Nikki McKibbin wasn't the only one excited about her making the Top 4 on Idol's first season, as she was able to outlast front runner Tamyra Gray. Before the shocking results were ready, Nikki belted out her own version of Melissa Etheridge's "I'm the Only One," one of two songs she sang during 1990's week. Watch the performance below:
While this performance was no masterpiece, it was apparently good enough to get her into third place (because we all know her performance of "Mary Jane" didn't get her there). While Nikki had a bumpy road on her season, she clicked with a certain segment of the population and for that she will always be remembered.
In what has to be the most obvious result to date of all rounds of this year's edition of IDOL LIVE's poll of the week champion series, Chris Daughtry mopped the floor with his fellow fourth-place finalists.
The Daughtry frontman earned 22 votes in all, good for 50% of the 44 votes cast over the past week. This is Chris's third straight victory in the champion series among finalists in his group.
Even though Daughtry ran away with this round of the poll series, it doesn't mean no other finalist earned votes. Jason Castro's 13 votes (29%) were enough for second place, while Allison Iraheta (four votes, 9%) and new mom Tamyra Gray (three votes, 6%) were further behind in third and fourth, respectively. Unfortunately, three finalists failed to receive a single vote: Josh Gracin (Season 2), LaKisha Jones (Season 6) and Michael Lynche (Season 9).
In the next round, readers will be asked which 3rd-place finalist is their favorite of all nine seasons. Voting will be open for exactly one week.
Tamyra Gray 3 (6%)
Josh Gracin 0 (0%)
LaToya London 1 (2%)
Anthony Fedorov 1 (2%) Chris Daughtry 22 (50%)
LaKisha Jones 0 (0%)
Jason Castro 13 (29%)
Allison Iraheta 4 (9%)
Michael Lynche 0 (0%)
The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:
>Upon officially acknowledging his return to Idol for the show's 10th season (and his first since Season 7), Nigel Lythgoe made one of his trademark controversial statements: that he'd fully support (and actively try) to get Paula Abdul back on the judging panel. As unlikely as this actual scenario sounds, Nigel said it anyway:
One of his first ideas is to bring back one of the show's most beloved judges: Paula Abdul. Lythgoe told Daily Variety that despite her commitment to headline a new dancing show on CBS, he'd love to get Abdul back in the "Idol" fold. "I still love Paula," he said. "She's signed to CBS, probably exclusively, but I'd recommend we have her in a heartbeat."
Nigel also said he wants to focus less on the judges and to lessen the reliance on shoving contestants' back stories in audiences' faces. Well, knowing that, count me among those thrilled to have Nigel back in charge!
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>Katharine McPhee's Unbroken ballad "Say Goodbye" might not be getting the single treatment, but it will at least be heavily featured in the upcoming Christian film I AM. Part of the song's attachment to the film includes a music video complete with scenes from the movie and shots of Katharine herself. Watch the video below:
I AM, courtesy of 20th Century Fox, is described as the following per its website:
I AM offers an insight into the true nature of our God, and fights the damaging stereotypes of His character through a gritty, non-linear drama with a plot weaving around average people violating the Ten Commandments -- one by one. We see that these commandments were not edicts from a jealous God, but a love letter to humanity -- a warning to those who don't understand the massive consequences of even the smallest sins upon ourselves and the world around us.
It will premiere on Sun., Oct. 10 (National 10 Commandments Sunday), in churches across the country before being released in theaters.
Rascal Flatts $702,500
Kiss $500,000
Keith Urban $487,500
Drake $155,000
Selena Gomez $100,000 Kelly Pickler $40,000
Kris Allen $12,500
Chris Young $7,500
While it's not too surprising Kellie is pulling in more than Kris at the moment since she's a more established artist, is it even conceivable that Rascal Flatts are pulling in a whole $200k more per show than Kiss? That's more than surprising.
