Sunday, May 31, 2009

Kris' and Adams' first week sales in comparison

Now that the debut week sales numbers for Kris Allen's and Adam Lambert's post-Idol singes are finalized, it's interesting to see where their data fit in the bigger Idol winner and runner-up picture.

Although it is a little difficult to accurately rank the numbers considering the differences in the sales releases, I did my best to come up with how things should look with Hot 100 peaks (and debuts).

Winners
1) Ruben Studdard, "Flying Without Wings / Superstar" - 286,000* - #2 (#2)
2) David Cook, "The Time of My Life" - 236,024 - #3 (#3)
3) Kelly Clarkson, "A Moment Like This / Before Your Love" - 236,000* - #1 (#52)
4) Taylor Hicks, "Do I Make You Proud / Takin' It to the Streets" - 190,147* - #1 (#1)
5) Fantasia, "I Believe / Chain of Fools / Summertime" - 142,141* - #1 (#1)
6) Kris Allen, "No Boundaries" - 134,458 - #11 (#11)
7) Carrie Underwood, "Inside Your Heaven / Independence Day" - 131,504* - #1 (#1)
8) Jordin Sparks, "This Is My Now" - 74,303 - #15 (#15)

*denotes only commercial singles counted

So as you can see, Kris' "No Boundaries" comes in at #6 among winners' debut single sales, with only Carrie Underwood's "Inside Your Heaven / Independence Day" and Jordin Sparks' "This Is My Now" coming in behind it. Now, as indicated above, some singles are only including commercial single sales (aka physical copies), which makes things a little tricky. If digital sales are combined, we'd see Carrie's "Inside Your Heaven" at 170,528 total single sales, and Taylor Hicks' "Do I Make You Proud" would be at 228,418. But the reason I did not include those is because they do not take the digital sales for "Independence Day" and "Takin' It to the Streets" into consideration.

Runners-Up
1) Clay Aiken, "This Is The Night / Bridge over Troubled Water" - 393,000* - #1 (#1)
2) Adam Lambert, "Mad World" - 114,763 - #19 (#19)
3) Bo Bice, "Inside Your Heaven / Vehicle" - 108,158* - #2 (#2)
4) David Archuleta, "Imagine" - 71,178 - #36 (#36)
5) Blake Lewis, "You Give Love a Bad Name" - 70,133 - #18 (#18)
6) Diana DeGarmo, "Dreams / Don't Cry Out Loud / I Believe" - 65,000* - #14 (#14)
7) Katharine McPhee, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow / My Destiny" - 47,394* - #12 (#12)

As for the runners-up, Adam's highest-selling track, "Mad World," actually stands at #2 when compared to the other six singles' debut week sales in the same manner. But if digital sales are included, Bo Bice's "Inside Your Heaven / Vehicle" has a total of 121,423 downloads, which puts him ahead of Adam.

On the Hot 100 side of things, Kris has the second-lowest debut on the chart for any winner (only ahead of Jordin's "This Is My Now") and Adam's highest-charting single is also the second-lowest debut for any runner up on the chart (ahead of David Archuleta's "Imagine").

But there are plenty of other factors to consider when comparing the single sales from over the years. For example, the recent singles (seasons 6-8) have all been made available to download almost instantly after a winner was crowned, whereas the previous five seasons all had their commercial singles for winners and runners-up wait a few weeks before being released. Also, the formula that is used to determine how singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100 has changed since digital sales have become more important to the chart, which has put more of an emphasis on sales and in effect provided for a much bigger sample of competition for the more recent singles.

Another major factor that should be considered is pricing differences. When the third season's singles went for more than five dollars for three songs and even the other seasons that had physical singles saw price tags of over three dollars for two songs, it is hard to compare those with seasons 6-8 that had $0.99 (and a $1.29) downloads.

Back in the day when the commercial singles were must-have collectors items for any self-respecting Idol fan, the sales looked much more impressive, especially when compared to rival entries on the Billboard Commercial Single Sales chart. If they kept with the tradition nowadays, things might be in a similar situation, but it's also entirely possible that the advent of digital singles and necessity of having things instantly could have destroyed the novelty of having the CD singles.

Either way, it is interesting to see how the sales of these silly coronation songs have changed depending on the year and the Idol winner/runner-up.

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Kris Allen performs "Yesterday" with Gov. Huckabee

Continuing with his post-Idol press tour, Kris Allen appeared on FOX News Channel's Huckabee program, which aired last night. He spoke with the show's host, fellow Arkansas native and former governor of the state Mike Huckabee, and even performed an acoustic set of The Beatles' "Yesterday" with a little support from the governor. Watch the performance below:



Kris talked about his marriage to wife Katy and his mission trips to Thailand and elsewhere, where he said people always had a smile on their face and meant a lot to him and his fellow aid workers. He also said his family and friends keep him grounded, and that his musical influences growing up were Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and The Beatles.

Kris also joked by suggesting maybe he could be the governor of Arkansas someday and Huckabee said "it's a good gig."

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Daughtry's 'Leave This Town' album art released

Daughtry yesterday had its album art for the upcoming release Leave This Town posted on the band's official Website.

Does the cover remind anyone of Brad Paisley's 5th Gear album art? Maybe it's the whole road thing. It's a big improvement over the band's first album cover, even though the silhouettes of the guys at the top look kind of "City of Angels"-like (you know, the Nicholas Cage movie).

Yesterday was a busy day for Daughtry, as VH1.com posted a short preview of the guys' music video for their current single, "No Surprise," which can be watched below:



Judging from the preview, it looks like the video is going for a David Cook "Light On" feel and maybe even an "It's Not Over" / "Over You" vibe as well. Translation: it looks a little bland. Regardless, the video will premiere on VH1.com at midnight on Wed., June 2.

Leave This Town will be released Tues., July 14, and is available to pre-order on Amazon.com.

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Kris Allen and Adam Lambert perform on 'The Early Show'

Still fresh off the eighth season's finale, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert visited CBS' The Early Show on Thursday to tape performances that were broadcast on yesterday's episode. Watch Kris' interview with co-host Maggie Rodriguez and performance of "No Boundaries" below:



Kris came flat out and stated he would not be taking the country route with his post-Idol album after Rodriguez strangely found time to ask if that was the genre of music he would be pursuing.

Adam got the same treatment as Kris, complete with a mini interview with Rodriguez and a performance set of his own ("Mad World"). Watch his segment below:



Adam laughed about his rocker screech and taught Rodriquez how to do it (with the tongue out to boot) and he said his album will be "glam rock/pop/electro" and "a little bit of everything."

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Adam and Danny on 'Regis & Kelly'; 'Mike and Juliet'

This week has been abundant with talk show appearances by Idol alums from the most recent season, and Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey were still busy with televised performances and making small talk with TV personalities.

Both Danny and Adam appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly, as Adam performed "Mad World" on Wednesday's episode and Danny did "What Hurts the Most" on Thursday's episode below:



The two also sat down with the popular co-hosts to chat about the past season of Idol and their future plans. In his interview, which happened to be his first talk show appearance ever, Danny talked about the tough decision he had to make to audition following his wife's passing, and he addressed the Dancing with the Stars brouhaha that was caused by an off the cuff comment made earlier in the week.

