Jason Castro and Wife Having another Baby Girl
“Having a popsicle before she POPS! We’re are excited to announce that we are expecting GIRL NUMBER THREE!!!,” The American Idol season 7 singer posts on his Instagram.
How Do You Say “Pecan?” Georgia Pecans Get Some Help – The Georgia Pecan Growers Association (Georgia Pecans) has helped answer (kind of) the age-old question of “How do you say ‘pecan’?” Georgia Pecans called on Georgia native singer Lauren Alaina to cast her vote on the subject. The result is two new video vignettes featuring Alaina that address that subject, along with the subject of “Pecans are Healthy.” – Read more at PRNewswire
Lauren Alaina: ‘I Was Losing It a Little Bit, and Writing About It Saved Me’ – “I learned a lot about what it takes to be a songwriter and kind of what that means in Nashville. I found out that I was the least-talented person in town and had to work my way up, because you had to write with people that were better than you in order to get better. So that’s what I did,” Alaina continues. “I wrote with all of the best people in town and took something from each person. Once I started learning how to write songs, I had to learn how to write songs about me. And then when I started doing that, I wrote my record, and it was kind of an accident.” – Read more at The Boot
Trent Harmon, Grace Vanderwaal Appear at Starkey Foundation Gala
St Paul’s Starkey Foundation held their annual gala over the weekend. In attendance were American Idol and AGT winners (respectively) Trent Harmon and Grace Vanderwaal. Trent attended last year.
Welcome back to #StarkeyGala @trentharmon! pic.twitter.com/QjlyeodI8M
— Starkey Foundation (@starkeycares) July 16, 2017
#StarkeyGala performer @GraceVanderWaal pic.twitter.com/bu5PF7dwPC
— St Paul RiverCentre (@RiverCentre) July 16, 2017
Adam Lambert has a crazy little thing called love for Queen – “I love working with them,” Lambert, the 2009 “Idol” runner-up, says by phone. “They are classy and inspiring. They’ve given me a lot of freedom within the music, which I’m very grateful for. I’m very humbled and very lucky I get to do this.” The feeling is mutual from the Queen side. “He’s sensational,” says drummer and co-founder Roger Taylor, 67. “I describe him as almost a camp Elvis (Presley). He has this unbelievable range, because Freddie had a great range. Adam can really cover it. He’s an extraordinary singer and a real talent. I feel he fits into our sort of theatricality. It was very comfortable.” – Read more at Daily Tribune.com
Interview: David Cook talks future plans, new music, Chris Cornell, and fans – “There were so many moving parts, and I really enjoyed it. The group of guys I worked with were all great,” he said. Regarding his plans for the future, Cook revealed, “Music, music, music and other fun things.” From his new album, he shared that his personal favorite track is “Ghost Magnetic,” where he worked with his friend, fellow musician Ryan Star. When asked to look back and reflect on his career in a rear-view mirror over the last five to ten years, he responded, “I see a kid figuring it out, and as I look through the present and the future, I’m still trying to figure it out.” – Read more at BlastingNews
How Halsey Helped ‘American Idol’ Alum David Cook Find Inspiration for New Song ‘Gimme Heartbreak’ – With the release of his new single, “Gimme Heartbreak,” “American Idol” Season 7 winner David Cook feels like he is “cracking the spine on a new chapter” — his musical evolution. In crafting the lyrics, where Cook sings of a former lover being the equivalent of “death in a black dress,” Cook tells Variety he made a “a conscious effort going into the production to incorporate more cinematic pop elements.” Taking inspiration from recent releases — “I was listening to Halsey’s ‘Badlands’ record,” he reveals — Cook also leaned on “old standbys like Nine Inch Nails and Massive Attack” to find “vibes” for a new direction. – Read more at Variety
Alabama’s on the menu when Taylor Hicks’ ‘State Plate’ makes its Season 2 debut – Taylor Hicks will showcase food from Alabama when his INSP series, “State Plate,” makes its Season Two debut on Aug. 11. And that’s really no surprise, considering that Hicks, a Hoover native, is a staunch advocate for the cuisine of his home state. The country-soul singer and former “American Idol” winner, 40, vowed to bring the series to Alabama from the get-go, and Hicks will make good on that promise with an episode that airs at 7 p.m. CT. – Read more at AL.com
Mia Z from ‘The Voice’ pops into Habitat for Humanity ReStore in New Kensington – Hyde Park’s famous native, songstress Mia Z, stopped by the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in New Kensington Saturday and posed with the one of the nonprofit’s longest-running volunteers, Glenn Nordmark, 88, of Lower Burrell. Mia Z, known in her hometown as Mia Zanotti, made a national splash in 2015 as one of the finalists on the television singing competition “The Voice” when she was 16 years old. According to her Facebook page, Mia has been recording in Los Angeles. – Read more at TribLive
Reality Reasserts Itself in Summer TV With Record 11 New Shows – The volume of scripted TV may be at an all-time high, but you’d never know it from the Big Four’s summer schedules, with 11 new reality shows set to debut this summer — up from four last year. That reverses a trend launched by CBS’ scripted summer hit Under the Dome in 2013. One reason is money: Scripted programming is less and less financially appealing in the off-months. Hence it accounts for only about 20 percent of Big Four originals airing this summer. “When you have a hit reality show, you can scale [it],” says NBC Entertainment president of program planning, strategy and research Jeff Bader. “World of Dance can be like Ninja Warrior and America’s Got Talent and expand to many more hours. That’s not easy with scripted.” – Read more at Hollywood Reporter
Big Brother’s Cody Nickson Would ‘Consider’ Working With Paul If He Returned – “I wouldn’t change my game at all. I would probably make the same risks, no matter how seemingly stupid they may be,” he tells Us. “I’m not some dud. I’m not going to just go back in and just somehow play it safe now that I have a second chance. It’s just not me. So I’m going to take as many risks as possible. I’m sure Jess will talk me down from the ledge a few different times. If anything, if I was to kind of chill, it [would] just be trusting Jess’ intuition because her intuition is pretty amazing. She’s got awesome intelligence. I would fall back on Jess more for her advice.” – Read more at US Magazine
