Jimmy Iovine Talks American Idol 11 Final 2 and Post-Idol Success

By On 05/21/2012 · 167 Comments · In American Idol

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American Idol mentor, Jimmy Iovine answered questions for reporters today in a conference call.  He seems to think the judges listen to thousands of kids sing during the summer auditions? It’s more like hundreds. A lot of the footwork is done for them by producers. Also, he kept making the point that Phillip Phillips success on Idol is very good for the show.  He also believes Jessica Sanchez has a shot at winning.

Would Jimmy consider taking a seat at the judges’ table? “No one has asked me. Not right now–I like working with musicians. I like the creative aspect of what I do on the show. I really enjoy that. It’s a lot of fun for me. Probably not, you know?”

On the mentoring sessions, “The sessions are approximately, a half hour each, maybe a little bit more. They happen on a Friday. I give a lot of thought before I go in.  I’ve been doing this a long time, so what I’m doing basically is what I do in my office. I talk to musicians. When I was a record producer [it's] what I would do. What I was most shocked about this year is that everyone of these kids were cooperative and wanted to learn and wanted to be better. Especially the final 4 or 5. These kids really cared and were really interested? I really liked the kids this year a lot. It made me able to do more.  If we need more time, the kid leaves and comes back. Everybody is treated equally.”

What will Jessica have to do on Tuesday to win, “We worked on this. Jessica has to find that balance between what her capabilities are and reach inside and have the right songs to click the emotion. Because she has to get people to vote for her. People who haven’t voted for her in the past.  I believe in the songs that she’s chosen and that Simon has chosen for her. We worked on an original song which I really like. She’s a pro. She’s 16 years old, but when this girl’s 18, when she grows the next few years, she’s going to be a problem–meaning that she’s going to do really really well. She’s got all the capabilities and all the pieces to just do great. I get excited when I work with her.”

Why does Jessica have a chance to break the boy’s streak and win? “Jessica is born with one of those gifts that you see very very rarely. The tone of her voice, the range, her poise–she has every every chance to win this thing, because she can strike a chord in you with the right song that just–no matter what you’re thinking before you hear that–you will vote for her. She could change your mind on a dime. Because those voices don’t come around everyday. That’s why there are so few people that sing like that in the industry today.”

Was there any finalist that he was shocked to see go home early? “I had it pretty early on that Joshua, Jessica and Phillip had what it takes to be in the final 3. I did not know who was going to proceed or not when Joshua got cut. But those 3 I felt personally would be in the final 3.”

What does he think about this season of American Idol? “Phillip is a very unusual artist to get this far on American Idol. I’m really impressed with that. Phillip’s career is going to be based on–he’s a writer and a singer-songwriter.  You don’t have the world to pick material from. He may take some help in collaborations and different things that he does. For that secret to still be in the bag– to have him [go] this far–a big part of it is those songs.  Dave Matthews, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen–what are the songs? That part, the audience doesn’t know yet. But I believe in him a lot. I think he’s got crazy charisma, incredible sound. I’m really happy about that. I think it bodes well for American Idol that a kid like that can get this far. There’s something about this group–the judges what they do is so difficult–to go on the road and listen to people sing a cappella–thousands of them–I couldn’t do that. And differentiate and to find one kid and not the other? What they do is really extraordinary. And that’s what I think you’re seeing  on American Idol that was missing in some of the years right before that. The A&R process that these judges collectively do is really extraordinary. That’s the thing I’m most impressed at.”

On the last few male pop winners not doing well on the charts, “Singer songwriters–it’s a complicated thing. He has the advantage now of people hearing him in incredible circumstance that a lot of people know who he is. That’s an extraordinary advantage. Now he has to go make a record that lives up to the popularity and the hype and yet go make his first record as an artist. Which is not always the easiest thing.  He’s got to put a lot of work into it and we’re going to help him a lot. But he has this certain thing that some of those other people you’re talking about didn’t have. This guy–I don’t know how he was missed in the industry because he really has such charisma and such a vibe and such a great character that he was looked over, probably, and it’s great that he got on this show. It’s terrific for the show that he made it through.”

