Life after ‘American Idol’ keeps contestants busy
Smithson, who performs Wednesday at Van Andel Arena with the rest of the Top 10 finalists, not only exited with head held high, but with the distinct possibility of exhilarating new opportunities.
“I can’t really talk about it yet,” she said, “but I did get some pretty good news the other day” regarding a recording contract.
If she does release an album on a major label, it will be her second experience doing so. As Carly Hennessy, she put out an album with MCA Records called “Ultimate High” in 2001. When the record company merged with a parent company, her album got lost in the shakeup and sold few copies.
‘American Idol’ tour hits Grand Rapids Wednesday
Commemorating an ‘Idol’
Blue Springs, Mo. — David Cook was speechless when the cloth came down and the mural designed in his honor was unveiled.
“Wow. I don’t think I have ever looked that good,†he said of the mural in downtown Blue Springs, Mo. “Thank you guys. All I can say is thank you. I can’t say anything else. This is huge.â€
Cook, a Blue Springs native, was the seventh winner of “American Idol†in May. He was back in his hometown Friday to attend the unveiling of a mural, designed and painted by students in the Blue Springs School District’s Summer Creative Arts Academy. All are students at Blue Springs South High School this fall, Cook’s alma mater. More than 100 people attended the unveiling.
More Idol Headlines After the JUMP…
The tour comes to the Wolstein Center in Cleveland on Sept. 4.
Full circle is where “American Idol†season 7 top-five contestant Brooke White recently found herself when the “American Idols LIVE! Tour 2008†played Philadelphia, which is the city the singer auditioned in last summer.
“Oh my goodness, it was a year ago this month and we just played there,†said White, calling from Washington, D.C. “Talk about coming full circle. I stood on the stage, pointed to the section I sat, which was 222A and told the crowd that for 20 hours I waited for my first audition. So to go from sitting up there and standing on this stage within a year’s time, that’s pretty surreal and unbelievable.â€
‘Idol’ is the arbiter of musical talent
The concept of “American Idol” is nothing new. It is, after all, only a talent show, and we’ve been seeing those for at least a few hundred years.
From town squares to radio to television, the talent show has long been an accepted, and welcome, form of entertainment. Even Frank Sinatra got his start on a talent show.
So why is “American Idol” so annoying? Beyond Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, that is.
T.I Sets Perennially Broken Hot 100 Record
Speaking of week two, and big debuts, let’s talk about the two aberrant debuts from last week, and one more from this week. Archuelta’s single makes a predictable second-week plummet, falling 13 spots to No. 15. Digital sales fell by nearly half after Archie’s big iTunes debut, and the song’s airplay remains too weak (it’s still nowhere to be found on Hot 100 Airplay) to offset that fall-off. Falling even faster is Taylor Swift’s “Change,” which drops 29 spots after its No. 10 debut last week. Her sales go down by 56%, and country radio still isn’t focused enough on the song to give it an airplay boost.
‘American Idol’ Finalist Phil Stacey Will Perform Sunday at Oxford County Fair
LEWISTON - One year after reaching the Top 5 on TV juggernaut “American Idol,” singer Phil Stacey still shakes off the nerves that jangled his network performances.
“It was pretty crazy,” said the 30-year-old country artist who will headline the Oxford County Fair Sunday. “There was a lot to enjoy about the experience. On the flip side, when you know that somebody is going to criticize your performance on national TV right after you give it, it’s a different vibe.”
He worried about the technical issues of singing for TV - such as standing in the right spot for the cameras and coping with the audio monitor in his ear - and he tried not to get caught up in the music.
“I was nervous enough just trying to sing,” he said. “You know if you get too into it, someone’s going to make fun of you. It’s a confusing process. If you give the karaoke performance of a lifetime, it’s still a karaoke performance to them.”
Review: “College”
Apparently, they don’t think high school seniors are smart enough to call the cops after being kidnapped, beaten and robbed of thousands of dollars. They don’t think high school kids are smart enough to ask for another dorm room when the one they’re assigned to is filled, opting instead to go stay in “The Dungeon” of a fraternity. But worst of all, they don’t think high school kids are smart enough to avoid this sham of a movie that can’t even deliver on lowbrow humor.
“College,” featuring Nickelodeon star Drake Bell and Levittown’s favorite “American Idol” finalist, Kevin Covais, plays out like some twisted after school special. Its objectives get so confused that after a wild weekend of exploits - where girls bare their breasts and boys bare their butts and pigs get fed laxatives and the kids do body shots off a naked hairy man - the movie actually tries to get preachy, hammering us all over the heads with messages of personal responsibility and being true to yourself and your friends. No, really.