In Adam's sit-down, he discussed his experience in theater at an early age and the fact that the first concert he attended was one of Paula Abdul's. He also discussed his styling per Kelly Ripa's request and his "glam rock" wings and got a bit of a shock when show supervisor Art Moore came out in Lambert getup including black hair and nail polish.

Adam also chatted with Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show Ellen last Friday, where he talked about his friendship with winner Kris Allen and the fact that he was wearing the underwear Ellen gave him on the Idol blue carpet. On Thursday, he spoke with Juliet Huddy of The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet before performing "Mad World" with accompaniment by Idol music director Michael Orland which can be watched below:



Danny also made it onto The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet yesterday, where he once again addressed the Dancing with the Stars talk and chatted about his foundation in honor of his wife before he performed "What Hurts the Most."

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'Idol' odds 'n ends: Diana's Aussie hacker gets 26 months

The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:

>Diana DeGarmo's Australian cyber-stalker of three years, Tanya Maree Quattrocchi, has finally been sentenced to prison for 26 months after she ignored her probation and returned to hacking the Season 3 runner-up's MySpace in addition to exhibiting other stalking behaviors. This is the second time Quattrocchi has been convicted of harassing Diana since 2006.

>David Cook visited NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday to perform his latest single "Come Back to Me." Watch the performance below:



Following his performance, Cook briefly spoke with Fallon and one of his guests for the episode, The Amazing Kreskin, who said he could have told Cook he was going to win last year.

>Michael D. Ayers of Billboard wrote a preview article of Michael Johns' upcoming album Hold Back My Heart, due out June 23 courtesy of TRP Records. The article said the material on Michael's album will sound "more like the neo-soul of Ray LaMontagne and James Blunt than the polished mega-pop that "Idol" tends to be associated with."

>Josh Gracin posted a new vlog he did from his tour on his official music MySpace page, which he is currently in the midst of. The vlog documents what Josh and the guys in his band do before a show starts. Find out the answer below:



Pre-show activities include Josh doing a little batting practice and two of his band members fiddling with their iPhone.

>Phil Stacey posted three new songs that will be on his forthcoming release on Reunion Records, Into the Light, which is due out Aug. 25. The new tracks are called "Inside Out," "You're Not Shaken" and "With All My Life." Phil addressed the musical direction of his upcoming album in a press release on his old Lyric Street Records Web site:

"There are songs on the project that will encourage and others that will challenge. Some that I’ve written and others that I heard and just had to record, including one by one of my favorite artists, Rich Mullins, called 'Hard to Get'," adds Stacey.

Brown Bannister, who previously produced Chris Sligh's debut solo album, is helming the Into the Light project.

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Friday, May 29, 2009

'Idol' BB 200: 'David Cook' #29 (6/6/09)

A few debuts marked the Idol representation on the Billboard Top 200 chart for the chart week of June 6, but it was David Cook who was able to fend off the onslaught of competition.

Cook's post-Idol effort jumped #61-29 to 16.7k copies, representing an 111% increase for a total of 1.151 million. The biggest debut on the chart from an alum came in the form of Adam Lambert's collection of Season 8 studio versions of songs he performed while on the show, which came in at #33 with 15.7k copies sold in all (digital only).

The previous debut was stronger than Ruben Studdard's latest album Love Is, which came in a few rungs below Adam's digital album at #36 with 15.2k copies. This is the lowest debut Ruben has ever seen an album enter with. Next up was the fourth studio album from another winner, Kelly Clarkson, as All I Ever Wanted slid 24% in sales to 13.3k copies and fell by half to #40. It has moved 581k copies to date.

Carrie Underwood stepped up to the plate next, as her Carnival Ride barely lost ground with a 5% sales decline to a 12k weekly take. It was down 11 spots to #44 and now has a total of 2.864 million. From one winner to another, Kris Allen's collection of studio versions debuted at #50 with 10.2k copies, which was a whole 5.5k less than Adam's similar entry.

Daughtry showed up to the party next with its debut record, dropping 19% in sales to 5.9k and slipping 23 spots to #89. Its total is now at a formidable 4.450 million. Kellie Pickler was directly behind at #90 with her self-titled album, which was up 16 spots from the previous week and sold another 5.9k copies. It witnessed a healthy 26% sales increase and has sold 221.9k in all.

Next up on the roster was Chris Botti's Chris Botti In Boston, which was down 10% to 4.7k copies, marking a #89-111 slide, placing its total at 94.8k copies. Fight For Love, Elliott Yamin's sophomore effort, came in at #133, down from #74 the previous week, and sold 3.9k copies. Its sales depreciation was at a rate of 40% and its total is now 30.5k.

Jennifer Hudson's self-titled album was one spot behind at #134, down 38 spots from the previous week thanks to a 20% sales slip. It bagged another 3.9k for a total of 735.1k copies. And David Archuleta rounded things out with another 2.8k copies moved, down 10% from the previous week's take, and downsized on the chart #161-193. Its total is now 704.9k.

Full sales figures and chart positions courtesy of California Dreamin' on Pulse as follows:

029 061 David Cook - David Cook 16,719 111% 7,926 1,150,578
033 --- Adam Lambert - Season 8 Favorite Performances 15,720 0% - 15,720
036 --- Ruben Studdard - Love Is 15,213 999% 33 15,246
040 020 Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted 13,273 -24% 17,509 581,018
044 033 Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride 12,033 -5% 12,604 2,864,087
050 --- Kris Allen - Season 8 Favorite Performances 10,217 0% - 10,217
089 066 Daughtry - Daughtry 5,886 -19% 7,226 4,450,098
090 106 Kellie Pickler - Kellie Pickler 5,870 26% 4,653 221,898
111 089 Chris Botti - Chris Botti In Boston 4,682 -10% 5,190 94,824
133 074 Elliott Yamin - Fight For Love 3,930 -40% 6,514 30,472
134 096 Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson 3,921 -20% 4,919 735,133
193 161 David Archuleta - David Archuleta 2,826 -10% 3,150 704,912

Total sales are in bold.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Katharine McPhee yuks it up on FunnyorDie.com

Add Katharine McPhee to the list of celebrities that have made an appearance on the comedy Web site FunnyorDie.com, which was founded by actor Will Ferrel.

Kat starred in a comical "commercial" with her guardian homeless woman named Quween, which marketed the aid of the woman as a celebrity protection service. Watch the hilarious video below:



So next time you A-K level celebs have a "passarassa" problem, just ask Kat how Quween helped her out. And a word to all you Alphabits and "Harvey Levtiz"es out there: watch your backs.

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Kris Allen sits down with Jimmy Fallon

Kris Allen last night visited Jimmy Fallon at his late night program, where he chatted about a host of topics following his big Idol win last Wednesday. Watch the interview segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon below:



The first issue Kris had to deal with was "textgate," which he claimed to know nothing about. Fallon suggested Kris call his debut album by the name of the controversy. Kris also said the first time he thought he really would be leaving was after performing Don Henley's "All She Wants to Do Is Dance."

Kris also showed more humor when he told Fallon that Arkansas music scene is "absolutely not" big, and got to demonstrate his guitar skills with an "impromptu" acoustic performance of "Heartless," which received much applause.

