Idol Headlines for 2/27/08

Simon Predicts Idol Winner, Addresses Exit Rumors

Simon Cowell might bash contestants right and left, but he has high hopes for at least one them. On Tuesday’s Extra, he predicts this year’s winner: David Archuleta.

Describing why he think’s Archuleta’s winner material, Cowell said “He’s cute. He’s likeable. [He has] a big voice. He’s the one to beat.” But what about the dapper Chikezie? “He’s never going to win unless the other 18 resign.”

TV Guide

‘Idol’ director may be leaving show

Longtime …American Idol director Bruce Gowers may be departing the hit Fox competish show.

Particulars behind Gowers departure — and whether it permanent or a temporary hiatus — were tough to come by over the weekend; when word of Gowers departure first surfaced Thursday night, …Idol was in the middle of a special live broadcast from CBS Television City.

Insiders said an incident on the …Idol set may have triggered talk of Gower departure. Producer FremantleMedia declined comment, noting that it doesnt comment on personnel matters.

Variety

A clear leader emerges among the ‹Idol men

The “American Idol” guys sang songs from the ‹70s on Tuesday’s show, and it was one of those nights where the judges seemed to grade on a curve.

Much was expected from those who had succeeded last week, which meant that Michael Johns and Jason Castro had to be content with lukewarm praise even though they were still among the top performers. On the other hand, David Hernandez and Danny Noriega were lauded for their efforts because they were a lot better than they were a week ago.

MSNBC

Nine Guys Finish Last

He has the eyes of Bambi, only darker and perhaps 11 percent more earnest. When the camera catches his broad, open, guileless grin, you can kind of understand how a mother feels the first time her baby looks up at her and smiles. And when he sings ‘  oh, that voice! ‘  grandpas (and Paula) grab their handkerchiefs and dab the corners of their eyes, remembering simpler days when ”nice boys and girls” were the toast of the airwaves.

The judges adore him. The tweens in the audience can’t stop screaming for him. And, perhaps most remarkable of all, he doesn’t give off that whiff of creepiness that too often clings to youthful performers ‘  you know, the forced maturity, the soulless ambition, the ability to come up with a polished but uninteresting sound bite the minute the cameras start rolling.

Entertainment Weekly

American Idol: Top 10 Boys Perform

Tonight was a weird night for me as the boys who blew me away last week…well, kind of didn’t. And the guys who barely squeaked by upped their game tremendously. It was like a mix-and-match of who was good and bad from last week and it made my brain hurt. Now I’m all kinds of confused and don’t know who should go home anymore. There’s still some easy fat to trim, but now I don’t think it’s nearly as obvious which six of these ten should make the Top 12. Good for them, but hard for us.

Tonight’s theme: Songs from the ’70s

TV Squad

Recap: ‘American Idol’ Top 10 Men Perform

After a week battling through the flu, I think I’m working at 65 to 70 percent as Tuesday (Feb. 26) night’s American Idol performance episode begins. As I learned from Paula Abdul, though, you can’t use poor health as an excuse. You have to go out there and be yourself (or somebody very like you), expose your true colors to the world and paint every doorknob with the flavor of your dreams. The results for the Top 10 Idol men will follow…

Zap2it

Idol Banter: Can He Be Real?

Who is David Archuleta, really? Aside from the next American Idol, that is. In this second round of Boys Night, the dewy teen pulled out so far ahead of the competition that we might as well all go to the gym Tuesday evenings for the next few weeks.

Risking …Imagine, a song forever wedded to the Liverpudlian nasality of a certain martyred Beatle, Archuleta defined what Idol means by …making it your own. Without denting his aura of innocence, he switched up the melody, inflecting it with soulful touches that had Paula upper lip visibly moist. She called him a superstar, Randy said it was one of the best …Idol vocals ever, and Simon called him …the one to beat. True to form, the Chosen One feigned mild astonishment, like a child gazing in wonder upon his birthday cake.

But dont let this seventeen-year-old “Star Search” veteran fool you, America. Archuleta blessed, no doubt, displaying an effortless musicality that nearly recalls the grace of the young Michael Jackson. But his …Imagine was all worked out. And, by the way, borrowed.

LA Times

Fallen ‘Idol’: Samantha Sidley found!

Hey, where’d she go? We loved Samantha Sidley at “American Idol” auditions, and so did the judges. She was the sweet, modest, L.A. native who sang Norah Jones while Paula and Ryan swapped jobs, remember? Well, come Top 24 week, our girl was nowhere to be seen. She’d been eliminated, without so much as a farewell montage!