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>Tamyra Gray and her husband, Sam Watters, spoke with People.com about how they welcomed their daughter Sienna Marie into the world last month. Tamyra told People about the unusual manner in which they came up with her name:
“I know it sounds weird, but back in February I had a dream where she told me her name. I shared my dream with Sam and we decided we’d wait and see. It took us eight hours after her birth to name her and at the end, we went with her suggestion.”
Tamyra, now 30, said despite waiting until delivery to find out the sex of her baby, she knew instinctively that she'd be having a girl and now she has "someone to share in [her] love of fairies and tea."
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>Blake Lewis will appear at the AT&T retail store in Woodland Hills, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 7, where he will greet fans, pose for pictures and sign autographs between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. More info per a media alert:
Event attendees will have an opportunity to win signed copies of Lewis’ limited edition double LP “Heartbreak on Vinyl” scheduled to be released on August 24. Attendees will also be able to take advantage of the promotion on the new Android™ 2.1 Powered Samsung Captivate* ($199 after mail-in rebate and 2-year agreement), with the super AMOLED screen. With the purchase of the new Samsung Captivate attendees will receive two tickets to the upcoming American Idol Concert Tour at the Staples Center, Friday, August 13.
The AT&T store is located at 6203 Topanga Canyon Blvd (between Victory Blvd. and Erwin St.). Earlier in the week, fans who pre-ordered the special edition of Heartbreak on Vinyl on vinyl received the bonus MP3 track "Till We See The Sun," with just a few copies of the special edition vinyl disc available for pre-order ahead of its release on Aug. 24.
Tamyra Gray was the favorite to take the crown running up to the close of Idol's first season, but her premature ouster will remain one of the biggest disappointments in the show's entire history. Despite giving memorable showings on a weekly basis over the course of the Summer of 2002, they weren't enough to propel her to the win. One of her most spectacular performances happened during Top 5 week when she sang Luther Vandross' "A House Is Not a Home" on Burt Bacharach night. Watch it below:
Since this performance, Simon Cowell has seen many, many performances on TV, and so even though he has most likely seen superior performances to this one, he probably would still agree this is "on-par with Whitney and Christina."
As we look ahead to Wednesday's grand finale for Idol's ninth season, it only makes sense to revisit the finale that gave this show a reason to continue. Kelly Clarkson was never the front runner to take the title on the first season of the show until her main rival, Tamyra Gray, was sent home in the first shocker of the series during Top 4 results night.
Kelly proved she had exactly what it took to become the American Idol, and her crowning moment and performance of "A Moment Like This" were extremely memorable. Relive the moment below:
This moment still gives me chills. Kelly's quips of excitement throughout the performance showed just why she won, because she won over America with not only her outstanding vocals but her personality and stage presence as well. No matter who wins on Wednesday, this will always be the most moving winning moment in Idol history.
The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:
>Syesha Mercado appeared on Good Day LA this morning to promote the LA run of the national tour of Dreamgirls, in which she's currently starring. Watch the segment below:
Syesha said she got to work with Diane Warren between Idol and Dreamgirls and that she wants people to see her as "Syesha the artist." She also said she tries to do yoga and work out to keep her stamina fresh, which is necessary for the show. Dreamgirls is at the Ahmanson Theatre now through April 4.
>Kimberley Locke premiered a snippet of her new single "Strobe Light" in a chat with fans on Monday night. A clip of the single can be listened to below:
"Strobe Light," which was produced by Cutfather and Paparazzi and is courtesy of Randy Jackson's record label Dream Merchant 21 Records, will be available to purchase on iTunes on Tues., April 6.
>Entertainment Weekly reported Tuesday that Tamyra Gray and her husband Sam Watters are expecting their first child. Tamyra was expectantly excited, as she told EW:
”I’m just trying to take care of myself and enjoy it,” she said. ”This is way harder than Idol.”
Tamyra said the baby is due in July and they will be surprised with its sex.