TV Review: The X Factor, ITV1, Saturday 30 August, 7.10pm
Finally, after being trailed for the past two weeks and almost all of last night’s show, we got to meet scary Ariel. Attitude problem much? But she wasn’t the only scary thing about this third week of auditions. I was also spooked by the fact that my request of last week to mix up the format a bit had apparently travelled right to the ears of the producers, and they put the good singers on first.
The Brit pack stars leading the charge in Hollywood
Over the summer American Idol is estimated to have generated $100m in advertising revenues. This month Lythgoe, 59, announced he would be stepping back from Idol to “get a life†- which involves adapting half a dozen more British formats for US television.
“Mark Burnett [a former British Army paratrooper] may have started the American reality craze with Survivor, but right now Entertainment 19 are the biggest Brits in American television,†said Guber, baseball team owner and chairman of Manda-lay Pictures, which is retooling the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds.
Barack Obama’s show even tops ‘Idol’
More than 38.3 million people tuned in to see presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama address the Democratic National Convention Thursday night.
That was the largest audience for the 2008 DNC this year, and bigger than the audiences for the “American Idol” finale or “The Academy Awards.”
Sen. John Kerry drew just 24.4 million for his acceptance speech in 2004.
The audience watching Obama’s nomination speech was actually larger than reported, though unmeasured. Nielsen’s estimate counts 10 networks’ coverage in the 10 p.m. hour, but not PBS and C-Span, which also carried the event.
“There has been enormous interest,” CNN senior vice president David Bohrman said. “[The presidential race] has transitioned into a must-see TV event….People have become transfixed.”
CNN had 8 million people watching. ABC averaged 6.6 million; NBC averaged 6.1 million; CBS, 4.7 million; the Fox News Channel, 4.2 million and MSNBC averaged 4.0 million.
Dancing With The Stars: Official Couple Photos
The Idol dream may be over, but Earl did it his way
His Canadian Idol run is over, but Lloydminster’s Earl Stevenson is showing no signs of slowing down.
On Tuesday night, Stevenson’s Canadian Idol journey ended, but he remains optimistic for the future, with plans to move to Toronto to pursue a music career.
“Kind of sucks that I am kicked off but you know, I don’t think you necessarily have to win to be successful, so I just am going to keep going,†said Stevenson. “I want to do a bunch of music … just continue, definitely just go hard at the music.â€
Stevenson’s journey on the popular reality show began in January when he auditioned in Edmonton and received a gold ticket to Toronto. After grueling auditions three months later, Stevenson made it through the top 200 to only 24 contestants.
So Archie’s single is not doing well on radio? I thought it was blowing up at radio. I’m actually happy to see that Taylor Swift isn’t doing well with her single. I do not think she is talented - at all.
If I was even considering going to see Kevin C’s movie, I now know that I’m not. After reading all the reviews about it here, it sounds like a horrid movie.
Congrats to Carly as it sounds like she may have a record deal! Can someone repost when Archie and Cook’s cds are supposed to drop? Will DC be releasing a single any time soon?
Thanks MJ for posting the Carly article. I am a big fan and I’m so excited to hear that she may be signing a recording contract soon. She is such an amazing singer and a sweet person too (I met her in Charlotte NC and she was great). I am really looking forward to her future career.
Lu,was it that Idolator blog that gave you that impression? They seem unnecesarily negative to me. Speaking here as a David Cook fan, so I don’t think I’m looking through Archie-colored glasses, I think Archie’s doing really well on radio. He’s on Top40, AC, and HotAC now and moving up on all of them, esp. Top40. And, heck, it’s not even officialy out yet on radio; when that happens, it should really take off more.
This is just a response to the headline story, not meant to sidetrack into an air play discussion.
Yep Spritely, it was. Reading that totally through me off because I was under the impression that Crush was doing well on radio. The blog said it was dropping, not on the hot 100, etc. What is the date for his official release of the single? I know my local top 40 is playing it now.
They’re still floating this story? Her album was released waaaay before MCA Records folded and was absorbed by Geffen.
