Allison Iraheta performs "Friday I'll Be Over U" on 'GMA'

After a last-minute cancellation last week, ABC's Good Morning America resumed its Idol Tuesday concerts this morning with an appearance by Allison Iraheta. Allison performed her lead single "Friday I'll Be Over U," which can be viewed below:

It's good to know Allison still has her signature raspiness that helped her stand out from the crowd on her season. She also chatted with co-host Chris Cuomo about her album Just Like You, which hit stores today. P.S. since when has Adam Lambert been a member of Allison's band?

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Out today: Allison Iraheta's 'Just Like You'

For the third week in a row, an alum from Idol's eighth season releases their debut album. This week it's Allison Iraheta's turn to satisfy her fans, as her CD Just Like You drops nationwide.

The album features songs written by esteemed writers such as Toby Gad ("Scars"), Max Martin ("Friday I'll Be Over U"), Sam Watters ("D Is For Dangerous") and Kara DioGuardi ("No One Else").

Links to purchase the aforementioned can be found below:

Amazon.com - ($9.99) - Buy
Amazon MP3 - ($9.99) - Buy
Barnes & Noble - ($12.19) - Buy
Best Buy - ($9.99) - Buy
Buy.com - ($11.99) - Buy
CDUniverse - ($11.18) - Buy
iTunes - ($9.99 standard, $11.99 deluxe) - Buy: standard, deluxe
Sears - ($10.79) - Buy
Target - ($11.98) - Buy
Walmart - ($13.88) - Buy

The iTunes version of Just Like You includes two bonus tracks, with the exclusive pre-order track "Don't Wanna Be Wrong" written by Chris Daughtry and the Spanish version of "Friday I'll Be Over U" ("El Viernes Te Olvido Yo").

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'Idol' odds 'n ends: Allison Iraheta debuts "Friday" music video

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

>Allison Iraheta's music video for her debut single "Friday I'll Be Over U" premiered yesterday on Yahoo! Music. Watch the video below:

Yahoo! Music also features a "making of" segment filmed during the video shoot that was released earlier this month to promote the single. Allison's debut album Just Like You will be released on Tues., Dec. 1, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com.

>Jordin Sparks underwent surgery to remove her appendix yesterday after she had to cancel appearances in Australia due to acute appendicitis. Now bedridden, Jordin has taken to her official Twitter account to tell fans all about the experience:

I can't keep my eyes open anymore. (rip appendix) Goodnight twittlets. <3 about 18 hours ago from Twitterrific

Jordin was cheered up to hear she received what she calls her first #1 on a U.S. Billboard chart, as "S.O.S. (Let the Music Play)" hit the top spot on the latest edition of Billboard's Dance chart.

>Rolling Stone unveiled its candidates for its "Decade End Reader Poll," in which readers are asked to vote for their top album, song and artist of the decade, and one Idol alum made the list. Kelly Clarkson is up for "Artist of the Decade" alongside such industry heavy hitters as Justin Timberlake and Bruce Springsteen. The ballot can be found here. Voting is open until Wed., Nov. 30.

>Danny Gokey premiered his new single "My Best Days Are Ahead of Me" on Los Angeles' FOX affiliate KTLA earlier this week. Listen to him perform the song live on yesterday's "The Waking Crew" morning show on 94.1 KMPS-FM below:



Danny's first single was originally slated to be the ballad "It's Only," but RCA Nashville thought better of it and swapped the "Jesus, Take the Wheel"-esque track for this uptempo offering. Looks like Danny's country career is off to a good start.

>It was announced yesterday that Jennifer Hudson's next main starring role will be as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in the biopic Winnie. Mandela is of course the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela. The film will be directed by Darrell Roodt and filming is set to commence in South Africa in May 2010.

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Digital sales roundup: "Cowboy Casanova" #19 (11/21/09)

It was a very big week for debuts from Idol alums on the latest edition of Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart, with six new entries in all.

In keeping with the theme of "Carrie Underwood week" thanks to the release of the fourth season's champ's Play On, four album tracks sold well enough to make the chart in addition to lead single "Cowboy Casanova." The latter moved up #33-19, an increase of 66%, and sold 63.7k for the week, putting its total at 432.3k.

Other tracks by Carrie to make the chart include "Change" (#75, 19.8k), "Quitter" (#101, 15.1k), "Play On" (#126, 11.9k) and "Someday When I Stop Loving You" (#140, 10.4k).

Also continuing to show chart success was Kelly Clarkson's slow-burning masterpiece "Already Gone," which was up 11% in sales to 47.3k. It jumped six spots to #25 and has sold 663.7k to date. Next up was Adam Lambert's debut single "For Your Entertainment," which had an odd release after being available only on Wednesday of last week. The single debuted at #82 with 18.4k, which, if you're keeping score, is a little higher than Kris Allen's first week sales for "Live Like We're Dying" (15.8k), though to be fair Kris' single became available on a Friday, so it most likely would have done better than Adam's single if released on a comparable time frame.

This week, "Dying" was up 36 spots to #103 thanks to a 41% sales increase to 14.8k. It has now sold 98.2k in all. And Allison Iraheta's debut single "Friday I'll Be Over U" entered at #162 with 9.1k. This is another single that has had a fumbled digital release, as it was originally made available a few weeks back but was pulled before officially going for release last Monday. It has sold 9.8k when factoring in the early sales.

