Adam Lambert Making Two Trips To The UK
The latest news from the people at Sony UK, who have generously been keeping Brit fans abreast of progress with Operation AdamStorm UK, is that Adam will make 2 visits to these shores, one in March and one in April.
The administrators of several UK fan groups received an email yesterday, beginning:
“Wow, things are getting exciting here at Sony HQ! It looks like Adam will be coming into the UK in both March AND April!! Dates are still to be confirmed, but it will probably be the last week of each month.”
AI winner Kris Allen to meet fans on Monday
PETALING JAYA: American Idol Season 8 winner Kris Allen will be in town next Monday to meet fans and showcase songs from his debut album, Kris Allen.
The 24-year-old Arkansas native, who beat his flamboyant competitor Adam Lambert last year, is on a three-city Asian tour and will arrive in Kuala Lumpur from Manila late Sunday before heading off to Singapore on Tuesday.
While in KL, fans will be able to meet the Idol at an autograph-signing at Mid Valley Megamall (Ground Floor, Centre Court) at 6pm. The session is open to all.
Special waiver for Kris Allen
WELL, it’s more for his fans. Midas Promotions, the organisers for Kris Allen’s gig at Zirca has announced that there will be NO MINIMUM AGE LIMIT AT ZIRCA for his gig on Feb 10. Yes, this is a special waiver, and it’s due to “overwhelming demand”.
Yup, so kids under 18 can enter. BUT those under 14 must be accompanied by their parents, whom we assume, will be allocated a special parents’ corner so that they won’t cramp their kids’ cool factor. Ha ha!
More Idol Headlines after the JUMP…
Rejected on ‘American Idol’: Austin Paul, aka CU Buffs’ Austin Bisnow
Tuesday night’s episode of “American Idol” didn’t go as planned for University of Colorado senior Austin Bisnow (who goes by Austin Paul).
Simon Cowell said he thought Bisnow “could be very annoying” and Kara DioGuardi said he “comes off a bit cocky.”
All four judges axed the CU football player.
“I don’t hold anything against them, ” said Bisnow. “It’s their job to be critics. It’s hard finding a balance between confidence and arrogance. I guess I just struck the wrong balance and rubbed the judges the wrong way.”
CU senior Channing Spiro watched the show Tuesday night and sided with the judges’ decision.
“It was so bad, ” said Spiro. “I mean really bad. I don’t know what else to say other than it was just bad.”
Love’s in the air for Jason Castro
He’s the dreadlocked hearthrob who caught the attention of female fans during Season 7 of “American Idol.”
Now, Jason Castro, the laid back singer/songwriter with the piercing blue eyes, is preparing to debut his first album this spring and taking his show on the road as well.
Castro will appear in concert at Schubas at 9 tonight. He’ll entertain on a bill with Matt Hires and Caitlin Crosby.
“I’m playing an acoustic set and being accompanied by a guitarist. It’s really cool because we’re playing in small venues and just having a good time, ” Castro said.
Greased Lightning
Taylor Hicks has morphed from “American Idol” to “Teen Angel” in a new Broadway production of “Grease” at National Theatre Feb. 9 to 21. This rock ’n’ roll celebration of coming of age in 1959 America combines hits from the 1978 movie like “Hopelessly Devoted to You” with songs from the original 1972 stage production like “Summer Nights.” Hicks, who wowed more than 63.4 million voters to win the fifth season of Fox’s competition, aims to bring a “crisp, fresh approach to the signature role” originally played by Alan Paul.
‘Idol’ goes to 7 cities, but offers 8 audition days
Fox devoted eight days to the “American Idol” audition round, but there were only seven cities on this year’s cross-country vacation for host Ryan Seacrest and the judges. That gave the show an extra hour to fill, which made Wednesday a clip show that focused mainly on singers who did well enough to make it to Hollywood.
Sixty more minutes of heartwarming tales and nervous-sounding voices … who could ask for anything more?
‘American Idol’ recap: Twelve for the Road!
It took four weeks and eight episodes to get there, but last night, as American Idol presented the last of its season 9 audition episodes, the show finally began to resemble a search for the nation’s next singing sensation, not some act that’s destined to be wedged between the tilt-a-whirl and a display of prize-winning peppers at a two-bit county fair. This sudden influx of talent arrived just in the nick of time: I mean, going into this evening’s telecast, I was more attached to the Sims people from Idol’s unflinchingly low-budget opening credits than I was to most of the Golden Ticket-getters we’d seen in Boston, Atlanta, Orlando, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Denver.
‘Idol’ season 9 auditions: It’s a wrap!