I called Samantha today, hoping to straighten out the details of her tragic ouster, but Samantha seemed just as perplexed as I was. …I would like to know why they cut me out too, but I dont know, exclaimed Samantha. …I really dont know.

LA Times

‘American Idol’: Axed contestant Amy Davis speaks out

Instead, Amy added, “I actually can carry a tune, I promise!” Then she went on to explain why she failed on the show ¦ something about in-ear monitors?

“I have used in-ear monitors for the past two years for every show (even acoustic shows), ” wrote Amy, “and my brain has been trained to hear my voice blasting in my one ear through an earbud and the instruments in my other ear (no earbud, I only use the one for my vocals). To switch from that to using floor monitors (nothing in my ear) requires retraining my brain to pick out the sound from the air and deliver my vocals to my ear and I just could not do it.”

LA Times

Former American Idol contestant debuts song on Live at Five

Amy Catherine Flynn’s recent life has been a whirlwind recently of school, friends, and American Idol. The Knoxville native appeared on the hit tv show and made it all the way to Hollywood.

Recently Flynn visited the Live at Five studios to talk about the experience of auditioning before Paula, Randy, and Simon. She has a CD coming out in early March and says it was the perfect way to jump-start her career.

Flynn performed her new single “Count Me Out” written by her vocal coach, Angel Higgs, herself a former American Idol contestant.

WBIR

Abdul’s singing like there’s no tomorrow

She blew them away (albeit after the fact) with a pre-recorded performance on the Super Bowl pre-game broadcast.

The video was a pirated Internet hit even before its official debut last week on American Idol.

The title, however, is a bit misleading. Paula Abdul’s “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” is more about dancing like there was no yesterday. And tomorrow is looking more like the day before.

The new single, a collaboration with fellow American Idol judge Randy Jackson, is her first new release in over a decade. And it’s good ‘ even Simon Cowell says so. Sort of.

“He told me, `I hate you, (but) I love the song, ‘” relates Abdul, addressing the press in a Fox-sponsored phone conference.

Cowell does appear in a cameo tableau at the end of the video, alongside Abdul, Jackson and Idol host Ryan Seacrest. “He said, `I don’t do this for my own artists.’ And I said, `That’s because they probably don’t want you in their videos.'”

The Star

Abdul’s comeback

Paula Abdul, ladies and gentlemen! She’s on the phone from Los Angeles at first light after a long night of judging the likes of Luke Menard and Danny Noriega — VotefortheWorst.com’s pick-of-the-year as, well, the worst — and her voice is a whisper.

“I hurt my vocal chords, ” she says, but she isn’t expecting any sympathy from You Know Who. She isn’t getting any, either.

“Simon says I like to talk, ” Abdul says, and you can guess the rest.

Ah, yes, Simon.

The man of whom Abdul once said, “I welcome him like I welcome cold sores. He’s from England, he’s angry and he’s got Mad Power Disease.”

Canada.com

Idols Are All Equal

Hey, American Idol guys, don’t fall over yourselves with the generosity. Spies tell PageSix.com that Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest had a guys’ dinner at West Hollywood restaurant Ago over Oscar weekend.

When it came time to pay the check, each of them threw down an American Express Black card ‘  then split the bill three ways!

Page 6.com

American Idol “Most Hopefuls” Heading Into The Final 20

Think you know who is going to win American Idol? The oddsmakers think they do too. The folks from Paddy Power released odds this past week on who will win American Idol Season 7. Coupled with Gambling911.com’s own expertise, we will produce the ultimate list.

Gambling 911

Quiz: How well do you know American Idol families?

When I find good ones, I like to take those really obscure pop culture quizzes to see if I truly have as much useless pop culture trivia in my head as I think I do. So when AOL’s latest American Idol quiz came out asking how much we knew about the families of former Idol contestants, I was so there. It’s only ten questions long but man do they dig into the obscure on some of them.

TV Squad

3 Nights of `Idol’ Beat 1 Oscars Night

The math is simple: three nights of “American Idol” beats one night of the Academy Awards.

Fox dominated the television ratings again behind its hit competition, which was seen by roughly 29 million people on both Tuesday and Wednesday last week. A special Thursday edition had more than 23 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Meanwhile, ABC didn’t get quite the usual boost from the Academy Awards. The 32 million people who watched Sunday’s show was the smallest Oscars audience since Nielsen began keeping those records in 1974.

The traditional Barbara Walters interview special had fewer than 12 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Associated Press

“American Idol’s” Kelly Clueless

“American Idol” may have made her a huge star — but Kelly Clarkson barely seems to realize it’s still on TV! Miss Independent was at the Burbank airport Saturday night, where paps asked her about “A.I.” She hasn’t seen the new crop of contestants yet, and probably doesn’t even know she actually had a chance encounter with one of the contestants back when she was on the show.