>Anoop Desai's new single "My Name" was released on iTunes Tuesday. He took to Philadelphia's The 10! Show on Tuesday to perform an acoustic version of the song, which can be watched below:
The studio version can be listened to here. Anoop went on to promote his new single elsewhere throughout the week including ABC News NOW.
>Lacey Brown continued her post-Idol farewell tour this week, as she stopped by CBS's The Late Show with David Letterman on Monday to chat about her short time on the show. Watch her segment below:
Lacey did fairly well on "What a Wonderful World" and had a nice back-and-forth with Letterman. If only she had sounded that good last week.
Although there as not nearly the amount of excitement surrounding fourth-place finalists' albums as there was in last week's collection of feelings on albums from runners-up, the latest edition of IDOL LIVE's poll of the week found that one alum from the former category ran away with the competition.
Daughtry's mega-successful debut album Daughtry was selected by readers as their favorite one by a fourth-place finisher, garnering 45 votes (60%). The only other entry to attract a mentionable tally was Allison Iraheta's brand new disc Just Like You, which claimed 24% of all votes cast, or 18 in all.
In this week's edition of the poll of the week, readers are asked which Idol parent is your favorite. Voting will be open for exactly one week.
One fourth-place finalist's debut single was clearly preferred among IDOL LIVE readers for the latest edition of the poll of the week series.
The champion of this poll was no surprise. Daughtry's multi-platinum "It's Not Over" received 46 votes, or 55% of the poll's total take. Next up was Jason Castro's "Let's Just Fall In Love Again" with 26 votes (31%), and Allison Iraheta's brand new single "Friday I'll Be Over U" came in at no. 3 with 5 votes (6%).
In this week's edition of the poll of the week, readers are asked which album cover art from an Idol winner's first post-show album is their favorite. Voting will be open for exactly one week.
Raindrops Will Fall (Tamyra Gray) 1 (1%) I Want to Live (Josh Gracin) 4 (4%) Appreciate (LaToya London) 1 (1%) It's Not Over (Daughtry) 46 (55%) Let's Go Celebrate (LaKisha Jones) 0 (0%) Let's Just Fall In Love Again (Jason Castro) 26 (31%) Friday I'll Be Over U (Allison Iraheta) 5 (6%)
The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:
>In the dog days of summer, it does not take much to get one's name out in the news. Exhibit A is Ju'Not Joyner's stirring of a hornet's nest earlier this week with his claims that Idol is rigged. The Top 36 contestant from Season 8 said the following in an interview with AI Now:
"What I mean is that people think AI is a talent show. No. It's a reality show with writers!! We're all actors. All these shows have writers that guide the public opinion. The Hills, Real World. All of them."
So far there has been no comment from the 19E/FremantleMedia camp, and it would be a surprise if anything substantial came from them period.
>One of the aspects of the "Idols Live!" tour that Kris Allen must not be thrilled about are the pesty fans that bug him and the other alums backstage. In the following video, Kris is interrogated about his t-shirt that reads "I'd trade my girlfriend for a Coke":
Obviously Kris does not have a girlfriend, since he is married. Oh well, this is just an example of the joys and pains of allowing backstage passes.
>While Paula Abdul's future with Idol still hangs in the balance, Kara DioGuardi's time on Season 9 as a judge has already been reserved. Although full details of the contract are not yet available, it is assumed that Kara will be making substantially less than any of the other judges, but that's apparently not a problem for her.
>The first season of Idol acquainted millions of people with a few big names like Kelly Clarkson and Tamyra Gray, but Kelli Glover was not one of them. The Top 30 contestant was recently featured on the fourth season of America's Got Talent, but was eliminated in Las Vegas before the show got to the live voting portion. Watch Kelli below:
Kelli sang "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" back in the wild card round of the semifinals, after performing "I Will Always Love You" in group 1.
For only the second time this year, a Season 5 alum has been deemed the winner of a round in the champion series of IDOL LIVE's poll of the week.
