Danny Noriega made quite the splash on Idol's seventh season with his heavy reliance on breathy vocals and sassy attitude. During Top 24 week, Danny was able to get the crowd on its feet with his rendition of Jailhouse Rock, but he couldn't excite the judges beyond faint praise from Paula and Randy and a tongue-lashing from Simon. Refresh your memory on the performance below:
This segment was much better remembered for the major squabble between Simon and Paula and the infamous "some people weren't likin' it" (complete with head snap) moment than for the performance itself, and that's probably fine with Danny. Regardless of how he sang the song, this will always be one of the most memorable moments of that season.
The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:
>The cast of Rock of Ages, which includes Constantine Maroulis, took to the stage last Sunday at the 63rd Annual Tony Awards ceremony, which aired live on CBS. Watch the troupe's performance of "" below:
Although the musical received a total of five nominations at the ceremony, included one for Constantine in the "Leading Actor in a Musical" category, it went home empty-handed.
>Jordin Sparks' official album art for her upcoming LP release Battlefield was revealed Wednesday when it was uploaded to the album's page on Amazon.com, where it can be pre-ordered. The cover has been generating mostly negative buzz, with many fans taking umbrage with its similarity to other recently album covers (mainly Jesse McCartney's Departure and Alicia Keys' As I Am.
>Carrie Underwood participated in the 19th Annual City of Hope Nashville Celebrity Softball Challenge on Wednesday to kick off the annual CMA Music Fest in Nashville, Tenn. Carrie came up with an RBI double for her team, named "Grand Ole Opry," which helped the team defeat itc challengers, the "After Midnite" team. Other country music stars that competed in the game include Darius Rucker, Jimmy Wayne and Julianne Hough.
>Ahead of their sophomore album's release, the guys from Daughtry made the cover of the latest issue of Billboard magazine, which hit newsstands today. Below is a snippet from the article:
The album was a perfect storm of the commercial and the creative that paired Daughtry's gigantic fan base from "American Idol" with the set's instantly winning "Guitar Hero"-worthy guitar riffs and lyrics. The group's second album, "Leave This Town," set for release July 14, gets a leg up from this foundation; it's another record full of songs that make you want to roll down the car windows and bust a vocal cord or two while trying to match Daughtry's gravelly wail. But there's one key change to the music: Daughtry—the band—created this album, instead of it being the work of Daughtry the brand.
"So much of the focus of the launch of the first record was on Chris," RCA senior VP of marketing Aaron Borns says. "But they really are a band. When a band clicks the way they do, they work with such a good energy. It just comes through that they love what they do."
>Danny Noriega has debuted his official new music video for the single "24/7." Watch the video below:
This thing took off on Wednesday thanks to a post on Perez Hilton's Web site, which led to subsequent post all over the net. One thing's for sure, Danny knows how to market himself and take advantage of news cycles.
Tonight we blog during the Top 9's performance show, when the remaining finalists give it their best shot when they pick songs that have reached #1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart, meaning more or less songs that have reached #1 on iTunes. Will Adam sing Rihanna? Will Scott play the piano? Will Danny "Just Dance"? The blogcast begins at 8 p.m. ET and will last one hour and 25 minutes.
Tonight's blogcast will feature music from David Archuleta, Ayla Brown, Kelly Clarkson, Katharine McPhee, Danny Noriega and Phil Stacey.
Join us tonight as we blog during the third and final group of 12 semifinalists' performances in this two-hour extravaganza. Will they heed the judges' warnings and choose the right songs? Probably not, but that will make for good TV at least. The blogcast begins at 8 p.m. ET as usual.
Tonight's blogcast will feature music from Alexandrea Lushington, Antonella Barba, Blake Lewis, Brandon Rogers, Carly Smithson, Chikezie, Danny Noriega, Diana DeGarmo and Fantasia.
Four more contestants fell short of making the Top 12 last night, but something was different this season compared to seasons past. Why were there no shockers? In season four there was Amanda Avila. In season five there were Ayla Brown and Gedeon McKinney. And in season six there was Sabrina Sloan. But there was nothing comparable this season.
After Blake Lewis fell flat on his new single "How Many Words," Kady "Robot-dancing" Malloy was the first girl eliminated. She truly was one of the more talented remaining contestants, but her inability to chose the right song three weeks in a row led to her downfall.
Next was Luke "Go Go" Menard. Not much to say here except his song choice was more than fitting for tonight's episode.
It was apparent that TPTB tried to create another Ayla/Melissa or Sabrina/Haley scenario by pairing up Kristy Lee "Cage-fighting" Cook with Asia'h "Apostrohpe" Epperson, but not even Simon fell for it this time. When Ryan asked whom he thought was leaving, Simon had no problem proclaiming it would be Asia'h based on her song choice, Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," which historically has led to the exits of contestants that choose to perform the song. It's hard to believe anyone thought Kristy was a goner, and even Asia'h appeared to have accepted her defeat.
Flash ahead to Chikezie "Easy" Eze and Danny "TMTH" Noriega, the last two guys sitting on the couch. Here's another case where both could have had equal shots at going home, but Danny's attitude and sub-par vocals on Tuesday was enough to send him packing, sadly squashing any chance of Sanjaya 2.0 this season. The only question is...how will Ramiele "Cry Me a River" Malubay cope?
We'll have to tune in next week to find out. Who knows, maybe we'll be shocked.
IDOL LIVE is the place to stay up to date with the most current news on past, present and possibly future American Idol contestants, in addition to discussing the show in real-time as it happens.
.jpg)