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

019 033 Carrie Underwood, "Cowboy Casanova" 63,664 66% 38,459 432,312
025 031 Kelly Clarkson, "Already Gone" 47,293 11% 42,786 663,658
075 --- Carrie Underwood, "Change" 19,772 999% 1 19,773
082 --- Adam Lambert, "For Your Entertainment" 18,397 999 0 18,397
101 --- Carrie Underwood, "Quitter" 15,060 999% 0 15,060
103 139 Kris Allen, "Live Like We're Dying" 14,754 41% 10,444 98,151
126 --- Carrie Underwood, "Play On" 11,869 999% 0 11,869
140 --- Carrie Underwood, "Someday Whhen...Loving You" 10,431 999% 0 10,431
162 --- Allison Iraheta, "Friday I'll Be Over U" 9,073 999% 60 9,822

Total sales are in bold.

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Adam Lambert's "For Your Entertainment" now on iTunes

After being released for sale on his official Web site last week, Adam Lambert's single "For Your Entertainment" is now available to download on iTunes for $1.29.

Similarly, Allison Iraheta's single "Friday I'll Be Over U" is back up on iTunes as of Monday after being prematurely added. Not sure what's up with all these crazy release strategies with Season 8 finalists' singles, but their labels must know what they're doing, right?

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Sneak peek of 'Idol' session at Walmart Soundcheck

Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta each sat down for interviews ahead of their sessions for Walmart Soundcheck. Each Season 8 Idol finalist will have their sessions go live on the music site on Sun., Nov. 1 Below is a sneak peek of what footage will be included:

It's interesting to note Allison's single "Friday I'll Be Over U" was featured throughout the majority of the preview, while Kris' single "Live Like We're Dying" got much less face time.

Other alums that have been featured on Walmart Soundcheck recently include Carrie Underwood, Blake Lewis and David Cook.

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Track review: Allison Iraheta's "Friday I'll Be Over U"

Allison Iraheta tries to make a name for herself as a teenage rocker chick on her debut single “Friday I’ll Be Over U.” The single is the first one off Iraheta’s forthcoming album (Dec. 1) courtesy of Jive Records.

On “Over U,” Iraheta is tasked with making a fairly generic sounding track her own, and she somewhat succeeds. Since she is still very young both in life and her music career, producers have a tough job in making her standout from the saturated pop/rock scene. Writer/producer Max Martin (Kelly Clarkson, P!NK) is smart to gear Iraheta’s bow toward a teen audience, but the “who cares?” lyrics and the “Avril Lavigne circa 2007” production do nothing to personalize “Over U.”

From the schoolyard sounding verses to the techno-tinged choruses, the song’s overall juvenile feel is a little bit beneath Iraheta when compared with the big songs she tackled while on ‘Idol.’ Thankfully, Iraheta’s signature vocals help differentiate the single from the fray. Her husky tone is for the most part unaffected by pro-tools and are undeniably distinguishable.

Hopefully “Friday I’ll Be Over U” is one of the weaker offerings on Allison Iraheta’s debut album. If not, some fans unfortunately might be over her before Friday.

Friday I'll Be Over U will be released digitally on Tues., Oct. 20. It can now be streamed in its entirety on Allison's official Web site.

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Allison Iraheta debuts new single "Friday I'll Be Over U"

Allison Iraheta's new single "Friday I'll Be Over U" debuted this morning on AOL's PopEater blog. The song, which is the lead single off Allison's forthcoming debut album courtesy of Jive Records, was both written and produced by Max Martin. Listen to the single below:

The song harkens back to the style of music sung by Avril Lavigne circa 2007 ("Girlfriend," anyone?) and sounds like something Ashlee Simpson would have turned down. That said, Allison's unique voice adds something to the juvenile lyrics and tired synths, so it should do reasonably well for her. Full review to follow.

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'Idol odds 'n ends: Clip of Allison Iraheta's "Friday I'll Be Over U"

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

>A clip of Allison Iraheta's upcoming single "Friday I'll Be Over U" was added to YouTube today. Listen to the single below:

In a blogpost on Allison's official Web site, it was revealed that the single will premiere on AOL Music's "First Listen" on Monday.

>Katharine McPhee lent her film talents to a video raising awareness for the fight against breast cancer. Watch the skit "The Booby Scare" courtesy of FunnyorDie.com below:



Other female celebs that starred in the skit alongside Kat include Alyson Hannigan, Emily Deschanel, Minka Kelly and Jaime King. October is "National Breast Cancer Awareness Month."

>Jason Castro announced earlier this week that he will be touring this country's malls to promote his debut album beginning Mon., Oct. 12 at the Southdale Center in Minneapolis, Minn., and wrapping up Sun., Nov. 15 at the Ontario Mills Mall in Ontario, Calif. Billboard has a full list of the dates.

>Chris Daughtry yesterday tweeted about his band's collaboration with well-known record producer Timbaland, confirming an announcement made in late August that the band would have a track appear on the upcoming Shock Value II. Chris said:

The rumors are true folks! We're in the studio working with Timbaland on a sweet project!!! http://twitpic.com/jstk5 12:08 AM Oct 1st from Echofon

Chris followed it up with more photos from the "sesh" and confirmed that "Life After You" will be the next single off the band's Leave This Town album.

>30-second clips of tracks on David Archuleta's upcoming album Christmas From the Heart were added to Amazon.com. Listen to the clips below:



The album is slated for release this coming Tuesday and can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com.

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