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'Idol' Hot 100: "No Boundaries" #11 (6/6/09)

As expected, the Billboard Hot 100 chart was flooded with entries by Idol alums for the chart week of June 6. In all, 23 tracks from the franchise charted on the Hot 100 and the Bubbling Under charts for the week.

Kris Allen led the pack with "No Boundaries," which debuted at #11. In addition, Kris had four other Idol studio version recordings appear on the main chart and two others debuted on the Bubbling Under chart.

The second alum to see his or her single debut near the top of the chart was Adam Lambert, as his recording of "Mad World" finished in the Top 20 portion of the chart at #19, and was the first of four tracks by the eighth season's runner-up to make their marks on the main chart in addition to four tracks placing on the Bubbling Under chart.

Next up was David Cook, as his album track "Permanent" experienced a hotshot debut at #24 thanks to his performance of the song on last week's Idol finale, while his current single "Come Back to Me" re-entered the Hot 100 at #84. Another winner, Kelly Clarkson, saw her charting songs take backward steps in the face of the new competition, as "My Life Would Suck Without You" slipped #22-30 and "I Do Not Hook Up" fell nine spots to #32.

Next up was Daughtry and its latest single "No Surprise," which surprisingly tumbled 28 spots to #59. Jordin Sparks out-fell Daughtry, though, as her "Battlefield" took a severe blow with a 45-spot plunge to #77 after spending just two weeks on the chart. Just two spots behind was Carrie Underwood and her cover song "Home Sweet Home," which made its re-emergence on the chart at #79.

The only other Idol alums to have songs debut on the chart were Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey, as the former's duet of "Slow Ride" with Adam debuted on the Bubbling Under at #5, while the latter's "You Are So Beautiful" just barely entered the same chart at #25.

Full chart positions courtesy of bks over on Pulse are posted below:

Hot 100
11 -- Kris Allen, "No Boundaries"
16 -- Kris Allen, "Heartless"
19 -- Adam Lambert, "Mad World"
24 -- David Cook, "Permanent"
30 22 Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You"
32 23 Kelly Clarkson, "I Do Not Hook Up"
37 -- Kris Allen, "Ain't No Sunshine"
56 -- Adam Lambert, "Change Is Gonna Come"
59 31 Daughtry, "No Surprise"
66 -- Kris Allen, "Apologize"
72 -- Adam Lambert, "No Boundaries"
77 32 Jordin Sparks, "Battlefield"
79 -- Carrie Underwood, "Home Sweet Home"
82 -- Adam Lambert, "One"
84 -- David Cook, "Come Back to Me"
94 -- Kris Allen, "Falling Slowly"

Bubbling Under
02 -- Adam Lambert, "Cryin'"
05 -- Adam Lambert & Allison Iraheta, "Slow Ride"
07 -- Kris Allen, "What's Going On"
13 -- Kris Allen, "To Make You Feel My Love"
17 -- Adam Lambert, "The Tracks of My Tears"
21 -- Adam Lambert, "Feeling Good"
25 -- Danny Gokey, "You Are So Beautiful"

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Kris and Adam address "textgate"; perform on 'Today'

Kris Allen and Adam Lambert shared the stage for the first time since last week's finale, as the two this morning performed at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City for NBC's Today Show. Watch Kris perform "Heartless" below:



On the other hand, Adam performed "Mad World," which is widely considered to be his best vocal performance on the show. Idol's musical director, Michael Orland, accompanied him on piano. Watch the performance below:



The two alums also chatted with Today Show co-host Natalie Morales prior to taking the stage. Adam and Kris each said the opposite deserved to win, and Kris addressed "textgate," the swirling controversy kicked up by The New York Times about the AT&T phone giveaways in Arkansas, by joking about not having to call them up asking for more votes, while Adam said he thinks people need to relax and he wants to move forward with their careers.

Adam also flat out said he would not be joining Queen as the band's frontman, which puts that rumor to rest. Watch the interview below:



Kris also sang an acoustic version of his winning single, "No Boundaries," which seems to be the style of choice to perform the song in while he makes the rounds on the talk show circuit.

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Poll of the week: David Hernandez kicks off champion series with a win

For the first installment of the second annual IDOL LIVE poll of the week champion series, David Hernandez was the recipient of the title of favorite 13/12th-place finalist of all eight seasons (or all seven seasons that had a Top 12/13).

The seventh season's 12-place finisher scored 21 votes, good for 39% of the 53 votes cast. The next closest finalist was Jorge Nunez of Season 8, as the Puerto Rican contestant garnered 13 votes (24%). Right behind him was his season mate Jasmine Murray, who took in a total of seven votes (13%).

As the winner of this round, David will be back in a few months to vie for the finals of the champion poll series where he will take on much tougher competition.

In the next installment of IDOL LIVE's poll of the week champion series, readers are asked which 11th-place finalist is their favorite of all eight seasons. Voting will be open for exactly one week.

Vanessa Olivarez 1 (1%)
Leah LaBelle 2 (3%)
Lindsey Cardinale 3 (5%)
Melissa McGhee 2 (3%)
Brandon Rogers 4 (7%)
David Hernandez 21 (39%)
Jasmine Murray 7 (13%)
Jorge Nunez 13 (24%)

Total votes: 53

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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Digital sales roundup: "No Boundaries" #4 (5/22/09)

Newly anointed Idol winner Kris Allen made his debut on the latest Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart, as his coronation single "No Boundaries" led the way among an insane amount of Idol-related tracks that were finally allowed to chart now that the season has ended.

"No Boundaries" landed at #4 with 134.5k downloads. In total, Kris' 11 tracks that charted pulled in cumulative sales of 478,927 downloads. Next up was Kris' chief rival, Adam Lambert, whose "Mad World" debuted at #7 with 114.8k downloads, was the first of 14 tracks that had their sales made public, accounting for a total of 380,645 downloads.

The third-highest charting Idol alum was David Cook, as his "Permanent" saw an increase of epic proportions thanks to a heartfelt performance of the song on the Idol finale. The track came in at #10 and was up exponentially to 102.6k for a total of 126.9k. Cook also saw increases for "Come Back to Me" (65%, #115-90) and "Light On" (48%, #176) with respective weekly takes of 19.2k and 9.5k for totals of 147.4k and 934.5k.

Kelly Clarkson was up next with "I Do Not Hook Up," which fell #24-30 with a 9% drop in sales. It sold 50.6k downloads and has totaled 285.5k. Daughtry followed with "No Surprise," which sold another 33.7k, down 51% and was off #14-46 on the chart side. After three weeks it has moved 206.1k. And Carrie Underwood was up next with "Home Sweet Home," which was up 67 spots to #49 and sold 32.8k downloads, up 184% in sales. It now has a total of 287.8k

The last two Idol alums to have tracks debut on the Hot Digital Songs chart were Danny Gokey and Allison Iraheta. Danny's highest-charting single was "You Are So Beautiful," which took in 15.3k downloads and took the #110 spot. In total he had three songs on the chart for cumulative sales of 35,803. Allison's highest-charting entry was her duet with Adam on "Slow Ride," which debuted at #84 with 21.7k downloads. She had two tracks on the chart for a grand total of 30,408.

