This Week’s Top 5 Top 6
Jon Bon Jovi is mentoring the kids this week for Top 6 Part Deux. Idol arranger, Michael Orland spills the beans in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He says the kids will select their songs from a pool of Bon Jovi tunes. Michael thinks the theme will be easier for the guys than the girls. But, about Jordin Sparks he says, “…the second it was announced we were doing a Bon Jovi week, she requested her song early. She knew exactly what she was going to sing. ”
On Wednesday, Jon’s band, Bon Jovi drops by to perform their new single, “(You Want to) Make a Memory.”
American Idol Songwriting Contest
On May 2, voting starts for the American Idol Songwriter contest. Twenty songs have been chosen out of thousands of submissions, and after registering online fans can listen to the candidates and vote for their favorite.
Simon Cowell on Ellen
Simon Cowell appeared to chat with Ellen DeGeneres on her show Monday. Watch his interview here. He thinks Melinda Doolittle and Jordan Sparks will be final two, but Blake Lewis and LaKisha Jones could come up from behind. And, he thinks that Phil Stacey and Chris Richardson are in trouble this week.
Simon admits he doesn’t pay attention during contestant’s performances because he’s already heard them in dress rehearsal, where there are no distractions. In other words, his mind is pretty much made up after dress, allowing him to spend time during the televised performance chatting with Randy Jackson and torturing Paula Abdul. Ellen ran a clip from country night that had Simon pulling on Paula’s nose while Phil Stacey sang his number.
More on Idol Gives Back
Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher is unhappy with the IGB video piece that featured the folks from Eastern Kentucky as toothless, illiterate and out-of-work. He feels that the segment, “emphasized Appalachian stereotypes and did not mention the strides the state has made in improving literacy.”
According to Slate Magazine, Shrek the Third producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was in the audience with Shrek star Antonio Banderes was supposed to deliver Justin Timberlake, who plays a young prince in the movie, to Idol as a mentor. The official reason Justin’s appearance fell through, was that his touring schedule changed. But it turns out, Justin was in Scotland with his family last week.
Here’s People Magazine’s behind the scenes account of Wednesday’s special. Seal drove himself to the gig in a black Ferrari.
Beatles for Sale
This interview with Ken Warwick is stale, but it does offer up a few interesting tidbits worth noting. For instance, the producers tried to get Beatles producer George Martin as a mentor for a Beatles week, but Martin could not fit an Idol appearance into his schedule. Plus, there’s quite the lengthy discussion of how the mics are set up in the studio vis a vis “eyeroll gate”. The interview is a very complete transcription of Ken’s teleconference interview with reporters last week.
A Passage To India
Finally, from Blogcritics.org a very interesting take on the Simon Cowell—Sanjaya Malakar dynamic, taking English colonialism into consideration.
