Idol Headlines for 9/21/14

TONIGHT The Voice 7 premieres! We’ll be live blogging the first blind auditions beginning at 8/7c pm.

Dancing with the Stars continues 8/7c pm ABC. Celebrity Bug will be your host.

Scorpion, the CBS procedural drama, starring Katharine McPhee, premieres tonight at 9/8c pm

‘Idol’ winner Caleb Johnson to be parade marshal – ASHEVILLE – “American Idol” winner Caleb Johnson is coming home for the holidays. And he’s planning to celebrate with about 25,000 people. The Asheville Downtown Association plans to announce Monday that Johnson will serve as grand marshal for the Asheville Holiday Parade, presented by Bojangles, on Nov. 22. “That’s a huge honor,” said Johnson, an Asheville native who just a few years ago attended the parade with Erwin High School classmates. Leading the downtown parade “is a really awesome way to top off the year,” Johnson said Thursday. Following the parade, Johnson will stop by Ingles JingleFest for a meet and greet and sign autographs for fans. U.S. Congressman Mark Meadows will also honor Johnson with a Congressional Record for his significant contributions to North Carolina during Ingles JingleFest. – Read more at Citizens Times

Dove Awards add performers, presenters – Nashville’s Gospel Music Association Dove Awards return to Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena on October 7, and the guest list keeps getting longer for the all-star gathering. Hip-hop artist Lecrae (whose new album, “Anomaly,” just debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart) and Bart Millard (frontman for rockers MercyMe) will host this year’s ceremony. They also top a performer roster that includes Mandisa, Newsboys, for King & Country, Kari Jobe, Hezekiah Walker, Natalie Grant, Erica Campbell, Meredith Andrews & Vertical Church Band, Ellie Holcomb, Love & The Outcome, 1 Girl Nation, Andy Mineo, Tedashii, KB, Trip Lee, Wayne Haun and Karen Peck & New River. – Read more at Tennessean.com

‘The Voice’ Champions: Where Are They Now? – So, how have the show’s winners done since millions watched and voted for them? Ahead of an exciting Season 7 premiere this week that will include new coaches Pharrell and Gwen Stefani, we take a look back at how the show’s champs have performed thus far on the charts, on the road and beyond. – Read more at Fuse.tv

Interview: ‘Scorpion’ star Katharine McPhee on stunts, fictional motherhood and her ‘Smash’ Tony loss – HitFix: Well, what resonated about Paige for you? Katharine McPhee: I think for me I felt like I was getting finally an opportunity to play an adult character, a young adult character who displayed lots of strength and responsibility for her life. I think Karen on “Smash” was supposed to be a little bit younger and the writing didn’t continue to write her as this sort of strong character. I think she was a lot more timid, she was short-winded sometimes. She would get cut off a lot by stronger personalities. And this is, I think, really exciting to kind of be able to have an opportunity to play a character who’s a strong woman. And that was what was intriguing to me. She’s strong but also still very sensitive and sees the world with a sensitivity and can help translate that to other people who can’t really… I just think there’s all these dynamics, like to be able to play a young mother and things that I don’t even, as a human being, know about. Karen was easy for me to connect to as far as the love of wanting to be a performer and the struggle of being an actor and all that stuff. Whereas this is, you know, you really do have to think about the love of a child, because I don’t have those things. – Read more at HitFix

Caleb Johnson performs in Panthers game pre-show, plans big announcement – “This past week has been the first time I’ve been back home for longer than two days in months,” Johnson said. “I’ve just been catching up with everyone and really just hanging out with people and chilling.” Johnson said he has big news for his hometown fans Monday, when he will make a big announcements. “It’s going to be something that’s going on in Asheville, I can tell you that,” the rocker said. “I just can’t tell you what it is until Monday.” Looking forward, Johnson says he is planning an album tour that will begin in 2015 and is planning on taking some well-earned time off for the holidays. “This past year has just been awesome, and I’ve just been going nonstop for months now,” He said. “It has been so awesome.” – Read more at FOX Carolina.com

Interview with Allison Iraheta: The ‘Idol’ alum talks her new band Halo Circus – AXS: How is the independent label treating you versus the major label?

A.I.: Well, I’m no longer with the independent label. We did sign the indie label Manimal Vinyl for a single deal. We released one song with them and it’s called “Gone.” They felt it was the perfect song for us to release for our first step out into the world as Halo Circus and we loved it. We’re very grateful for that label because we wanted to venture out to different audiences and environments. We didn’t want to use the “American Idol” resources that I had. We really wanted to start from scratch. Having done this all independently, I’ve learned so much. We’ve been fortunate to have all the time we need in order to develop our sound and a fan base. I feel like when you’re working on something that means this much to you, you deserve to have all the time in the world. – Read more at AXS

Gwen Stefani Fought With Gavin Rossdale During The Voice: “We Had Only Collaborated on Making Babies” – The No Doubt lead also revealed what it was like to work alongside her husband Rossdale, who joined The Voice in July as an advisor. “Honestly, at first I’d say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea,'” Stefani said of working with the Bush rocker, 48. “But when it came down to it, because it all kind of happened at one time: starting the show, picking advisors… it happened really fast in a condensed period of time, and I had a freak-out.” She recalled one particular incident which led to an argument. “We literally got in a fight the night before because I was like, ‘I don’t know about this…'” she recalled. “I got calmed down and it was really fun.” – read more at US Magazine

How to Dance like a Star, according to Len Goodman – Last week, I, along with a few other unsuspecting journalists were given a salsa lesson with the help of some of the show’s professional dancers, including Keo Motsepe, who has a little more time on his hands after being eliminated last week with partner Lolo Jones, and Anna Trebunskaya, looking gorgeous as ever only eight months after giving birth to her daughter. Knowing that, like the show’s competitors, a sparkly numbered paddle would be the ultimate judge, we got our game faces on and dance shoes tied up. (Well, not all of us.) Take note future “stars”: Use the following as an example of what to do (and sometimes what not to do) in order to get “a 10 from Len!” – Read more from Entertainment Weekly

‘The Voice,’ ‘Idol’ & ‘X Factor’: All 26 Judges, Ranked – It remains to be seen where Gwen and Pharrell will fall in the history of singing-contest judges, but before their debut, let’s rank all 26 personalities who have come before them. *A few housekeeping notes: We only included the three U.S. shows that have more than one season (sorry, Rising Star and The Next) and are on a major network. We also left out The Sing Off, since it features such a specific style of singing, but obviously Ben Folds would have been pretty high on the list. – Read more at Billboard

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!