Jimmy on his role on Idol, “I’m in the creative process. I’m on their side. Then at the end of the game, we get to talk about what happened. If you’re in a playoff game and the coach comes back and says ‘this guy blew it’ it’s just about what it is. My responsibility is to say what it is and help the singers and the audience sort of give them my take on actually what’s happening and what did happen, why that happened. It’s part of the creative process. I’m on the front of it and the back of it. It’s my responsibility to train the team, and then let them know what happened.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • Anonymous

    poor Crystal…she (as little as I know) seems to be the one who really lost “herself” trying to please the masses.

    Wait…what?

    She presented herself as rootsy folk-rock on the show pretty much down the line.  She released an album that was rootsy folk-rock.  I didn’t think it was the second coming of music or anything, but it was largely pre-AI material.  If she had been “trying to please the masses” she would not have thrown that public fit over the CK/KDG song as a single.  I think her lack of diplomacy and general disinterest in the season was what hurt her, not that she didn’t stay true to herself.

    I could quibble with a lot of the other examples here (Underwood tearing the roof off “Alone” was not any more or less a sidestep of her sound than some of the people who apparently didn’t present themselves consistently enough), but for this particular season, if people can’t figure out that Jessica Sanchez wants to do R&B/pop, heavy on the R&B, then I guess she needs to come out tonight with signal flares.

  • Anonymous

     ”There’s a reason why singing competitions had that model of
    Whitney/Mariah/Celine, because even tough all these divas may also be
    talented musicians/writers, they are first and foremost known for their
    voices.”

    I wonder to what extent the problems have occurred because singing has fallen out of fashion.

  • Tess

    I truly believe that “singing” has fallen out of fashion…probably because more and more people can “sing” really, really well.  Just check the hundreds of great voices who make up the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Singing, itself, is no long the art form it may have been decades ago…and even those “singers/voices” who have made it big (the Garlands, Streisands, Dionnes, Carpenters) had something “more” than a voice they had/have that illusive “IT”.  Entertainment is 60% IT and 40% Talent in my opinion…and you can train the Talent but it is really damn hard to “create” the IT.

  • Karen C

    I don’t agree with what Jimmy Iovine said about Phillip being more charismatic than the other WGWG, I think David Cook is much more charismatic than Phillip, and probably Kris Allen is too. 

    And I do think that songwriting ability can be shown when contestants arrange their own covers, if they have the ability to put their own sound into their songs. They all have their own styles that they use, which is pretty consistant with their writing style.  If David Cook, Kris Allen, Chris Daughtry, Lee Dewyze, and Phillip all did their versions of the same song, they would all sound very different. In fact, recently Kris Allen did a version of Billie Jean which was very different than David Cook’s.

    I think the main difference with Phillip though, even if he is writing his own music, it wasn’t to the point where he had his own album before the show so he isn’t as experienced as the others.

    The other think I think about the singer songwriters is usually they aren’t quite as charasmatic as the pop stars are, and they are more known for their music than their personalities.   And this type of music tends not to be in pop as much now.

  • Anonymous

    everyone here is so focused on the importance of creating a pop star. i am more interested in seeing artists getting a shot at producing an interesting album. personally, i hate current pop music but there is tons of great music out there. stop thinking in black and white, star or nothing. you are not the producers ans success should not be measured in millions of dollars. everyone identifies with the big companies and the tycoons too much. 

  • Anonymous

    ” (Btw, I always wonder when they say someone (or ones) wrote a song, who 
    wrote the lyrics vs the music  -and does one get paid more?  Ive often 
    thought lyrics can be written because thats words and writing like 
    anything else – but the music is hard…”

    The answer is neither one — co-writes are almost always equal spilts; so if there are 2 credited writers, the royalties would be a 50/50 split, if there are three co-writers, it would be a 33.3/33.3/33.3 split. Etc.

  • http://twitter.com/eilonwya10 Eilonwy

    everyone here is so focused on the importance of creating a pop star. i am more interested in seeing artists getting a shot at producing an interesting album.  i hate current pop music but there is tons of great music out there.