Full numbers and chart positions courtesy of bks on Pulse as follows:

004 --- Kris Allen, "No Boundaries" 134,458 999% 0 134,458
005 --- Kris Allen, "Heartless" 125,344 999% 0 125,344
007 --- Adam Lambert, "Mad World" 114,763 999% 0 114,763
010 --- David Cook, "Permanent" 102,595 999% 308 126,905
017 --- Kris Allen, "Ain't No Sunshine" 72,080 999% 0 72,080
030 024 Kelly Clarkson, "I Do Not Hook Up" 50,633 -9% 55,729 285,499
032 --- Adam Lambert, "Change Is Gonna Come" 48,068 999% 0 48,068
038 --- Kris Allen, "Apologize" 40,173 999% 0 40,173
043 --- Adam Lambert, "No Boundaries" 35,984 999% 0 35,984
046 014 Daughtry, "No Surprise" 33,684 -51% 68,774 206,051
049 116 Carrie Underwood, "Home Sweet Home" 32,812 184% 11,571 287,846
057 --- Adam Lambert, "One" 30,851 999% 0 30,851
072 --- Kris Allen, "Falling Slowly" 27,087 999% 0 27,087
075 --- Adam Lambert, "Cryin'" 24,580 999% 0 24,580
084 --- Adam Lambert & Allison Iraheta, "Slow Ride" 21,742 999% 0 21,742
087 --- Kris Allen, "What's Going On" 21,060 999% 0 21,060
090 115 David Cook, "Come Back to Me" 19,188 65% 11,607 147,449
094 --- Kris Allen, "To Make You Feel My Love" 18,525 999% 0 18,525
102 --- Adam Lambert, "The Tracks of My Tears" 17,130 999% 0 17,130
107 --- Adam Lambert, "Feeling Good" 16,178 999% 0 16,178
110 --- Danny Gokey, "You Are So Beautiful" 15,297 999% 0 15,297
112 --- Adam Lambert, "Ring of Fire" 14,970 999% 0 14,970
113 --- Adam Lambert, "Whole Lotta Love" 14,454 999% 0 14,454
141 --- Adam Lambert, "Black or White" 11,261 999% 0 11,261
145 --- Adam Lambert, "If I Can't Have You" 11,151 999% 0 11,151
147 --- Kris Allen, "The Way You Look Tonight" 10,884 999% 0 10,884
148 --- Kris Allen & Danny Gokey, "Renegade" 10,826 999% 0 10,826
155 --- Adam Lambert, "Born to Be Wild" 10,450 999% 0 10,450
172 --- Kris Allen, "Come Together" 9,839 999% 0 9,839
174 --- Danny Gokey, "What Hurts the Most" 9,680 999% 0 9,680
176 --- David Cook, "Light On" 9,509 48% 6,423 934,469
186 --- Adam Lambert, "Play That Funky Music" 9,072 999% 0 9,072
190 --- Allison Iraheta, "Cry Baby" 8,666 999% 0 8,666
191 --- Kris Allen, "She Works Hard For the Money" 8,651 999% 0 8,651

Total sales are in bold.

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Constantine Maroulis performs with 'Rock of Ages' cast on 'Today Show'

Constantine Maroulis, the first Idol alum to receive a nomination for a Tony Award, and his crew from Broadway's hit Rock of Ages took to the stage at Rockefeller Plaza Monday to perform a set from the show on NBC's Today Show. The act was part of the Toyota Concert Series. Watch the cast perform Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" below:



Constantine and co-star Amy Spanger spoke with Today's Lester Holt and other co-hosts following this performance to chat about the chow and Constantine's time on Idol in Season 4. He said he was in the right place at the right time and he gets to play a rock star both on stage and in real life.

He also said he still watches Idol and he thinks both Kris Allen and Adam Lambert will have big careers.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Jordin Sparks' 'Battlefield' to be released July 21

Jordin Sparks' sophomore album Battlefield is now set for a July 21 release date, coming one week later than first reported. According to an official press release courtesy of Jive Records:

19 Recordings/Jive Records artist Jordin Sparks is set to release her sophomore effort Battlefield on July 21st. Sparks is off to a great start with the album launch. This week the lead single and title-track "Battlefield" is the No.1 "most added single" at pop radio, according to industry monitoring service Mediabase. Sparks recently premiered "Battlefield" on American Idol.

As for Jordin's personal thoughts on the album, she said the title reflects "strength" and "perseverance," adding:

"I think the range of songs and topics on the entire album are ultimately about strength in life, love and in staying true to yourself."

Songwriters and producers slated to make appearances on Battlefield include Dr. Luke, T-Pain, Ryan Tedder and Stargate.

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NYT says AT&T gave free phones to Kris' supporters

The New York Times is stirring up trouble with an article that was published today stating AT&T gave away phones free of charge to two Arkansas-based voting parties that were held in honor of the state's favorite son Kris Allen last Tuesday so that the attendees could vote via texts for free. According to the Times:

Representatives of AT&T helped fans of Mr. Allen at the two Arkansas events by providing instructions on how to send 10 or more text messages at the press of a single button, known as power texts. Power texts have an exponentially greater effect on voting than do single text messages or calls to the show’s toll-free phone lines. The efforts appear to run afoul of “American Idol” voting rules in two ways. The show broadcasts an on-screen statement at the end of each episode warning that blocks of votes cast using “technical enhancements” that unfairly influence the outcome of voting can be thrown out.

This is much ado about nothing and is a sorry attempt at creating controversy out of thin air. In the grand scheme of things, the votes from a few free phones in Arkansas were not going to significantly effect the nearly 100 million votes cast last Tuesday, especially considering the fact that it was a landslide victory in favor of Kris.

The competition is over. Kris and Adam will both go on and have their own careers. So why are people (and the Times of all people) trying to discredit the results? People need to move on.

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Kris performs "No Boundaries" on 'Regis & Kelly' and 'Ellen'

Kris made the talk show circuit rounds this morning following the Memorial Day weekend, as his episode of Ellen aired today and he stopped by Live with Regis & Kelly to chat with co-hosts Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa and perform "No Boundaries" on the show. Watch the interview below:



Kris talked about what he did before finding stardom on Idol and his charitable contributions in traveling to Thailand and Indonesia to provide humanitarian aid.

As for his time with Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show, Kris talked about how he's been playing guitar since he was 13 and when asked what he was going to buy his wife Katy since he won, he said "probably a vacation." Watch Kris perform "No Boundaries" on Ellen below:



The performance was added online last week but aired today on the show's broadcast.

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Felicia Barton to open for David Cook on Saturday

How's this for unexpected news? Season 8 Top 36 hopeful Felicia Barton, who was a last minute replacement for Joanna Pacitti following the latter's disqualification, will be opening for David Cook at his Virginia Beach show on Sat., May 30. Felicia wrote the following on her personal Facebook page:

Malachi gets his stitches out today! What am I going to watch on TV tonight without Idol...by the way...anyone want to come see me open for DAVID COOK ON SATURDAY!!!

The show, which is being billed as "The Patriotic Festival," will take place at the Sth Street Beach Stage in Virginia Beach, Va., at 7 p.m. Other acts set to take the stage include Matt Nathanson and Zac Brown Band.

