Adam Lambert, Kris Allen Promise ‘Incredible’ ‘American Idol’ Tour
In a little more than a week, the top 10 finalists will hit 50 cities for the American Idols Live! tour, starting in Portland, Oregon, on July 5. With the pressure turned up now that they’re in the final days of rehearsals, the Idols are dishing about what you’ll see from them when they hit the road together this summer.
MTV News caught up with everyone in the top 10, including Adam Lambert, Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta, in Los Angeles as they prepared for the tour. “This tour’s going to be so awesome, ” Iraheta said. “There’s definitely going to be some stuff that we’ve done before on the show and also some new stuff.”
Video: ‘American Idol’ Top 10 Ready To Hit The Road
As the American Idols Live tour gets ready to kick off its 50-city trek July 5 in Portland, Ore., Billboard sat down with this year’s Top 10 contestants to talk about their struggles and triumphs during “Idol, ” how excited they are to finally hit the road, and their plans for life after the tour. Watch our interviews with five of them below — including winner Kris Allen — and check back soon for the other five, featuring runners-up Adam Lambert, Danny Gokey and Allison Iraheta.
Jackson Dominates iTunes, Amazon, Twitter
The death of Michael Jackson has had an immediate impact on his sales.
Five of the top ten “trending topics” on Twitter are currently Jackson-related and his death dominates Google trends.
The singer dominates the U.S. iTunes store’s top albums rankings, with seven sets in the top 10 this morning.
At 2pm BST on iTunes U.S., “The Essential Michael Jackson” was No. 1, followed by “Thriller” at No. 2, “Number Ones” at No. 3 and “Off The Wall” at No. 4. “Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)” was at No. 5, with “Bad” at No. 9 and “The Ultimate Collection” at No. 10.
Jackson also had eight of the top ten music videos on U.S. iTunes, including U.S.A for Africa’s “We Are the World, ” with Thriller at No. 1.
More Idol Headlines after the JUMP…
“Idol” Judge Calls Michael Jackson the “Greatest Entertainer” of All Time
If there’s one thing Randy Jackson knows, it’s idols. It’s the passing of one of music’s biggest icons, Michael Jackson, that has him in shock.
“I am so saddened by the loss of a great idol and icon, Michael Jackson, ” the ‘American Idol’ judge tells Spinner. “He was, to me, the greatest entertainer of all time. He was a huge inspiration for performers across all music genres. He taught us all how to light up the stage. Wow.”
Michael Jackson died Thursday in Los Angeles, at the age of 50
Paula Abdul on Michael Jackson: ‘We Have All Lost a Legend’
Paula Abdul is opening up about the death of Michael Jackson.
“Words cannot begin to express my heartfelt sorrow upon hearing the new of Michael Jackson’s passing, ” Abdul tells ET. “I was blessed to be able to work with, and witness first hand, his tremendous talent and growth through the years as he truly became an icon. Today we have all lost a legend who has touched each of our lives through his music and showmanship over the past five decades.”
American Idol visits Vail Valley
ook enjoyed a homecoming this week when he performed a show in Tulsa, Okla. After graduating from the University of Central Missouri in 2006 with a degree in graphic design, Cook moved to Tulsa to pursue a career in music. He told his family he wanted to give himself until he was 26 years old to get a job.
…Being there yesterday, seeing friends, it was a trip man. I had that nostalgic feeling and was thinking to myself, oh my God, it wasn’t long ago I was here and couldn’t afford my $200 a month rent.
Concert review: David Cook rocks Oklahoma City’s Diamond Ballroom
David Cook proved in person Wednesday night that his as-seen-on-TV potential and promise are real.
He rocks.
The 2008 …American Idol winner and his talented band energized a sold-out Oklahoma City crowd with a short but potent rock ‹n roll show.
…This is our first, like, big (solo) tour, Cook said, chuckling at the shrieks that accompanied his every word. …So we want you guys to leave here tonight feeling like your appetite for a rock show has been satiated.
Angela, Mercado, Warren, Hoffman, Shepherd, Gregory to Star in Dreamgirls
Casting has been announced for the upcoming production of Dreamgirls that will launch at New York’s Apollo Theatre before its national tour.
Moya Angela will head the cast as Effie White, the role created onstage by Tony Award winner Jennifer Holliday and preserved on screen by Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson.
Newcomer Angela will be joined by “American Idol” finalist Syesha Mercado as Deena Jones, Adrienne Warren as Lorrell Robinson and Margaret Hoffman as Michelle Morris with Chaz Lamar Shepherd as Curtis Taylor, Jr., Chester Gregory as James “Thunder” Early, Trevon Davis as C.C. White and Milton Craig Nealy as Marty Madison.
With new album, ‘American Idol’ contestant Michael Johns is where he wants to be
As soon as American Idol’s seventh season ended, Michael Johns got to work. Quickly.
“Once you’re on Idol, you’d better know who you are and what you want to do, ” says the Aussie, who finished eighth. “Otherwise, you get stuck in limbo writing [songs] with 50 million people, and all of the sudden two years have gone by. Once you get off that show, every month the light gets a little dimmer.”
His work has paid off with a debut album, Hold Back My Heart, which is out today.
