Kelly Clarkson has signed on with Nashville-based Starstruck Entertainment for management. Recently, she parted ways with Jeff Kwatinetz of the Firm in Los Angeles.
Starstruck Entertainment is currently home to country artists Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton. Narvel Blackstock, CEO of Starstruck and McEntire’s husband, will serve as Clarkson’s personal manager. Trisha McClanahan, Starstruck VP of marketing, will assist with day-to-day operations.
If you recall, Kelly recently recorded a duet of her song “Because of You” with Reba McEntire that’s currently climbing the country charts…
American Idol, Jordin Sparks, talks about her upcoming album in a recent interview with Billboard.com. She hopes to release it by Thanksgiving.
“It’s going well, ” Sparks says of the album, “We’ve had some meetings, and the other night I recorded a song. I can’t tell you details or anything like that, but I am very excited about it.”
Actually, Sparks reveals that she worked with the production team Stargate on the track, but she’ll be spending a lot more time on the album throughout the summer and into the early fall. “I’ll be flying in and out as much as I can from the tour to get it done, ” she says. “And I’m assuming that after the tour’s over I’ll hit the studio pretty hard to finish it.”
Sparks says she wants a “radio friendly” album that mixes the pop/rock sound of inaugural “Idol” Kelly Clarkson with the R&B edge of Beyonce. “It’s hard to get at what my sound is, ” Sparks notes, “but I think that’s what I’m trying to get.”
Her own songwriting also isn’t a priority for the album. “I write a lot of poems, ” she says, “and maybe I could get something on this first album, but I’m not sure. Eventually I’d love to be able to write and have a song on an album, but we’ll see.”
Speaking of upcoming Idol records, I’m pulling the following tidbit about Blake Lewis from Monday’s daily headline thread, ’cause it’s interesting. Thanks Kirsten.
In other …news (file it under rumours), Kristi (Blake friend from before AI and chief Blaker Girl) said in a live chat that Blake has not yet signed a deal.
From TWoP (The AI message board at Televisionwithoutpity.com):
…I asked is it a …signed but not talking about it till jordan deal is annouced or …no deal signed? Her answer is he hasnt signed anything yet. She said they can record songs on their own without a label deal.
Although it appears that Blake Lewis has not signed a record deal, he’s said in interviews that he has signed on with Simon Fuller and 19E for management. However, there has been no formal announcement yet…
Last year at this time, Taylor Hicks’ and Katharine McPhee’s signings were a done deal. Chris Daughtry’s record deal with 19R was announced on July 10. So, what IS the deal? The silence is deafening.