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HITS estimates: Cook 18k; Ruben 14.7k

The Idol finale was kind to some and not to others when it came to HITS Daily Double's Top 50 building album sales chart for the week, as a re-entry led the way among alums.

David Cook's self-titled effort saw a resurgence on the chart thanks to an emotional performance of "Permanent" on last Wednesday's Idol finale, sending the album back into the Top 50 at #26 with 18k copies sold.

Next up was the latest studio album from Season 2 champ Ruben Studdard, as his Love Is made its mark at #34 with 14.7k copies, which is the velvet teddy bear's lowest opening cume to date.

Two more winners followed Ruben, as Kelly Clarkson's All I Ever Wanted slid 26% to 12.7k copies and was done 22 spots to #42, while Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride saw a much smaller 1% slip to 12.2k copies, down #35-44.

Exact figures will be available as soon as the Billboard 200 chart is made public, which should be later this week.

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Monday, May 25, 2009

Katharine sings "America the Beautiful" and "Somewhere" at Memorial Day Concert

Katharine McPhee contributed to yesterday's 20th Annual National Memorial Day Concert, which was broadcast live on PBS from the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The concert, which also featured performances by Trace Adkins and Denyce Graves, was hosted by actors Gary Sinise of CSI: NY and Joe Mantegna of Criminal Minds, both of which air on CBS.

Watch Katharine perform "America the Beautiful" with pianist Lang Lang below:



Katharine also sang "Somewhere" following an emotional vignette by Dianne Wiest and Katie Holmes in which the story of a mother and daughter caring for their son/brother named Jose was told after the Staff Sargent was wounded in Iraq. Watch her perform "Somewhere" below:



This is not Katharine's first foray into lending her talents to national holiday concerts, as she took part in 2008's Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, which aired on NBC.

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Flashback: Kris Allen's "Man In the Mirror"

After a week full of excitement over Kris Allen's big win on the eighth season of Idol, it is only fitting that we travel back to where it all began for him: his Group 2 Top 36 performance of Michael Jackson's "Man In the Mirror." Remind yourself of Kris' first time in the spotlight below:



Kris proved that contrary to popular belief, a lack of screen time in the auditions does not always equal an early exit from the competition. When it came to the judges' input, they were mildly surprised that Kris was able to belt out an MJ song, and they would continue to be surprised by him each week.

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

IDOL LIVE's Top 10 best performances of S8, Pt. 2

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we journey through the second half of the Top 10 best performances of Season 8 countdown. The following are the Top 5 selections from this season:

05) Adam Lambert, "Tracks of My Tears"

Top 10 week was the first time Adam revealed his softer side when he sang The Miracles' "Tracks of My Tears" for the Motown theme. Watch the sentimental performance below:



Adam's falsetto got a lot of airtime with this performance, which was noticed by the judges. Kara went on about Adam and his artistry and Simon disagreed with Kara about Adam being one of the best performers of the night and instead named him the best of the night. Although this came early in the season, it was a pivotal moment for Adam because it showed that he was not just a one-trick pony when it comes to switching up performance genres.

04) Allison Iraheta, "Papa Was a Rolling Stone"

The fiery red-haired then-16-year-old rocker chick had many memorable moments before she placed fourth on the show, but some of them are best left forgotten like her attempt at No Doubt's "Don't Speak" and the outfit that went with it. Fortunately for Allison, Top 10 week brought her the opportunity to project her inner diva when she sang The Temptations' "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." Re-visit the performance below:



Despite a few rough parts in the performance, Allison showed for the first time that she was a real contender for the title and her high notes were out of this world. Kara accused Allison of singing for 400 years and Randy called her "one of the dopest singers." Even though this occurred early on in the season, it set the stage for an exciting run on the show.

03) Danny Gokey, "You Are So Beautiful"

Following his disastrous take on Aerosmith's "Dream On," Danny came back with a vengeance Top 3 week when he poured his heart and soul onto the stage on the Joe Cocker classic "You Are So Beautiful." The performance can be relived below:



The arrangement was a little different than the original, but the circumstances surrounding Danny and the performance were so much bigger than the song itself, as Danny started out soft and vulnerable and transformed the lyrics into a rafter-raising gospel display complete with a backing choir. There was an air of dedication to his wife Sophia, who passed away last year, and this made the performance that much more meaningful. Simon was right on the mark when he called Danny's take on the song "a vocal master class."

02) Adam Lambert, "Mad World"

Any performance that can garner a standing ovation from Simon Cowell should automatically be in the Top 5 performances of the season. But Adam's rendition of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" was one of those moments that come along only so often, and the standout from Top 8 week was that moment. Watch the performance below:



After weeks of delivering eccentric showcases on the show, Adam really brought the season to a standstill with "Mad World" because it was a side of him we didn't really get to see with the exception of "Tracks of My Tears." But "Mad World" was far superior to anything else he did the whole duration of the show, and only one performance was better than it overall. Because Adam's performance went over the allotted time for the episode, Simon's standing ovation had to speak for everyone else, and there's little doubt that they would have objected to the motion.

01) Kris Allen, "Heartless"

Kris was being written off as Season 8's Syesha Mercado until he took to the stage and mad the gamble of his musical life when he chose to take on Kanye West's recent hit single "Heartless." The judges were predicting something that would have been an unequivocal disaster upon hearing his personal song choice and were promptly surprised beyond belief with the product of Kris' time and effort. Revisit the No. 1 greatest performance of the season below:



What sets "Heartless" apart from the rest of the performances this season is the fact that it came from somewhere deep within Kris' heart, and was his way of saying the competition was not a done deal despite the immense writing on the wall. The acoustic vibe that was given off by the performance added another element to the overall package and the imagery of seeing Kris all alone up on the stage with just his guitar represented the insurmountable odds he was up against. Not to mention the amount of lyrics he had to memorize for the two-and-a-half-minute display.

The judges were so enthusiastic over the performance that Randy said Kris' version was better than both Kanye's and The Fray's and Simon admitted that after originally writing him off this competition as a non-factor, this performance was the one that changed his opinion. Because of its originality and the important role it played in setting Kris up for his big win, "Heartless" is the best performance that was had on Idol this season.

So now you know what IDOL LIVE considers to be the Top 10 best performances of Season 8. What are your 10 best performances of the season?

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

IDOL LIVE's Top 10 best performances of S8, Pt. 1

After months of grueling competition, we all can finally sit back and revel in our memories of the most recent season of Idol. Although Season 8 was a disappointment, there were a good amount of performances that were able to shine through the problems that clouded the competition from a production point of view.

In this two-part series, IDOL LIVE has selected the 10 best performances that occurred on the Idol stage this past season.

10) Anoop Desai, "Ooo Baby Baby"

The likable guy with an unusual name from Chapel Hill was hit or miss in the finals, and inconsistency is probably what landed him in sixth place. Fortunately he was able to deliver his rendition of The Miracles' "Ooo Baby Baby" during Motown Week as a member of the Top 10. Watch the performance below:



This performance really showed that Anoop's crooning was not just a fluke, and for the second week in a row he took on a ballad and showed range. Paula commented on his falsetto being "sweet and spot-on," while Simon said the vocals was great but he "looked half asleep." Asleep or no, Anoop showed that he was more than just a guy with a prerogative with this showing.