Although it was a close one near the poll's end, Chris Daughtry was able to nab first place thanks to 23 votes (36%), which means he will represent all fourth-place finalists in the finale of the champion series. Although Allison Iraheta's fans put up a good fight, she ended up finishing a close second with 19 votes (30%).
Farther behind with 11 votes (17%) was Season 7's Jason Castro, and no other contestant polled over 4%.
As we approach the final weeks of the IDOL LIVE poll of the week champion series, the next installment asks readers which third-place finalist is their favorite of all eight seasons. Voting will be open for exactly one week.
Tamyra Gray 0 (0%) Josh Gracin 1 (1%) LaToya London 3 (4%) Anthony Fedorov 3 (4%) Chris Daughtry 23 (36%) LaKisha Jones 3 (4%) Jason Castro 11 (17%) Allison Iraheta 19 (30%)
I guess Blake Lewis is a glambot? Or lambskank? Whatever the fan base name is, that's what Blake is. Per his official Twitter account:
BlakeLewis It's the end. Vote for Adam people! http://twitpic.com/5izm4
BlakeLewis Kris?? So typical. Adam slayed it the whole season. All my peoples have a great night and support my dude Adam Lambert. Boooyakasha.
BlakeLewis I love both these guys and they deserve the best!! I'm just a fan of Adam that's all. Have fun my friends, You are the greatest!!!
BlakeLewis You all are silly and I like that. Some of you are super competitive. Watch out! Hey.. If you haven't seen it... My video blog is up.
BlakeLewis Kristy lee cook and my homie chris rich. Vote for Adam. http://twitpic.com/5iyzd
If you can't tell, the last two tweets were in response to the oodles of angry tweets lunged his way by Kris fans. And word to Adam: if there's one endorsement you don't really need, its an endorsement from Blake.
Other Idol alums' (and Paula's) thoughts on the finale are as follows:
ChrisSligh Everyone knows I was a Gokey fan..Adam was my 2nd fav...but I could see Kris winning after tonight
tamyragray Just left idol and I was rooting 4 Adam but I think Kris got it. Either way the both did gr8 but what's up w/that song????
PaulaAbdul Oh my goodness! Can you believe it? I'm so touched by both Adam & Chris. What an incredible evenening!
There will be tons of comments made by Idol alums over the next day regarding the results, which will be very interesting to see. One thing's for sure, though: it seems that alums are just as divided as the country is at the moment.
The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:
>Tamyra Gray has been in the studio working on some material, though it has not been made public what the material will be included on. Last week, she made it known that she was in the studio with Ryan Tedder and The Runaways, which are top-notch writers and producers. Maybe a comeback is in the midst?
>A music video for "Touch My Hand" leaked this week days before it was used to accompany David Archuleta's performance of the song on Wednesday's Idol results show. It found itself onto the Asian video sharing site and can be watched below:
The audio is actually from his AOL Sessions performance of the song because, well, all the other files on YouTube have had embedding disabled by theofficialdavidarchuleta. The song is Arch's third single off his self-titled debut but does not have an adds date at the moment.
>Chris Sligh attended the 40th Annual Dove Awards on Fri., April 23, which aired on the Gospel Music Channel. He lost out in the two categories he was nominated for, though: the coveted Best New Artist and the Song of the Year categories.
>Michael Johns announced that his new single "Heart On My Sleeve" would be going for adds at radio on Mon., April 27. This is not listed anywhere on FMQB nor AllAccess, though, it was only mentioned as a message via his account on Twitter.
>Leslie Hunt, a Top 20 contestant on the sixth season of Idol, got married on Fri., April 17, then she did a show the next night before heading to San Francisco for her honeymoon. On the honeymoon, she and her husband rented a red mustang and drove up to the Napa Valley for a few days. What an awesome chick.
