Headlines: Ruben Studdard Receives Masters Degree

Tonight, The Voice Final Four sing for your votes. We’ll be live blogging beginning at 8/7c PM. A new winner is crowned tomorrow at 9/8c PM. The Voice airs on NBC.

Carrie Underwood adds international dates to ‘Storyteller Tour’ – Seven-time Grammy winner and Pollstar’s three-time top female country touring artist, Carrie Underwood has expanded “The Storyteller Tour” to include two additional concerts during Europe’s biggest country music festival, Country to Country (C2C), in Scandinavia next March. The Checotah native will be playing both Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. Underwood is already headlining C2C in Glasgow, Scotland; London, England; and Dublin, Ireland. – Read more at NewsOK.com

Ruben Studdard Receives Master Of Arts Degree From Alabama A&M University

On Friday, the season 2 American Idol winner wrote on an Instagram photo, “Today I received a Master of Arts Degree from My School Alabama A&M University!!! I’m super happy and proud to be a Bulldog #AAMU” Congrats, Ruben!

A photo posted by @realrubenstuddard on

Interview: Allison Iraheta previews Halo Circus’s Troubadour showcase – On Monday, Dec. 14 Halo Circus will lead “Say It Loud! A Night of Cultural Disruption,” an evening at West Hollywood’s Troubadour which spotlights innovative music curated by the Los Angeles-based rockers. Halo Circus lead singer Allison Iraheta joined AXS for an email interview to give us a preview of the one night only event. “These are all friends of ours that are all well known in the music industry and that also have something to say,” explained Iraheta, who said that assembling the lineup was as simple as finding other artists that were making a statement about the world we are living in right now. – Read more at AXS

Jennifer Hudson Wants to Return to American Idol For Final Season – “I hope to return!” she told me at the opening of her Broadway debut, The Color Purple, adding, “I hope to be a part of the Idol finale, the final show. I’m kind of sad to see it go because it’s been a part of our homes. Each of us in America, you know what I mean? So it’s going to be sad to see it go but I hope to be a part of the farewell.”
Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe was among the bold-faced names that attended The Color Purple opening. – Read more at EOnline

The Messiah has arrived, and he’s on the increasingly religious reality singing show The Voice. – Now, in its ninth season, The Voice is in its own weird way the most religious show in prime time. Coaches will often refer to singers’ virtue, holding them as examples of “what makes this show so pure.” They take note of who brings “a message,” and cast “prayers” for their moving forward in the competition. And the judges’ rapturous descriptions of their singers’ gifts are getting more and more cosmic: “Your voice seems like it’s made of what beautiful clouds are made of,” Pharrell Williams told one contestant recently, “and it seemed like when you sang just now, the stars would come out to assist that moment”—a sentiment with a real stonerish vibe, but also an expression of a universe that is sacred and responsive. – Read more at Slate.com

Finale Draws Lowest Ratings Ever Despite Adele, One Direction Performances – The X Factor U.K. on ITV on Sunday night drew its lowest-ever season finale ratings despite performances by Adele, One Direction and Coldplay, according to overnight audience data. The final episode of the 12th season of the singing competition drew an average of 8.4 million overnight viewers in the 8-10 p.m. time slot, according to overnights.tv. That compared with 9.4 million last season and fell below the 9.3 million recorded for the second season finale in Britain in 2005, which had so far ranked as the lowest-rated. – Read more at The Hollywood Reporter

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!