09) Matt Giraud, "So Small"

Matt took a big risk Top 11 week when he chose to sing Carrie Underwood's "So Small" for the challenging theme of selections from the Grand Ole Opry. Since country is hardly his style, Matt took a different approach to the uplifting #1 hit. Refresh your memory on the performance below:



Matt's use of the piano to heighten the emotional impact on "So Small" was genius, as he also seemed relaxed and comfortable behind the keys. His husky vocals blended nicely with the instrumentation and helped him prove that he could put his own touch on very familiar songs. Randy called it his "favorite performance of the night" and Simon told Matt he out-sang Danny and that he did not get enough credit up to that point. "So Small" was the moment when Matt really emerged as a contender.

08) Adam Lambert, "Whole Lotta Love"

Adam was no stranger to blowing the roof off the house with his performances by Top 4 week, but his take on Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" was one for the Idol history books. Revisit Adam's rock 'n roll week offering below:



Simon summed up the sentiment of this performance perfectly when he told Adam "no one can top that," which was a bold statement considering Adam kicked off the show with "Whole Lotta Love." He looked like he was having more fun than ever before, and showed naysayers that he could do Led Zeppelin proud. Paula was succinct when she said Adam was "a whole lotta perfect," which is a huge overstatement, but showed the kind of effect Adam had on the audience.

07) Danny Gokey, "Come Rain Or Come Shine"

Over the course of the season, Danny was a dependable performer who could do both upbeat and slowed down numbers. When it came time for music of the Rat Pack standards, he was ready to belt out Harold Arlen's "Come Rain or Come Shine" to the best of his ability. Remind yourselves of how the performance went below:



Danny's vocals on "Come Rain or Come Shine" were extra smooth and as Kara pointed out, he had a "rat pack swagger" going on. The use of his chest voice and growling aspect of his voice were done so in the optimal ear-pleasing manner, and Simon loved the arrangement. The performance could not have come at a better time for Danny.

06) Kris Allen, "Ain't No Sunshine"

When Kris was unexpectedly awarded the pimp spot for Top 9 week, he was sure not to waste the opportunity despite having a cornucopia of songs to choose from for the top downloads theme and went with an oldie but a goodie with Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." Watch the unforgettable performance below:



Even though he probably sang it a little better on the reprise for the Top 2 performance show, Kris' first take had that special something to go along with it. The whole use of the keyboard with minimal instrumentation to accompany him provided for an ideal setting for Kris to show off his vocal sensitivity. Simon and Paula agreed that it was Kris' best performance to date, and Kara bestowed upon him her most prized compliment: "that was artistry!"

Alright, so we're halfway through the countdown of IDOL LIVE's Top 10 performances of Season 8. If you have yet to see your favorite performance of the season, it's most likely because we have not yet reached the top tier of this season's crop. Stay tuned for the Top 5 performances of the season, which will be posted tomorrow.

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Friday, May 22, 2009

'Idol' odds 'n ends: Daughtry, Jordin win at BMI Awards

The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:

>Chris Daughtry and Jordin Sparks each took home honors at the 2009 BMI Awards in New York City on Tuesday. Chris was recognized for his band's single "Over You," which he co-wrote with Brian Howes, and Jordin's single "Tattoo" won for writers Amanda Ghost and Ian Dench. Although Chris did not write it, Daughtry's "Feels Like Tonight" also took home an award.

>Kimberly Caldwell, Season 2's seventh-place finalist, yesterday inked a record deal with Vanguard/Capitol Records. She confirmed the signing via her official Twitter account:

_kimcaldwell Signing my record deal right now with Vanguard/Capitol records! Crying like a baby while doing so!!!!

Vanguard is home to artists like Indigo Girls, Matt Nathanson and Greg Laswell.

>LaKisha Jones was out promoting her debut album So Glad I'm Me this week since it dropped nationwide on Tuesday. Watch her interview from New York City's FOX affiliate, FOX 5, and her performance of "So Glad I'm Me" below:



LaKisha said she is really proud of her album and that it's "really good."

>The eighth season's finale was down in total viewership from last season's exciting final two episodes. Tuesday's Top 2 performance episode raked in 23.1 million viewers, while Wednesday's two-hour finale averaged 28.8 million viewers, including 40 million for the 10:00-10:07 p.m. time period, which places it as the second-least watched finale in the show's history (behind Season 1). Season 7's one-hour performance show garnered 27.1 million viewers and its two-hour finale special took in an average of 30.6 million viewers.

>Taking a break from his new found love for tweeting, Chris Sligh put some new demos up on his official production MySpace page. The songs featured include "Cmon Cmon," "Making Up Time" and "Chasing Down a Name."

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Clay Aiken...not an Adam fan

As reported a few days ago, Blake Lewis was a big supporter of Adam Lambert when he was vying for the title of the eighth season's Idol champ. Another runner-up, however, has a completely different perspective on Adam, as Clay Aiken took time out of his busy day to blog about how he really feels about his fellow runner-up. Per his official fan club ClayOnline.com (courtesy of Gawker):

This year, I happened to turn it during the minute that Adam Lambert was singing "Ring of Fire" and, at that moment, thought my ears would bleed. Contrived, awful, and slightly frightening! I wasn't really a fan and found myself surprised whenever folks told me that they liked him. Granted, I never saw another performance (and many folks who I trust said that he was great) but I can't imagine I would have enjoyed it. Just not my cup of tea at all.

As you can imagine, Adam's fans are getting worked up over this, mostly because it kind of came out of nowhere. Clay also had this to say about Kris Allen:
I never saw Kris sing on the show, but whether he was good or not is really relative. It's usually a matter of taste, right? But Idol is not always a matter of musical taste only. It's about the person you like. From what little I saw, Kris seemed likable.

And he wrapped up the entry with the following:
But again, I feel that Ruben and I were fairly matched. We both had our detractors and negatives, but I feel we were both very worthy of being on that stage in that moment, and either of us would have been worthy of winning. The show was different then, and folks made it in seasons 1-3 because they were "real" people who happened to sing/entertain well. But, somewhere along the way, AI stopped being about real people.
Maybe he has a point, but coming from one of the most popular finalists this show has ever seen, Clay comes off as sounding like a whiny bitter Betty.

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Kris Allen visits 'Tonight Show'

Kris Allen stopped by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, his first major television appearance since being declared the winner of Idol's eighth season. He sat down with Jay for a series of questions but did not perform. Watch the segment below:



Kris really showed his humorous side and that he is a down to earth guy, cracking jokes about his wife's reaction to her engagement ring and how she told him not to say he was married while on Idol because "you have to get votes somehow."

Kris also mentioned that he and Adam are close friends and told each other they both deserved to win leading up to the finale.

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Thursday, May 21, 2009

'Idol' BB 200: 'All I Ever Wanted' #20 (5/30/09)

It was not a pretty week for Idol alums on the Billboard Top 200 chart for the chart week of May 30, as their albums took sizable hits for the most part after a few weeks of good gains.