Yeah dont worry about the drop, that was expected. His sales were alot higher than his radio play was. His adds date is Sept 2, I expect there will be more play once that hits. He’s still not in a few major radio markets. Chicago and Dallas have just recently started playing him. He’s doing well on the top40(#28), AC(#24), HAC(#37). According to pulse he is around #97 on the hot100(with 5 days left), but i dont know exactly where that came from.
No don’t worry. It’s on topic. I’m just a stinker about keeping the the blog posts with specific topics ON TOPIC. LOL.
The writer of that article points out that “Crush” has not debuted on the Hot 100 airplay chart. If the song was getting significant airplay at this time, it would be on that chart.
The official Radio date is September 2. There’s no reason to think “Crush” won’t keep picking up radio stations and spins, particularly after that release date.
Thanks everyone. That article really confused me! Glad to hear DA is doing well. I used to enjoy looking at how the idols were doing on the charts. I miss being able to see those charts…
You can sign up at all access, its free.. lol Thats where I look everyday, hahaha.. I never bothered with this stuff before. xD
Lu, go to this link, scroll down about halfway, and you’ll find a secret passageway to the Mediabase charts. ;) Have fun!
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3165522&st=22365
I know that not everyone is a Carly fan, but all of that stuff about her old album is in the past and her fans are just happy about her future. She is an amazing singer and this new album will be great. GO CARLY!!!
Glad to see some Phil Stacey news. I thought he and his beautiful voice had fallen off the face of the planet.
Thanks for the Dancing With The Stars “pairings” too because I have been searching for it.
Yeah David is going strong in radio. His album release date is pushed back to Nov. 11 according to Amazon.
thanks to Spritely and frogcooke for the chart infor! I think I’ll just use the secret passageway! lol
Will that secret passageway update daily???
JO, it does update daily. I feel like a drug pusher. :D
http://philstacey.musiccitynetworks.com
Phil has quite a few dates coming up, and has criss-crossed the county this summer. They were mostly fairs and celebrations, but he is earning his living. Phil never has more than a week or a few days off between gigs. Yea for Phil!
Connie, thank you — I didn’t know about that website. Did we know about this Disney CD:
http://philstacey.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm?inc=5&news_id=13527
Yeah, I’d buy it just to hear Phil sing Can You Feel The Love Tonight
Elliott sings just the most beautiful version of Can You Feel The Love..check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEcAcP6i6LY ..Here it is if you want to take a listen.
I wouldn’t worry about Archie on the radio. Crush is one of the hottest songs on the Top 40 chart with a bullet of 600 plus. This Top 40 chart is very weak. Unless something wacky happens, Crush will be Top 20 within 10 days. The path to the Top 10 is pretty open. He’ll make the Top 100 in airplay next week for sure.
It looks like TOML has peaked on the Top 40 but I’ve thought that before and been wrong. I’m hoping the song going down the charts is a sign they’re clearing the decks for the first Cook single. Which I hope sounds nothing like TOML.
Really really good.
This country sings Disney cd is puzzling. I wonder why they had country artists cover some of the same songs that were on the other disney cd… Elliott and Phil - Can You Feel the Love Tonight
Josh Gracin and Plain White Ts - When I See an Elephant Fly
etc…
I dont get it.
Spritely…if you’re still around….what does the “on” column mean on the charts?
Hi, JO. It means the number of stations it’s on. As you can see, Cookie’s right at the very tipy-top of that, with 104 stations. Only Sara B. has one more, with 105. The next columns are “audience” numbers, with a percentile plus or minus from the last week.
Thanks very much spritely. I notice it even changed a little today. I guess I’m off topic by now, so that’s all I’ll say on it, but I did want to at least thank you!
Bo Bice just sang the National Anthem at the Nascar race in Fontana, Calif. He was pretty good!
I think 1 song(lollipop?) went recurrent today so everyone below that moved up some on the charts.
Archie moved up 2 spots on top 40 and AC, but 1 on HAC
Jason just sent out a My Space Bulletin:
I love Jason, but he seems like he’s pretty oblivious about what’s going on with his career. He just shows up and sings, reads books, sleeps, etc. In the meantime, he has peeps setting up his website, etc. I’m not sure if that’s endearing or not. LOL.
Hazel Smith’s weekly newsletter at CMT.com makes a nice mention of Bucky. Read it here :
http://www.cmt.com/news/hot-dish/1593854/hot-dish-cruisin-for-country-music-news.jhtml
“The Grundy County Corn Festival in Illinois had to find larger space to accommodate all of Bucky Covington’s fans! He recently drew the festival’s biggest crowd ever”.