Well, we’ve made it to the end of the city auditions, with 181 hopefuls stamped to go through to the next phase of competition. What did we learn? That the “Road to Hollywood” is paved with bold — 16-year-olds who can belt with the best of them, the once rejected coming back for a second chance, and the truly talented few who really have something to prove.
The show rushed an unusually large number of auditioners through this last pre-Hollywood week episode, so it was a little harder to connect with these candidates, but a few did stand out. Namely, girls. Here are our top five picks. Who were your favorites?
The Final American Idol Auditions: Flower Power & Girl Power
Well, it’s the end of the road. The road to Hollywood, that is. Next week marks the start of Hollywood Week–and, perhaps even more importantly, the start of Ellen DeGeneres’s tenure as American Idol’s new permanent judge–so tonight’s Idol episode was the last chance for the other three judges to find some truly deserving new talent. After a somewhat lackluster audition rounds with (in my not-so-humble opinion) precious few real standouts, tonight’s episode–a roundup of unseen clips from all the previous audition cities–was a do-or-die event. And fortunately, it seemed like the Idol producers cleverly saved some of the best singers for last. Also, tonight’s episode was all about the ladies (along with one remarkable dude who sounded like a lady), finally delivering on all the hype about the season 9 Idol title being a girl’s for the taking.
Here were the more memorable auditioners of the evening…
‘American Idol’ looks back at the auditions
We like to think of the We Saved the Best For Last auditions night as “American Idol’s” way of saying “the joke’s on you” to all those die-hard fans who’ve slogged through the eight-ish hours of cross-country auditions the singing competition Fox has aired so far. But first, ” ‘Idol’ has to play catch-up on the General Larry Plant phenom. Mister Pants on the Ground is the only wanna-be Idolette anyone’s talking about so far this season. Is that sad? “Idol” introduced him to America and now shows us some of the people who have been covering his tune since. First best-for-last wannabe Idolette, Jessica Furney chooses to sing “Footprints in the Sand, ” which sounds like one of those glutinous tunes ‘Idol’ judge Simon Cowell would mock — except he co-wrote this one, which shocks guest judge Posh Spice. Simon, naturally, loves it and everyone else falls into line.
Simon Wants to Topple ‘We Are the World’
Simon Cowell is the top dog at many things — ‘Idol, ‘ ‘X Factor’ and so forth, and now the music mogul wants to be the titan of another industry — the Haiti charity song biz. Simon’s competitive side has him gearing up for a fight with fellow music honcho Quincy Jones as they unleash dueling Haiti benefit tunes. Healthy competition for a good cause is just fine by us.
Even when doing good, Simon Cowell can’t let go of his competitive nature, and wants to make sure his all-star Haiti single is a bigger hit than Quincy Jones’ re-recording of ‘We Are The World.’
“Simon is competitive about everything he does. He has to clean his teeth better than anyone, he has to earn more money than anyone — and he is determined that his single to benefit Haiti has to outsell Quincy Jones record, ” a friend of the ‘Idol’ judge tells me.
Sick Simon Cowell asks Louis Walsh to judge Britain’s Got Talent in his place
Britain’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell has fallen foul of the flu and missed a day’s auditions.
X Factor judge Louis Walsh stepped in at the last minute to take his place next to TV’s Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden.
Joker Louis, 57, appeared on stage with a Simon Cowell mask over his face.
And Amanda sent Simon a pink fluffy hot water bottle to speed his recovery.
It’s the first time Simon, 50, has missed TV auditions and BGT hopes he will be fit for some of the show’s three day stint in Birmingham.
American Idol Recap: Someone Didn’t Properly Reheat These Leftovers
If you’re the lone sadist who didn’t get their fill of amateur singing during American Idol’s last seven audition episodes, then last night must have been manna from cutting-floor heaven. For everyone else, though, the episode of unseen “highlights” that were just “too good” to leave unaired was like the deleted scenes on a DVD: exciting in theory, but maddeningly dull in practice. Bonus footage is always the extra of broken promises.
Talent, at least in the traditional sense, was not present last night; instead of showing us some of the more impressive ticket winners who had previously been eschewed in favor of “Pants on the Ground, ” they gave us, well, more “Pants on the Ground.” Ryan Seacrest narrated a clip reel demonstrating how General Larry Platt’s ode has become a viral sensation, which, in turn, means that meme is officially dead.
The 14 Biggest Freaks of the Idol Auditions
American Idol’s eccentric, atonal auditioners make us laugh—and then we never see them again. Richard Rushfield says: pit them against each other in their own show.
Each year in its audition episodes, American Idol establishes the purest of Horatio Algerian, rags-to-riches paradigms: from the vast throng of striving humanity, the less talented fall away until only one chosen talent remains.
Except that for some in the Idol tent, the door to this road will forever be barred.