Now that the top secret twist is out in plain view, it's time we take a look at the repercussions (if any) that will be felt as a result. First of all, it's not nearly as bad as many suspected. The rampant rumor was that the judges would get to have the bottom two finalists have a "sing-off" and then they would decide who would go home each week. That would have been downright awful.
In the actual scenario, the judges will only get grant immunity to one finalist once during the entire season, and the option expires Top 5 week. What's important to stress is that the next-lowest vote-getter would not be eliminated, rather there would be a double elimination the following week. That is doable I guess, but it's a little pointless. The only thing it will be held onto for is the possibility of an Adam/Danny/Lil pre-Top 5 exit, which is just not going to happen anyway. So we'll see if there's any valid reason for this threat being brought into the judges' arsenal.
Oh, and Ryan - under this system, Chris Daughtry and Tamyra Gray would not have been able to be saved, as they were both eliminated during Top 4 week. So next time maybe you should have your aide(s) do your homework for you.
Now, back to the actual results. It was no surprise that a combination of Jorge/Megan/Jasmine were going to be eliminated last night, so they did their best to hype up the suspense. Putting Megan with Jasmine for the first "bottom 2" was a good idea, as she was probably really in the bottom 3 or just outside it. Putting Anoop with Jorge was deceiving, though, as he in fact received much more votes than they made it seem like he did. Allison Iraheta most likely should have been standing down there but to make it seem more believable, they decided to place someone who delivered a not so great performance in synthetic peril.
Jasmine's elimination proved that wild card picks don't always work out. Plus, there were a half-dozen girls that belonged in the Top 13 over her, but the judges had to find out they made a mistake the hard way. Doesn't matter, they won't learn regardless. Jasmine did the best she could do with "I'll Be There," but it did come across as being very pageanty and usually doing ballads sandwiched in between better and more memorable performances will lead to an exit. She did her best to control her emotions but keeping in mind that she's still only 17, she should not be ashamed of anything about her time on Idol. Ryan was actually useful last night as he comforted her.
Then there was Jorge, who would have been out early regardless of what he sang Tuesday and only got into the finals thanks to a fluke of a performance in Group 3. But picking a song with "Goodbye" in the title is never a good idea, so that just added to the Peurto Rican's problems. Simon might have been a little too blunt when he said "No. Sorry." after being asked by Ryan if the judges were going to exercise their saving grace on Jorge. But that's just Simon for you.
Kanye West performed his single "Heartless," which pretty much described the performance itself. The fact that it was pretaped was extremely noticeable and took away from what little excitement there was.
The highlight of the night was without a doubt Kelly Clarkson's return to the Idol stage to perform "My Life Would Suck Without You." She was her very own self in her pre-performance chat with old pal Ryan, giggling and joking about herself. The fact that she did her performance live added to the energy, as opposed to that other guy who was just used as filler. It goes without saying that Kelly is just in a league of her own in comparison to the current batch of hopefuls. There's just no way to say any of them match up to her at the moment, performance or vocals-wise.
Next week's theme, Grand Ol' Opry, should be fun for most, not for some (I mean you, Megan). Wonder if Adam will pick a Dolly song? Maybe Danny will do a hoe down to further show off his awesome dancing skills? It all remains to be seen. Plus Carrie Underwood will perform "I Told You So." You can't go wrong with that, now can you?
IDOL LIVE's predictions so far are not going too hot. For my original predictions, I incorrectly predicted Megan leaving 13th and Michael departing 12th, so I'm 0-2 in that respect. As for my pre-results predictions, I got the two eliminated finalists right, but the order wrong (predicted Jorge 13th, Jasmine 12th). So I'm also 0-2 in that department. It should be easier from here on out because we (hopefully) won't have to deal with any more of these ridiculous double elimination.
In the first installment of the debut album champion poll series, Kelly Clarkson's Thankful was unsurprisingly chosen as IDOL LIVE readers' album of choice from the first season's batch of alums. Thankful pulled in a whopping 75% of the poll's 60 votes.
