Idol Headlines for 7/14/12

By On 07/14/2012 · 106 Comments · In American Idol, Headlines

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The American Idol Live! Tour hits Denver CO

Adam Lambert performs his last London concert with Queen tonight at the Hammersmith Apollo

Philip Phillips tweets, “Had a long day of shooting the music video for “home”. Going to be pretty neat i think. So tired though.”

Glee cast members Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Darren Criss, Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Naya Rivera and show producers, will appear on a panel at Comic-Con today in San Diego at 5 pm PDT to talk about Season 4. Hopefully we’ll get some spoilers!  EW.com with have a live interview with the cast at 12:45p. Watch it here.

Adam Lambert – Mercurial gift of an American Idol – It’s hard to place Adam Lambert. A runner up on American Idol in 2009, his first album had a strong hint of glam rock, his latest stuff has a strong flavour of pop and emo, and he looks like a young (and slightly more handsome) Gary Numan. To top it all off, he’s gay. While a gay pop star in 2012 might not sound so unusual in the UK, in the US it is. And this year Lambert achieved a remarkable feat as his second album, Trespassing, was the first record by an openly gay male solo artist to top the US Billboard album chart. It may sound implausible, but the other homosexual stars, such as Elton John and George Michael, were not “out” when they hit the top of the charts. – Read more at Independent.co.uk

Leah LaBelle Gets Props from Jay-Z, Inspiration from Lauryn Hill

Shawn Pennington tweets, “Shooting footage with @kristyleecook15 for @RamTrucks at The Stockyards in Ft Worth, TX! ?#ItsHotHere? pic.twitter.com/lLLX6Cvc”

 
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  • Anonymous

    I think Durbin was/is a bit edgy.  During his AI season, I thought he looked like a wannabe rocker with no idea of how to present himself, his wardrobe, etc.  He just went out there and did his thing the best he knew how.  After the show, he’s continued exactly like he was during the show…but has added blonde hair, weight loss, and cussin’ up a storm to his presentation.  I no longer think of him as fake.  He may not be burning up the charts, but he does seem to love what he does and has (to me) the appearance of edginess.  I don’t buy his music and am not particularly a fan of his…I just note that he does seem to have an “edge” and really does love and live the heavy rock style.

  • Anonymous

    I think the problem for me is that on the show what he was doing came off as a shtick.  Maybe this is the problem, they are all trying to figure out who they are, and they are doing it in front of approximately 20 million people every week.  Sometimes they might try to become the person that the audience wants them to be, but then it’s harder to change once the show is over.  

    I will admit that post show, the music fits James like a glove.  I usually ignore sampling the albums of alums who I’m not interested in, but I was bored on the day that he posted his album online, and I wound up listening to the whole thing.  It’s not my style, but it’s clear that this is the type of music that he was meant to perform.

  • justmefornow

    Except for the “new style” (Thanks Ty!), what you see of James now is the way he always was if you look up his old videos with different bands. (Actually when he was with Hollywood Scars, he was a lot edgier.)
    I think when you go on AI, even if you want to assert your real identity, you still have to play the game, as others have said, to go far enough in the competition to get noticed and hopefully signed. James rebelled as far as he probably could with Jimmy, without totally pissing him off. 
    Using his own contacts to get Zakk Wylde on the show was probably, for example, his way of selling the song Heavy Metal to Jimmy instead of PinBall Wizard that Jimmy wanted him to sing. He did sing Bon Jovi, when he wanted to sing Skid Row, another week, so he didn’t always get his way with Jimmy.

    It’s probably always a compromise on the show for all of them. And they still come off the show having to prove themselves.

    It’s the choice I guess you have to make for that shot at national attention.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002166668687 Ali Goria

    Adam recently addresses this in a UK interview where he said, and I’m paraphrasing…he knew reality shows were thought of as “not cool” but he wanted a record deal, and during the season he had to deliberately make sure he turned on the “charm” and didn’t stray too far off of the boy-next-door meme. The way I see it was he was his most sincere self and kept any aura of “scary” out of the mix. And yes, of course, he got to wear that scarlet IDOL letter ever since then. And when reverting to his pre-Idol more creative ways he got called fake/wanna be.

    What is funny is that Freddie Mercury himself said he’s basically a shy person and everything he does on stage is an act. But the public LOVES it’s beliefs whatever they meme is, they go with it. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002166668687 Ali Goria

    “It’s the choice I guess you have to make for that shot at national attention.”
    ITA. IT’s easier to think “ok well I’ll work on my image AFTER I finally “make it” when you’re just praying to make the final 10 or whatever. You’re other option is to keep doing whatever you were doing with no shot whatsoever. So you have your Crystals and Lees who were definitely not comfortable in the Idol family and everybody else hoping to survive the “stigma”. 

  • Anonymous

    It’s funny that you mention Crystal, because I’ve always thought that she didn’t stand a chance at having people accept a song like “Farmer’s Daughter”, since she came from AI.  That’s a song that works best, if the singers background is one of having to struggle to get their music played, but the general public sees idol alums as people who have had a career handed to them, so they aren’t going to find a “reality tv star” singing about child abuse believable.

    I know that sounds rough, given Crystal’s actual background, and the problems that she had with her mothers, but that’s not the perception that people will have of her, or what they will focus on.  The only way it could have worked is if Crystal’s relationship with her mother was part of her idol story, and something that was retold every week.

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