TMZ

Clay Aiken, Playing Hooky

Sorry, Clay Aiken fans, the ugly whispers are true: Your boy has been shirking his civic duty.

An investigation by The Reliable Source found that the most successful “American Idol” runner-up in history has made it to only one of the quarterly meetings of the Presidential Committee for People With Intellectual Disabilities since he was appointed by George W. Bush a year and a half ago.

Washington Post


Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood to Announce ACM Nominees

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will announce the nominees for the 43rd annual Academy of Country Music Awards during a March 4 press conference at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. The awards show will take place May 18 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be telecast live on CBS.

CMT

Sanjaya is back! Does anyone care?

Now, Sanjaya and his sister, Shyamali, who also auditioned for the show and was frequently seen in the “Idol” audience, are going to be the special guests in a new production, “A Motown Evening, ” on April 6 at 3 p.m. at the Northshore Performing Arts Center. A cast of special guests including students from the Northshore School District’s Student Academy for Success (SAS) Music Project will also perform. Proceeds from this show will benefit the Music Project, which brings professional musicians, such as Bernadette Bascom, into the schools to work with students.

The Northshore Performing Arts Center is at 18125 92nd Ave. N.E. in Bothell, on the edge of the Bothell High School campus.

Seattle pi

Country Thunder Festivals Unveil Lineups

Country Thunder, a series of country festivals in Arizona, Texas and Wisconsin, has announced its initial line-ups for this year’s performances.

Sugarland, Dierks Bentley, Neal McCoy, Phil Vassar, Joe Nichols, Heidi Newfield, Kellie Pickler, Danielle Peck, Luke Bryan, Heartland, Rio Grand and Chuck Wicks will perform April 17-20 in Florence, AZ.

In Twin Lakes, MN, Sugarland, Randy Owen, Miranda Lambert, Joe Nichols, Heartland, Chris Young, Jason Michael Carroll and Kellie Pickler will visit July 16-19.

Live Daily

County Fair signs 2 country acts for 2008 Tracy Lawrence, ‘Idol’ also-ran Bucky Covington to perform

Covington came to fame during the 2006 season of American Idol. Finishing eighth that season, Covington continued his career with hit …A Different World reaching 27th on the chart.

His latest song …It Good to Be Us, hit number 15 as of Monday and is expected to continue to climb.

Dow said each year it becomes harder and harder to get the right combination of what people want.

…Weve tried a large variety of acts and country is the most popular, he said. …This year weve put together a great country package. Were already getting calls about it.

Tickets go on sale March 4 at 8 a.m. Tickets can be purchased at the County Fair Office, at Meijer locations in Jackson, Coldwater and Adrian, online at www.hillsdalecountyfair.org or www.starticketplus.net or by phone at 1(800)585’3737.

Hillsdale .net

Katharine Shops on Another Planet

American Idol Alumna Katharine McPhee was recently spotted picking up some items at Planet Blue in Santa Monica.

X17

Melinda Doolittle Talks About Life After ‘Idol’

“I think the hardest part about it is knowing that everywhere I go, people are going to know who I am, ” she said, adding that she loves the attention from fans. “So, occasionally I don’t look the cutest, but people still take a picture.”

Doolittle described her debut album, which comes out in June, as “kind of eclectic.”

Doolittle is also scheduled to appear at Raley’s at 3935 Park Drive in El Dorado Hills from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

KRCA

Alyce Metallo Performs With American Idol’s Melinda Doolittle For Wounded US Soldiers Home From Iraq

Up-and-coming new artist Alyce Metallo recently performed along with American Idol Season Six finalist Melinda Doolittle for 50 wounded United States soldiers at the residence of Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Washington DC event featured the performance portion of the evening at the US Naval Observatory. The military men and women were treated with a repertoire of songs that included the song …Home (from the musical The Wiz), as well as Doolittle first single …My Funny Valentine.

Doolittle commented on Metallo saying, …She amazing! I want to take her with me everywhere I go!

Breathcast

Chris Daughtry covered a Bon Jovi song, now he touring with him

It was the world first big glimpse of Chris Daughtry: the barely known, gritty-voiced singer performing a Bon Jovi cover song on …American Idol.

It was far from the last.

What a run it been for the North Carolina resident with the famously shaved head: His self-titled debut album, which stacks pop-ready melodies atop its guttural metal riffs, was last year top-selling rock record. It was accompanied by a seemingly nonstop road run that included an arena stint with Nickelback.

Popmatters

About mj santilli 34830 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!