Big pain in the neck
While celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was allegedly mixing it up with members of the Black Eyed Peas camp following the MuchMusic Video Awards on Sunday night, MMVA performer Kelly Clarkson was fast asleep in her Toronto hotel room.
The reason?
The 27-year-old Texan cutie threw out her neck at an earlier Toronto video shoot for Already Gone, the latest single from her fourth album, All I Ever Wanted, released back in March. So Clarkson just did the MMVA red carpet and performed her hit song, My Life Would Suck Without You, on the awards show, getting by on a half a pain-killer pill, before decamping back to her hotel.
“I was kind of a party pooper, ” said Clarkson, who shot the video at The Carlu in Toronto with director Joseph Kahn who also was responsible for lensing her earlier shot-in-Toronto clip, Hazel Eyes.
Headlines: Rock of Ages to Attempt Record Breaking Air Guitar Ensemble July 1
Tony-nominated Rock of Ages will team with US Air Guitar, operators of the United States Air Guitar Championships, to attempt breaking the Guinness World Record for …Largest Air Guitar Ensemble on July 1. The event, featuring Tony Award nominee Constantine Maroulis and 2007 National Air Guitar champion Andrew …William Ocean Litz, will strum its first faux-chords directly following the show matinee performance at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.
‘So You Think You Can Dance’: Paying respect
So! It was a little hard to focus on tonight’s show thanks to some goings-on in the showbiz world, but after a sultry Latin/hip-hop group dance choreographed by Dmitry Chaplin and Napoleon & Tabitha D’umo, “So You Think You Can Dance” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe addressed it all. He paid a classy tribute to Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and of course Michael Jackson. Of all the shows on TV right now, I think “SYTYCD” could best pay tribute to Jackson since his dancing was such a large part of his talent. I got goosebumps watching their clip of the “Thriller” video and my only complaint was that they didn’t show the whole thing.
Post Celebrity Jungle Chat with Sanjaya and Patti of Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!
[I`m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!] After rising to awkward but lovable fame on American Idol, it looked as though the phenomenon that was Sanjaya Malakar had faded into the 15-minute celebrity sunset. But the entertainment world has a thing for life cycles and bringing people back into the limelight and it was the reality folks at NBC who brought Sanjaya back into the celebrity spotlight to be a cast member of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! Interestingly, although no one gave Sanjaya a fair shake at surviving the Costa Rican jungle with a cast of celebrities, Sanjaya proved everyone wrong and turned out to be one of the toughest competitors as he held his own to outlast the likes of Heidi and Spencer from The Hills, one half of Frangela, and actor Stephen Baldwin, all of whom couldn’t take the heat of celebrity jungle survival.
Green to use Cowell celebs to promote his fashion empire
Sir Philip Green is expected to use the stars of the reality shows Cowell creates, which include X-Factor and American Idol, to promote his fashion ranges and create spin-off merchandise. The venture could also bring Green brands, which include Topshop and Topman, to a much wider audience, as he looks to ramp up overseas expansion.
Green is already in the process of taking the Topshop chain to the US, having opened a store in New York earlier this year. Reports suggest he could use the stars of US shows created by Cowell produce to promote his brands to a US audience.
Simon Cowell in talks over new business venture
LONDON, England (CNN) — Simon Cowell, the acid-tongued producer of “American Idol” and “Britain’s Got Talent, ” is in talks with billionaire Philip Green about a new business venture, his representative said Thursday.
“Talks have been going on for months, ” Max Clifford, Cowell’s publicist, told CNN. A deal could take days or weeks, he said — “just don’t know at this stage since they are in negotiations with other companies involved.”
British media are buzzing about what the new business venture might be.
Cowell appears on the talent show “X Factor” in Britain. Auditions for this year’s series of the singing show on ITV network have begun, according to Britain’s Press Association.
‘So You Think You Can Dance’ recap: Fitting Farewells
I usually hate result shows. After all, on the typical results program, we’re forced to sit through 58 minutes of boring, predictable filler (look, a famous musician who can kinda sing okay live!) just to hear the fate of our favorite reality show contestants.
Well, last night’s episode proved to me that result shows can actually be entertaining, and, in the case of this program, poignant. There is such a thing as good filler, believe it or not. Unlike Wednesday night ‘ when our judges filibustered like regular Jimmy Stewarts ‘ Nigel & Co., parsed their words, and when they spoke, did so pensively and intelligently. And I have never been more impressed with our dear British executive producer than I was last night. Sure, we EW staffers ‘ and some of you commenters, too ‘ like to tease Nigel for his penchant for leering after pretty girls or telling rusty anecdotes that might as well begin with ”When I was your age….” But he outdid himself last night, paying tribute to three dearly departed legends in a move that showed just how much an organic show like SYTYCD can out-class any other program on television today.
‘America’s Got Talent’ beats ‘Dance’
In their first meeting of the summer, NBC …America Got Talent squeaked past Fox …So You Think You Can Dance last night.
…Talent averaged a 3.1 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, 0.2 ahead of …Dance.
…Dance usually skews younger than …Talent, but the latter was airing just its second episode of the year, while …Dance has been on for a month.
Whether …Talent can maintain that lead in coming weeks, after the debut excitement has worn off, remains to be seen, but it a promising start for the show.