Leading the way was Kelly Clarkson with her latest disc All I Ever Wanted, which slid three spots to #20 after suffering a 25% sales decrease to 17.5k. The album has sold 567.7k in all. Another popular female winner, Carrie Underwood, followed with Carnival Ride, which moved 12.6k copies and witnessed a steeper 34% decline. The album slipped #27-33 on the chart and now has a total of 2.852 million.

Next up was David Cook and his self-titled post-Idol CD, which also was down 34% in sales to 7.9k. Its total stands at 1.134 million and it receded 14 spots to #61 for the week. Following Cook, the other Idol-related rock act, Daughtry, saw its album slide 38% in sales to 7.2k copies, which explains its 16-spot slide to #66.

Last week's debut by an alum, Elliott Yamin's Fight For Love, tumbled 67% to 6.5k for the week, and falling 48 rankings to #74. It has sold 26.5k after two weeks. Chris Botti's live album Chris Botti In Boston sold another 5.2k copies, slipping 42% and #62-89 on the chart. Its total now sits at 90.1k.

Jennifer Hudson's Jennifer Hudson followed at #96, down 10 spots from the previous week, and sold 4.9k copies for the week while decreasing sales-wise by 26% and adding up to a 731.2k. Kellie Pickler's sophomore album actually rose a spot to #106 in the face of a 12% sales dip to 4.7k and now stands at 216k copies.

And David Archuleta finished things off with his self-titled album at #161, down from #119, and sold another 3.2k copies for a total of 702.1k. It was down 37% from the previous week.

Full sales figures and chart positions courtesy of Touch That Chick on Pulse as follows:

020 017 Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted 17,509 -25% 23,290 567,745
033 027 Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride 12,604 -34% 19,206 2,852,054
061 047 David Cook - David Cook 7,926 -34% 12,068 1,133,859
066 050 Daughtry - Daughtry 7,226 -38% 4,444,234
074 026 Elliott Yamin - Fight For Love 6,514 -67% 19,877 26,542
089 062 Chris Botti - Chris Botti In Boston 5,190 -42% 9,003 90,142
096 086 Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson 4,919 -26% 6,668 731,212
106 107 Kellie Pickler - Kellie Pickler 4,653 -12% 5,299 216,028
161 119 David Archuleta - David Archuleta 3,150 -37% 4,994 702,086

Total sales are in bold.

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'Idol' Hot 100: "My Life Would Suck Without You" #22 (5/30/09)

Kelly Clarkson returned to the top of the Billboard's Hot 100 chart as far as tracks by Idol alums are concerned, with an older hit claiming the title by default for the chart week of May 30.

Her single "My Life Would Suck Without You" fell four spots to #22 but was the top Idol-related track thanks to the faltering of Daughtry's latest single, "No Surprise," which tumbled #15-31 in its second week on the chart.

In between the two aforementioned singles, Kelly's latest single, "I Do Not Hook Up," continued its slow and steady rise up the chart to #23, up three spots from the previous week.

This week's debut was Jordin Sparks' brand new single "Battlefield," which got off to a slow start at #32. The single got less digital sales than many expected, possibly due to its $1.29 price tag on the iTunes store, which probably has also been negatively affecting Daughtry's single. Once airplay picks up, however, things should look brighter for "Battlefield."

Two holdovers that held onto the Hot 100 were Kellie Pickler's "Best Days of Your Life," which stayed steady at #57, and Paula Abdul's "(I'm Just) Here For the Music," which fell 10 positions to #97.

Look for a mammoth-sized chart next week when all the tracks from the Season 8 finalists invade the Hot 100.

Full chart positions courtesy of bks over on Pulse are posted below:

Hot 100
22 18 Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You"
23 26 Kelly Clarkson, "I Do Not Hook Up"
31 15 Daughtry, "No Surprise"
32 -- Jordin Sparks, "Battlefield"
57 57 Kellie Pickler, "Best Days of Your Life"
97 87 Paula Abdul, "(I'm Just) Here For the Music"

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Season 8: Worst season ever

American Idol's eighth season is the series' overall worst season.

There, I said it. And I feel much better.

Alright, so this is not just me engaging in my usual hyperbole, this is the real deal. I truly believe this season has been such a train wreck from start to finish that it deserves the title of "worst season." There have been so many mishaps, instances of producers' manipulation, poor decisions and format issues that merit this title, and they will be outlined below.

But it's important to differentiate between being the worst talent-wise and the worst production-wise. This season's crop of talent was actually pretty solid, so the title of "worst season talent-wise" still belongs to Season 3. Still, the fact that Season 8 is far and away the worst season production-wise just drags it down so far that it easily inherits the title of "worst season overall."

Below are the major reasons this season was just so darn bad.

>Kara DioGuardi added as fourth judge

Everyone has pretty much arrived at the consensus that the addition of Kara DioGuardi to the judges' panel was a mistake. Regardless of how renowned she may be in the music industry, there just was nothing to warrant her presence except maybe an urge by the producers to "try something new." Kara has been the cause of many of this season's ailments, including the instances of shows running over the allotted one-hour time slot. Remember Top 8 night when Adam's "Mad World" overran into the 9 p.m. hour, forcing those who DVRed the performance to miss it entirely? Yeah, that shouldn't happen to the No. 1 series on television.

Kara's presence has also limited the number of songs each contestant could sing near the end of the season, as two to three songs were required per contestant in seasons past from Top 5 on, and only one solo performance was allowed per contestant until Top 3 week. In other words, this season had less bang for viewers' bucks.

Another reason Kara's judgeship was a mistake is because her comments were either repetitive ("you're a package artist," "artistry blah blah blah artistry blah blah" "you're so commercial") or she would just get things wrong, like when she wished Danny would have sang "earlier Aerosmith...like 'Crazy' or 'Cryin''" or when she had six words for Adam: "one of the best performances of the night." Yes, it's true Paula has made more blunderous statements in her eight-season history with the show, but by now we come to expect it, and Kara is supposed to be in the know regarding the industry.

Despite her hilarious sketch with Bikini Girl on last night's finale, there are just too many negative aspects about her time on the show that she is weighed down by them far too much.

>Top 36 semifinals format introduced

Even though Idol was just trying to revert to earlier times with its Top 36 semifinals format, things just did not work out this time around. True, Seasons 1-3 had similar structures, but in Seasons 2 and 3, there were only eight contestants performing in each group, with four being picked from the wild card round, whereas here we had 12 contestants in each group, with four coming from the wild card. If you do the math, that's a 25% of advancing to the finals compared to a less amazing 17% chance.

This resulted in the early eliminations of far too many talented semifinalists, like Felicia Barton, Ricky Braddy and Kristen McNamara. Looking back on the format, should Jorge Nunez, Jasmine Murray or Lil Rounds have made it to the finals over some of the aforementioned? That's debatable, but what is not debatable is the fact that this format did not result in the strongest cast of Top 13 contestants possible, and instead many bright prospects fell by the wayside.

>Gimmicky goofs get more air than greats

Anyone remember Tatiana Del Toro? What about Nick "Normund" Gentle? Katrina Darrel (a.k.a. "Bikini Girl")? Of course you do, why'd I even ask?

Now how about Deanna Brown or T.K. Hash? Leneshe Young? I thought so.

