THE JET SET
Looks who’s on vacation! Adam Lambert escapes the wintry weather Friday, touching down in Mexico for a getaway with his guy friends. Soon, though, it’s back to work for the glam rocker, who will perform at a Ryan Seacrest -hosted concert in New York City on Feb. 12.
Kristen Stewart’s Help for Haiti Continues
In other celebrities-helping-Haiti news, Kris Allen tells us he will make a trip there, but he promises not to turn it into a photo op. “I’m going to go in March, ” the American Idol winner says. “Simon Fuller asked me, ‘You want to go to Haiti?’ and I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ I want to help out in any way I can.”
More Idol Headlines After the JUMP…
Kris Allen: Newfound Pinoy idol!
“American Idol” Kris Allen may seem like the quiet unassuming one, especially standing side-by-side a glammed up Adam Lambert during the Season 8 finals, but he does manage to turn up the heat.
As he takes the stage at the press conference for Musicfest 2010 at the Eastwood Mall Open Park on Feb. 3, the excited local fans that turned up on a breezy Wednesday afternoon welcome their idol with all sorts of cameras clicking up in the air.
‘American Idol’ auditions that will keep me watching
I don’t think the audition weeks of American Idol tell us a lot, in most cases. All a good audition has to do, after all, is convince the judges they want to see more of you in a different setting. Some people put everything they’ve got into the audition — there’s nothing left for Hollywood. Other people show a spark of something unique that never develops quite enough. Still others reveal their strengths over time, each performance just good enough to get them to the next one.
A few auditions, though, reveal quite a bit about the performers — especially these days, when there’s often enough background information online to give their stories and their performances more context than a three-minute television package can.
Anoop Desai of ‘American Idol’ recording in Nashville
Add Anoop Desai to the increasingly long list of American Idol finalists making connections in Music City.
Desai, who came in 6th place in last year’s season of Idol, is in Nashville this week wrapping up work on his upcoming single, “My Name.”
“Name” will be featured on All Is Fair, a 6-song EP due in May. Desai plans to release a new EP every six months.
The North Carolina native isn’t in town to stay, however — he’s now based in Los Angeles. Still, he wouldn’t be out of place in Nashville, as he’s well known for his smooth soul version of the country standard “Always On My Mind.”
‘American Idol Rewind’: Go ‘Country’ with Kellie Pickler, Chris Daughtry and Bucky Covington
Can you think back as far as “Country Week” on season 5 of “American Idol”?
Well, whether you remember it or or not isn’t an issue, since “American Idol Rewind” is taking a look back at the events featuring season 5 stars Kellie Pickler, Chris Daughtry and Bucky Covington.
Watch, in the clip below, as Kellie tackles a Reba McEntire tune with Kenny Rogers as a mentor, as Bucky just kills the genre — we mean that as a compliment — and as Chris gets criticized by Mr. Simon Cowell…
Lighting eclipses true soul of ‘Dreamgirls’
But aside from a few truly show-stopping moments, Longbottom’s production is all glitter and no spark. Though this version of Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger’s musical seems to have it all, it doesn’t move the way it should. Blame it on Longbottom’s stilted choreography, or the fact that an LED simulation is no replacement for the shimmer of a real tinsel curtain.
‘Dreamgirls’ looks, sounds great but lacks emotional depth
BOSTON — The song won a Tony Award for Jennifer Holliday. It won an Oscar for Jennifer Hudson. And on Thursday night, the anthemic “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” brought a deservedly rousing standing ovation to Moya Angela. She brought enough power and raw emotion to the song’s swooping notes and its agonizing anger and despair that the audience was on its collective feet even before her Effie finished the last “You’re gonna love me…” that closes Act 1 of “Dreamgirls.”
The 1981 musical about the making of a girl group, loosely based on the story of the Supremes, may draw bigger names for the Diana Ross-inspired role: Beyonce in the 2006 film; “American Idol” second runner-up (season seven) Syesha Mercado — impressive in her professional theater debut — on this national tour.
Big voice, big heart
Nearly 30 years after the Broadway original and four years after Bill Condon’s movie version, a revamped “Dreamgirls’’ is back onstage where it belongs. The tour, which opened at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in November, plays the Colonial Theatre through Feb. 14 – and I am telling you, you’re going.
At least, you’re going if you want to hear the latest powerful rendition of the song that made Jennifer Holliday and Jennifer Hudson famous, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.’’ Moya Angela follows in their footsteps as Effie, the singer with the big figure and even bigger voice who’s displaced by the more telegenic Deena as the show’s more-or-less-fictional ’60s girl group climbs the charts.
Adam Lambert’s ‘Oldest Fan’ Going to Indio Concert
INDIO – Through a story idea submitted to us on Twitter, an 89-year-old woman in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has tickets to see her “idol, ” Adam Lambert.
Isabel Paquette spoke to her daughter, who taped the interview, and put it on the internet. She told the camera that her family loves Lambert’s music; they play it all the time, and the family gets quiet whenever it comes on the radio.
With that, a campaign started online to get Isabel the chance to see Lambert in-person.
Friday morning, two tickets had been purchased for Isabel and her daughter to attend the concert at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino on February 27th.