    Mmmmmm… I’d say I’m more on the “interesting album” train. I do like some current pop music, so an interesting album in pop strikes me as a real possibility.

    While I’m not a P2 fan, I do think he could potentially make an interesting album if he’s given time to write and paired with truly sympathetic cowriters who veer to the AAA end of the music spectrum (not the usual stable of writers) and has been hiding some pretty serious songwriting chops himself. 

    As far as Sanchez, I think she can make an interesting pop/R&B album if she’s given good songs with a nice mix of variety (make sure there are some sassy up-tempo numbers!) that show off her interpretation skills as well as the “big” vocals. She was making interesting choices in her pre-Idol tubie covers, so I think she has some POV of her own.

    One of the reasons for the interest in “pop,” though, is that the winner’s advance is pretty hefty, which calls for sizable sales to balance it. The big sales numbers are easier to achieve with hits in pop, country, and maybe urban. I don’t personally see big sales as the be-all and end-all of “success” (I flove some bands that’ll probably never sell more than 50k of any album and may be reaching for 20k), but I can’t get around the reality that staying signed with a major label calls for hitting the label’s profit benchmarks.

  • Anonymous

    ” I truly believe that “singing” has fallen out of fashion…probably
    because more and more people can “sing” really, really well.  Just check
    the hundreds of great voices who make up the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
     Singing, itself, is no long the art form it may have been decades
    ago…”

    Yeah, good point.

    Plus, there are so many more things you can involve in the “it” now — you can autotune and airbrush and make-’em-dance-sexy-at-the-same-time-as-they-sing and talk-show and social-media people up so that their actual singing talent and skills become an even smaller part of the “whole package” than they were in the past….. And they never were the whole thing.

  • Anonymous

    ” I think the main difference with Phillip though, even if he is writing
    his own music, it wasn’t to the point where he had his own album before
    the show so he isn’t as experienced as the others.”

    Inexperience, or youth, is a real hallmark of the top group this year. (Last year kind of, too … Is that the post-Jimmy era talking or something? We really do have a youth movement, but it makes things a little stranger in some ways…)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ellensue-Stein/1730030639 Ellensue Stein

    Jessica’s international fan base cannot vote, so don’t count on that for the win. Jessica has no originality, she’s a Beyonce “Wanna be”. She has no stage presence, charisma or personality. She needs 2 more years of training, which you don’t get. Once you win, the CD must be done within months or you are yesterday’s news & forgotten. If you think PP looks like a stage hand, Jess looks like a little girl playing dress up & her performances are keroke. 
    I’ll bet that Phillip already has a bunch of original songs written, hopefully they are good enough for the cd, but the powers at Idol have full control over the first album, so time will tell who will sell. 
    PHILLIP PHILLIPS FOR THE WIN!!

  • Anonymous

    Jessica has “no stage presence, charisma or personality”

    ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? That duet with Halliday easily, easily brought down the house.

  • http://twitter.com/nancy2heart nancy

    Maybe ~ we’ll see ~ but I can’t stand to watch the contortions in his face ~ looks like he’s in great pain ~ plus he can’t seem to stay “on key!”

  • http://twitter.com/nancy2heart nancy

    If I’m not mistaken, the International fans cannot vote on American Idol, or David Archuleta would have probably won Season 7 (he is much loved there).  I remember his International fans saying they wish they could vote for him.  He has starred in a TV mini-series and made an album in the Phillipines for his fans there (this past year), and visited there several times.

  • http://twitter.com/nancy2heart nancy

    That doesn’t sound like a flop to me!  Maybe “some” might call him a flop, but hardly “most!”  Those who know Kris love him (& his music), including Adam!  

  • http://twitter.com/nancy2heart nancy

    Even Celine Dion doesn’t have Selina Gomez good looks ~ but Celine can sing circles around Selina, and so can Jessica!  And then there’s Steven Tyler ~ looks have never hindered him (just a couple examples)!

  • Practical

    I read from one of the comments that they looked like two barking dogs because of too much screaming.

  • Practical

    I read from one of the comments that they looked like two barking dogs because of too much screaming.

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