‘American Idol’: Season 7 Power List, Week 1
1) Kristy Lee Cook
Gorgeous Oregonian’s ”Amazing Grace” was the hands-down highlight of American Idol week 1, but will an Internet backlash about her one-time deal with Arista Nashville cost her come voting season?
2) Colton Swon
Stole his hairstyle from Kajagoogoo and his name from a daytime soap, but his impressive take on Little Big Town’s ”Boondocks” makes him a possible male counterpart to Carrie Underwood
More Idol Headlines After the Jump
An interview with Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson
In this podcast with The Chronicle’s Shelah Moody, Hudson talks about what she did the night she won the Oscar. The singer, who first rose to prominence on the hit TV show “American Idol, ” also says she hopes to win a Grammy and talks about her upcoming CD.
Hudson, who performed in San Francisco last week at the Help Raise Healthy Children benefit at the Herbst Theater, also chats about a modeling career and about her upcoming movies, “Sex and the City: The Movie” and “The Secret Life of Bees.”
Rich takes celebrities to country school
We’ve heard it before, the story of seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped. But this is a different house, in a different city, with very different strangers.
R&B pop singer Bobby Brown, Wilson Phillips’ Carnie Wilson, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, American Idol finalist Diana DeGarmo, pop singer Julio Iglesias Jr., singer/actor Maureen McCormick and R&B artist Sisqà ³ make up the cast of Country Music Television’s new reality series Gone Country. Hosted by Big & Rich’s John Rich, the series shows what happens when people step out of their comfort zones, open their minds and learn what it takes to be a country star.
Rascal Flatts, Kellie Pickler visit MSG
Opener Kellie Pickler’s country mix is a bit more traditional, but the “American Idol” finalist behind “Smalltown Girl” still knows her way around big-city pop.
Actually, Pickler’s big ballads fared better than her up-tempo country, where the speed and her excitement, combined with the higher key, tend to make her sound a bit chirpy. The gem of her 35-minute set was the ballad “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You, ” where her strong, emotional vocals stood up well against an equally muscular musical backdrop that shifted seamlessly into Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
Music Review Rascal Flatts Power Ballads for Suburbanites
Kellie Pickler, who opened the concert, was dressed in a low-cut red top and knee-high leather boots with spike heels. But she could sound like an old-fashioned country singer, with a North Carolina drawl and some twangy tension in her voice. She did a Dolly Parton impression in …9 to 5, while alluding to her own career-building appearance on …American Idol (she didnt win) by calling Ms. Parton …my definition of an American idol.
Cleveland’s former reality ‘stars’ get back to real life after TV turns
This was the unforgettable year when Northeast Ohioans swarmed the reality-TV scene. Singer Scott Savol brought a burst of fame to his hometown of Shaker Heights and caused a frenzy of call-in support from local fans when he surprisingly plowed his way into the top five on “American Idol.” He didn’t have the glamorous looks of an ‘Idol’; one writer commented that Savol always looked as if he had stopped by the Fox show on his way to the mall food court. Yet his smooth voice only seemed to get more polished each week.
Tamyra Gray plugs ‘American Idol’ book at Borders
Not every contestant on “American Idol” becomes a superstar, but this week, two past finalists will get to be “Soup”-er stars.
Season 1’s Tamyra Gray and season 4’s Constantine Maroulis will be stopping at local Borders bookstores to meet fans and sign copies of “Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul” (HCI Books, $14.95), a collection of mmm, mmm, feel-good stories from past contestants, fans and “Idol” stage crew.