Justin Guarini's debut self-titled album finished next, as its 9 votes (15%) was also good for runner-up. Tamyra Gray was the only other alum to receive more than one vote, as her debut album The Dreamer finished third with four votes (6%).
In this week's poll of the week, readers will be asked to vote for their favorite debut album from a Season 2 alum. You have exactly one week to vote.
Diana DeGarmo emerged victorious in last week's poll of the week out of an assortment of Idol alums that have transitioned to the great white way. The Hairspray star took home 27 votes, good for 42% of the poll's 63 total votes. The next closest competitor was Clay Aiken, whose coming out of the closet this past week did not do much to bolster his standing in the poll. Clay, who will be returning to Spamalot, amassed 10 votes, or 15%.
The next two alums that received the most votes were LaKisha Jones (The Color Purple) and Ace Young (Grease), who got 5 votes (7%) and 4 votes (6%), respectively. The remaining alums barely registered on the poll, with Josh Strickland failing to take in a single vote.
In this week's poll of the week, IDOL LIVE begins the debut album champion poll series, beginning with Season 1. Only post-Idol albums will be included unless pre-Idol albums were also released following the alum's time on the show (ex. Brooke White).
Clay Aiken (Spamalot) 10 (15%) Frenchie Davis (Rent) 1 (1%) Diana DeGarmo (Hairspray) 27 (42%) Fantasia (The Color Purple) 3 (4%) Anthony Federov (The Fantasticks) 3 (4%) Tamyra Gray (Rent) 4 (6%) LaKisha Jones (The Color Purple) 5 (7%) Taylor Hicks (Grease) 5 (7%) Constantine Maroulis (The Wedding Singer) 1 (1%) Josh Strickland (Tarzan) 0 (0%) Ace Young (Grease) 4 (6%)
Chris Daughtry is the fourth-place finalist of choice according to IDOL LIVE readers, as Season 5's breakout star scored 48% of the vote in last week's poll of the week. Although he won with 17 votes, Season 7's Jason Castro almost pulled off an upset, as he scored 42% of the vote with 15 votes. All other votes were negligible in comparison. In this week's poll of the week, we ask who your favorite fifth-place finalist is of all seven seasons. You have exactly one week to vote.
Tamyra Gray 0 (0%) Josh Gracin 1 (2%) LaToya London 1 (2%) Anthony Federov 0 (0%) Chris Daughtry 17 (48%) LaKisha Jones 1 (2%) Jason Castro 15 (42%)
Season 1 fourth-place finalist and ultra-shocking early bootee Tamyra Gray will finish her run on Broadway in RENT on Sun., June 15, when she performs with the show's cast one last time at the 2008 Tony Awards. Per Tamyra's mother in a blog entry:
As most of you know, this will be her last performance with Rent. But, it won't be the last you will hear from her.
Before starring in RENT, Tamyra had a short-term, 12-week role in Bombay Dreams in 2004 that was cut short when the show closed in January 2005 due to poor box office returns. The Tony Awards will air on CBS at 8 p.m. ET.
Taylor Hicks is the latest Idol alum to try his hand at Broadway. It was announced yesterday that the Season 5 champ will star as "Teen Angel" in the revival of the classic 1950s era musical Grease beginning June 6 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
Taylor is not the first former finalist to the Great White Way, nor will he be the last, as Tamyra Gray (Season 1, fourth place) starred in Rent and Bombay Dreams, Clay Aiken (Season 2, runner-up) was in Spamalot, Diana DeGarmo (Season 3, runner-up) played a supporting role in Hairspray, Frenchie Davis (Season 2) starred in Rent, Fantasia (Season 3, winner) was in The Color Purple, as was LaKisha Jones (Season 6, fourth place) among others.
Taylor is also reportedly working on another album after he was released from his contract by J Records earlier this year after his self-titled album failed to sell 1 million copies, stalling at 700,000 copies.
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.
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