Today Idol headlines after the jump ¦
Merry Christmas, Donkey
….Christmas in Rockefeller Center (NBC, 8 tonight) is broadcast live from the Manhattan landmark. This year’s telecast will be hosted by Al Roker, the ever-shrinking cataloguer of the planet’s rain, sun, clouds, temperature, sleet, lightning, snow, low-pressure systems and, everybody’s favourite, squalls!
Hopefully without the use of a giant blue map, the Today weatherman will introduce a number of musical performers, including Josh Groban, CÃ ©line Dion, Barry Manilow, Ashley Tisdale, Taylor Swift and American Idol star Carrie Underwood.
I have not seen a song list. But if NBC is serious about spreading joy, peace and goodwill, it will do whatever is necessary to prevent CÃ ©line from belting out “Feliz Navidad.” And, please, somebody put Manilow in a headlock if he shows up with jingle bells….
Morning anchor Lyders is leaving Channel 12 to explore options
…..Lyders says her decision to leave Channel 12 isn’t connected to her relationship with “American Idol” winner Taylor Hicks, something she’s not interested in talking about.
“You know what? It doesn’t have anything to do with it, ” she says. “I made the decision based on what’s right for me.”…..
The Reliable Source
….Taylor Hicks — yes, the prematurely gray dude who won “American Idol” last year — dining with three others at BLT Steak Saturday night. Told the manager he was just visiting D.C. friends on his days off….
Kelly Clarkson, former ‘American Idol, ‘ has guts and gumption
It might sound weird to suggest that Kelly Clarkson is a positive harbinger of pop music’s eventual return from its current abyss of cookie-cutter-voiced autobots and mindless dance pap. Especially since as the first American Idol winner, she’s sort of the poster-child of the autobot movement.
But Clarkson, who brings her My December tour to Boca Raton’s Mizner Park Amphitheater on Thursday, is so much more than the sum of her seemingly pre-packaged fame. Five years ago she set the bar for all of the American Idol winners in both her talent level (huge), likability (huge) and her success (huger than huge), a marker that only fourth-season winner Carrie Underwood has come near in either sales or staying power…..
Movin’ From ‘Idol’ Adulation to Stage Charm
Elliott Yamin is the easiest “American Idol” vet to root for this side of Kelly Clarkson. His likability allows him to take risks without coming off as goofy. Among the risks Yamin got away with at the 9:30 club on Monday: crooning “Sharing the Night Together, ” Dr. Hook’s fun but idiotic (how else can you share the night but “together”?) cozy-up single that was originally released 30 years ago this week.
He also pulled off dancing with a giant gecko that stormed the stage during “Movin’ On, ” the first song on his self-titled debut CD. Tracks from that disc dominated Yamin’s approximately one-hour set, and most found him trying to conjure a lite-funk, Stevie-Wonder-via-Justin-Timberlake vibe. Yamin, who all night flashed a million-dollar-smile that the tabloids say he got with only $50, 000 worth of cosmetic dentistry, shamed neither Stevie nor JT…………
Carrie gift
From American Idol to Music Row
The process was well under way, but YouTube provided a caught-on-camera bright-red underline. The occasion was the 2006 Country Music Association Awards, and when it was announced that Carrie Underwood had won Female Artist of the Year, fellow nominee Faith Hill, then country music long-running diva of choice, reacted with an angry …What?! as she stared right at the camera.
The moment couldnt have captured the shifting fortunes of the pair any better if Hill had interrupted the CMAs to give Underwood a glittering crown and a key to the city of Nashville. Hill has since said she was joking, but that beside the point. Underwood, the 24-year-old former American Idol winner whose second CD, Carnival Ride (Arista), recently shot to the top of the charts, is the new diva of Music Row ‘ which by most lights makes her America pop diva. Whereas the country other reigning songbirds appear to be concentrating on clothing lines (the exception being Jennifer Lopez, who too busy wondering where her audience went), Underwood just singing. And the music she making is equal to the size of the stage she now on………
IdeaEdge and Stored Value Solutions Team for First American Idol Gift Card
The new American Idol gift card, recently launched by IdeaEdge, Inc. and powered by Stored Value Solutions, is the first of its kind, the companies reported.