Early on in the season, we were bombarded with running jokes from the auditions, two of which actually advanced all the way to the semifinals (one of which was called back for the wild card). Now, of course this show is just that...a show, and so entertainment value is to be had in it. But never before has this kind of manipulation by the producers taken place to allow joke contestants to make it much farther than necessary. And before you get on my case about Sanjaya, please remember that he actually showed promise early in the season and he did not show just how awful he was until he made it to the finals.

Also going along with the whole TV show theme, why was it that all we got to see during Hollywood week was Bikini Girl sleeping in and the ongoing drama between Kristen, Nate Marshall and their no-name disgruntled group member? Maybe because that was all the producers felt us viewers wanted to see.

And then there was the all-new Top 13 finals format, heralded as Anoop's "saving grace" as it was meant to shock the audience and paint a picture of benevolence on the part of the show. Unsurprisingly, word began leaking out as early as January that the option might be introduced sometime in the season, and days before the wild card contestants took to the stage, there were rumblings too loud to be ignored that we were in fact going to have a baker's dozen. But since two finalists were eliminated the next week, it was pretty much a pointless waste of everyone's time.

In short, this was the season of the gimmicks, and a lot of early talent like the three contestants mentioned above were sacrificed to make room for these eccentric TV 15 minute-of-fame-whores.

>"Judges' save" option introduced

Perhaps the chief rival to Kara being added as a judge for the biggest fumble of Season 8, the infamous "judges' save" option was threatened to be used for weeks before it was finally exhausted in one of the most inexplicable moments of the season. The save was introduced in the Top 13 to keep a "shocker" from happening (i.e. Chris Daughtry, Tamyra Gray). Or at least that's what Ryan and the judges stated.

However, the transparency of the gimmick was so blatant that each week when the results were read, many people couldn't help but roll their eyes at the sight of the judges' "deliberating" while the unlucky contestant "sang for their life." If the whole thing wasn't thought to be phony based on the image of Paula dancing while they were supposed to be talking things over, Simon's hollow "sorry, it's the end of the road" spiels were the icing on the cake for this mess of a gimmick.

The whole time it was easy to see that the save was nothing more than a safety net for TPTB's favorite contestants in case they went under prior to the Top 5, mainly Adam and Danny (Lil at the beginning of the season but not in her last few weeks). After they realized that none of the above were going anywhere for a while, the judges decided to waste it on Matt. Really? Yes, they used it on Matt. It's not like he was a bad guy, but he was one of the last contestants of those remaining that should have been granted the honor.

One cosmetic side effect of the save was that it damaged the suspense factor for half the finals. Even though it was a good guess the option would not be put into effect on a given night, just the idea that the vote was revealed and that contestant still did not know his or her final fate was both annoying to the contestant and anticlimactic to the audience. Therefore, it would be a complete and utter mistake for this cheap shenanigan to return for Season 9.

>Producers' manipulation reaches new heights

Alright, so this is nothing new. Manipulation courtesy of TPTB has been around since the first season, but things continued to trend downward this season as evidenced primarily by how Adam was presented on the show. Exhibit A is the coveted "pimp spot," which was all but reserved for Adam the entire season, as he received the slot five times since the Top 36 (Top 36 Group 2, Top 8, Top 5, Top 4, Top 3). TPTB's excuse would most likely be "Adam was the best performer so he was the best one to close out the show." Yeah, whether or not that's true is irrelevant because there were other talented contestants that deserved just as much of a chance as he did.

Other odds and ends that showed manipulation by the judges include the placement of Adam in the Bottom 2 Top 5 night (and the refusal to place Danny in a similar position throughout the course of the season), the fact that no instruments were allowed to be played during the singing of the coronation song on Tuesday and the disqualification of Joanna Pacitti prior to the Top 36 because an unfair relationship between her and 19E management was brought to light. It's like, what made them think none of that would leak out to the public? It's just evidence of the laziness of the way this show was run this season.

>Sheer stupidity on the part of producers & judges

Even though many fans rejoiced at the news that former Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe would not be returning for the eighth season of the show, it was soon very apparent that things were not much better under the executive productionship of Ken Warwick and Cecile Frot-Coutaz. Poor decisions like the already beat-to-death Kara debacle and lazy research as seen in the Alexis phone sex line mishap in Top 13 week are prime examples of the lack of foresight and effort spent on this season.

Another stupid move on the part of the producers was the agreement to have oodles of non-Idol-related guest performers like Katy Perry and Flo Rida. Didn't they learn something from Season 6!? Some did prove to be entertaining, like Lady Gaga, but others just did not hit the mark, like the alleged "disco greats." And then there was the lip-synching mishap, in which a rep came out and denied there was any lip-synching taking place during the group performances, only to came out the next day and make excuses for the obvious lipping that was taking place. Goings on like these easily place Season 8 atop all seasons in terms of poor production quality.

And how about when Randy predicted Allison would be leaving Top 11 night (and by Allison...he meant Alexis...)? Sure, it's an easy mistake because both of their names begin with the letter "A," but still it was one of those things that's got to sting, especially since Alexis did end up leaving that night because the save was not used on her.

>Lack of "wow" factor

Alright, so every Adam fan will probably claim he was the "wow" this season, and even though he made things exciting, it is hard to deny that Season 8 was a bore. It lacked the freshness of Season 1, the competitiveness of Season 2, the XX chromosome pairings of Season 3, the awesomeness of a country star's birth of Season 4, the diversity in musical styles of Season 5, the "battle of the divas" of Season 6 and the dynamics in talent of Season 7. Just about everyone and their mother pegged Adam as the winner near the beginning of the finals, with Danny being his only serious challenger. Yes, the fact that Kris came from behind and took the title proves that there was at least one big surprise this season, but it does not really make this season memorable.

>The finale was anticlimactic

Regardless of how the results came in, the finale as a show over the two nights was very bad. It paled in comparison to last season's showdown and was quite possibly the most lackluster one in all eight seasons. Simon Fuller's song choices were poor, Kara's song disappointed and neither Adam nor Kris looked like they were really in it to win it. To add to it all, the seven thousand-filled Nokia seemed subdued throughout most of the nights in comparison to years past despite all the special acts that came out for the party. The finale is supposed to be climactic, not tranquil.

The second night of the finale, while it included some great performances, was also pretty dull in comparison to last season (and many other seasons that came before it).

> Random things that went wrong with S8

In addition to the topics touched on above, there were a slew of random things that went wrong with Season 8. Some of them include the stage falling apart prior to the performances Top 4 night and Simon's empty threat of sending contestants packing if they forgot the words during the Hollywood rounds. While minor, these blips on the season's radar were not positive developments for the show. Okay maybe the stage was a little out of their control, but maybe it wasn't. Shouldn't they inspect the safety of the set's props?

Don't get me wrong, there were a few good aspects about S8, including the effort put into inviting back as many Idol alums as possible to perform on the same stage that gave them fame and the fact that "Idol Gives Back" was skipped out of sensitivity to Americans during this recession. But to say this season is anything better than the worst this show has offered to date is being generous. Very generous indeed. And I don't want to take anything away from Kris, Adam or any of the other talented finalists from this season, as they had no control over how this show was run.

Unless some major changes take place next season (and by "major changes" I mean a reversion to Season 7), many viewers may leave Idol for good.

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