posts
I must agree, and I am a HUGE Kelly Clarkson fan, that her halftime performance at the Cowboy’s game was cringeworthy.
I missed it, is there anywhere I can see a video of it?
emmavelle, try these:
Walk Away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nua5c39BnQ
Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEKHXWQufME
Since U Been Gone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0IldqFKDlA
I watched the Since U Been Gone performance video and, yeah, it wasn’t pretty. :s
It’s pretty quiet in here today…seems like many of the MJ peeps are exhausted from the fun and festivities of last night. :D
Yeah..I missed it too, but I’d like to see what everyone is talking about!
For anyone that’s interested, Blake added almost 100 pictures from during AI to his myspace photo albums.
By Kevin Johnson
St.Loius Dispatch
11/22/2007
In an interview last week, Clay Aiken talked about the status of his new CD (which follows last year’s “A Thousand Different Ways”); his debut next year in “Monty Python’s Spamalot”; why he hasn’t watched “American Idol” in a while; and that rumored tour with Ruben Studdard and Kimberly Locke.
Q. How are things going with the new album?
A. That’s another reason why the New York opportunity (”Spamalot”) worked out. I was in the process of putting something together for next year, that I hope to release sometime in the first half of the year. One of the benefits to doing the play is I would be in New York City anyway recording an album.
Q. What direction do you see yourself going on the next CD?
A. When they talk about direction, I don’t ever know what that means. I hope anything I do will just be Clay Aiken. I won’t do an album where I’m doing stuff people won’t recognize as me. The album I did the last time was an album of love songs from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. This will be new music, new songs that will become signature songs. They’ll stand up against some of the mess in the market nowadays.
Q. What’s the appeal of doing Broadway for you?
A. I don’t know if it’s Broadway that’s the appeal. It’s not that I wanted to do Broadway. The appeal is the show. The show is atypical of Broadway. It’s not an Andrew Lloyd Webber show with big ballads. It’s silly and irreverent, an absolutely outside-of-the-norm type show. I was hoping to do something people wouldn’t expect from me, and the character I play doesn’t sing that big ballad I’ve sung all these years.
Q. There was talk of you, Ruben Studdard and Kimberly Locke touring together. What’s the status of that?
A. I’m not sure where that came from. It wasn’t even something that was discussed as, ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be a fun idea.’”
Q. Have you been keeping up with “American Idol” at all?
A. I haven’t watched an episode in two years, by choice. It’s not fun for me anymore. Everyone has to graduate at some point.
That was horrible. When she wasn’t screaching, she was flat. Not good at all.
Wonder what the real story is? Kimberly Locke sure thought it was discussed based on what she said about it.
I don’t see how he could have fit it in. Starting Monday he’s on tour till Dec 22, then he’s off to an undisclosed country for Unicef over the Christmas holiday, when he gets back in early January he goes immediately into Spamalot rehearsals and will be on Broadway till May, at the same time he’ll be recording the new CD. Somewhere in there will be a golf tournament in Florida to benefit his Bubel/Aiken Foundation and another charity Gala in NY. Then his new CD is to be released in the spring so there’s promo to do and then a summer/fall tour for the album. After that there’s his annual Christmas tour again.
In his spare time he’ll probably write another book :)
Yeah. It kinda sounds like Kimberly Locke spoke to the media before she spoke to Clay.
I think so. Ruben is really busy too. He’s doing a play right now with Robin Givens and is in the process of opening his own nightclub, like Taylor is, and he has been doing quite a few concerts and appearances himself. I think that when Kimberley said she “hoped” that it would happen that the reporter made it into more than that. At least I hope so. It wouldn’t be the first time the media got it wrong.
In an interview last week, Clay Aiken talked about the status of his new CD (which follows last year’s “A Thousand Different Ways”
Lisa B. posted this article yesterday. If you want a link to the article that works you can find it here.
When posting articles make sure:
1. The article hasn’t been posted yet.
2. That you cut and paste only a small section of the article and a working link to the article. This complies with fair use copyright laws, and takes up less space on the page.
Thank you.
Thanks Purple. Wow. Her voice sounds shot. Listen to her squeak out “Happy Thanksgiving” at the end. Really bad.
She sounded great when I saw her in October.
Well, I thought she sounded decent on the Walk Away and Never Again (although a bit shouty), but by Since U Been Gone she was hoarse and was just screaming (and/or screeching) the lyrics.
I read the articles every day. I didn’t recognize it as the same one because Lisa quoted the filler instead of the interview. And it was a long chunk so I didn’t realize it was different rules depending on who posts it. My bad.
I did post the working link. That’s why that part of the title is Purple.
As long as we’re talking about this Clay article, didn’t Kimberly Locke get a bit of an attitude a couple of months ago because she insisted that she had spoken with Clay about the possiblilty of them touring together and he suuposedly responded favorably?
Click on the link…it leads to a dead page.
Lisa manages the Headlines page, so she quotes the part of the article she thinks is relevant.
The comments section should not be taken up by long re-posts of articles that have already been posted.
It’s not a biggie, I was merely posting a reminder for you and everyone else who posts in the thread.
HDD now has Jordin shipping 625K of her album. I thought it was 800K a week ago. The lower number seems saner. Plus the tea leaves aren’t looking too great for Blake right now. Hopefully, his promo will get the job done.
Why do you say that? I guess I haven’t been keeping up!
Selling 11K downloads of your first single is not a great start for Blake. Either his fan base is small or doesn’t like the song because that’s who usually buys it the first week. However, it’s pretty early in the game for Blake.
Or selling a low number the first week could be indicative of the fact that the song hadn’t been pushed for adds on radio when it was released to iTunes, so it’s highly likely that a pretty high percentage of people who bought it are online fans. And I think we all know that not all of artists’ fanbases are fanatical online fans.
Gosh, Taylor prolly sold 25 or so CDs at Amazon in the last 24 hours. What’s goin’ on - he’s #3 on the Movers & Shakers with 1,017% increase in sales rank. (up from 2,593 to 232) Maybe he’ll sell more than 100 this week. :)