The gift cards will provide over 40 million fans a fun, convenient and easy way to purchase American Idol merchandise and for friends and family members to give as gifts to the many American Idol fans in their lives.
American Idol gift cards provide access to music from past American Idol contestants, such as Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Kellie Pickler and Taylor Hicks. Cards can also be used to purchase Karaoke CDs of songs sung on the show by favorite Idols, exclusive American Idol apparel and accessories, a Playstation 2 video game, and even an American Idol-ized monopoly game……….
High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgens laments on fame
….Interestingly, her HSM gig almost never happened. A young Hudgens was all set to audition for American Idol.
“I love singing and I thought that to get a chance to do it (American Idol) would have been amazing, ” she says. “The only way I thought that I would be able to get myself out there would be on American Idol. But I was 15 at the time when I said that I wanted to do it and you had to be 16 to audition.
“So I thought, ‘One more year’. Then, when I turned 16, High School Musical came along and I got to do it. So I thought I’d skip on American Idol.”
Nice move.
MUSIC REVIEWS: Pop, country/roots, jazz and classical releases
….JORDIN SPARKS “Jordin Sparks” (19 Recordings/Jive 2 ½ stars)
There are some notable firsts associated with the winning debut of this year’s “American Idol.” Sparks, who is nearly 20, is the first victor to join the producer’s label rather than Sony/BMG with a championship disc not exec-produced by Clive Davis.
Maybe Clive’s scared to get into a Kelly Clarkson catfight with Sparks. Maybe the one-time Christian balladeer with the powerful lungs and the relaxed R&B melodic style had her own ideas. Everything from the tender trap of “See My Side, ” with its subtle vocal harmony flourishes, to the tremors of “God Loves Ugly” shows Sparks’ mark. Her debut’s most potent display – she was 17 when she recorded this – is the teen-pop-hop of “No Air, ” a breathlessly silly thing she did with Michael Jackson clone Chris Brown. Then there are dear electro-pop tracks like “Shy Boy” (produced by the same team that did most of Britney Spears’ “Blackout”) that manage to show the soulful sweet side of Euro-dance that Britney can’t ever entertain again. It’s a charming effort. Sparkly, even….
American Idol: Disappointing Sales for Jordin Sparks’ Debut Album?
Early numbers (not the official ones mind you, but accurate nonetheless) are indicating that American Idol winner Jordin Sparks’ debut album will finish in an extremely disappointing ninth place on the charts with only around 100, 000 copies sold. Now, this is a devastating blow to Sparks burgeoning career, if true………….
Keys vs. Groban, Joran Makes Few Sparks
The CD chart is still being counted, but over at hitsdailydouble.com, Alicia Keys and Josh Groban are neck and neck for a first-place finish.
Groban is a Christmas album, while Keys set records last week for debuting at No. 1 with 724, 000 copies of “As I Am” sold.
This week they are so far each around 150, 000 ‘ but the final numbers wont be in until later Tuesday.
Meantime, Jive Records looks like it’s struggling with all its new releases, not just Britney Spears disappearing “Blackout.” Albums by “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown are also not posting hoped-for numbers. Sparks, an “American Idol” winner, should do only 100, 000 copies in her debut week. Goes to show you: Those “AI” kids need Clive Davis, or it just doesnt work.
The Dish Rag
Count on the muscle of Condà © Nast Media Group, the Producers Guild of America and the Entertainment Industry Foundation to pull together a fledgling awards show called “Movies Rock.”
I know what you’re thinking. ANOTHER awards show? Just what we need. More boring acceptance speeches, more fake surprised faces, more big expensive gowns, fancy tuxedos, and pointless after-parties.
But this one actually sounds like it could be fun. (Click HERE for information).
The two-hour event (Sunday, Dec 2 at the Kodak Theatre) celebrates “the synergy between music and movies” and pays tribute to some of music most iconic film moments. And of course, given the organizers and the show’s proximity to the big 2008 movie/music awards (Globes, Grammys and Oscars) there will be both award-winners and award-hungry presenters and performers.
Performing: Beyoncà ©, Carrie Underwood, Chris Brown, Sir Elton John, Eve, Fergie, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, John Williams, Marc Anthony, Mary J. Blige, Nas, Nicole Sherzinger, Tony Bennett, Usher and will.i.am……
