Carly Smithson was a force to be reckoned with at the outset of Idol's seventh season. After breezing through the semifinals, Carly came out with a bang during Top 12 week on the first helping of Beatles night when she performed "Come Together." Watch the performance below:
Carly received praise from all three judges for this showing, which sent her into an excited state of disbelief, especially considering she expected Simon to once again declare her song choice "wrong." Carly's second song from The Beatles' catalog, "Blackbird," was not as big as a moment for her, but it still showed that she was a savvy contestant in terms of varying her performance styles.
The American Idols Live! tour last night kicked off to much fanfare in Portland, Ore., at the Rose Garden. As expected, oodles of illegal fan videos found their way onto the net, including the one below of Kris Allen closing the show with The Beatles' "Hey Jude" with the rest of the Top 10 joining him onstage in the final chorus:
Another performance that seemed to receive a lot of buzz was Adam Lambert's duet with Allison Iraheta on "Slow Ride," which was a performance that got a good amount of acclaim during Top 4 week. Watch the performance below:
As for the reviews, they varied widely depending on the source. For example, Scott D. Lewis of The Oregonian had much praise for Adam but left little room for positive things to say about Kris:
Then it was time for the real show, and it belonged to Adam Lambert.
The slightly androgynous gothy singing sensation absolutely tore up "Whole Lotta Love" and, with help from Iraheta, transformed the classic rock dude anthem "Slow Ride" into something sly and fun.
Finally, the huge hall was full of energy.
And then some guy named Kris Allen came onstage and did a few dull songs, including, oddly, "Hey Jude" to end his winner-but-losing set.
What really matters, though, is what the fans thought, and most of them agreed when it came to Adam. On Idolforums.com, member Weazzy had this to say about the runner-up:
The crowds favorite was obviously Adam. They went crazy before the show whenever they showed his pic on the slideshow thing. Well Adam is Adam haha what's to say...He had his little dance moves things whatever you wanna call them haha I love him.
Of the 15,000 or so available seats in the arena for the particular configuration, roughly 12,000 fans attended, which is a pretty good figure to start off the 2009 tour with. The Top 10 will next perform tomorrow night at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash.
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."
Idol's signature red-haired crooner John Stevens made the show's third season popular for reasons he probably would not like to remember. After generating such memorable performances as "Crockodile Rock" and "King of the Road," the then-16-year-old delivered spectacles that would make Sanjaya jealous.
But John's vocal talents were the kind that could not been heard on an Elton John track, and so he was given a bad wrap while on the show. Still he was able to finish sixth, which is a testament to his appeal to many across the country. This led to a record deal with Maverick Records in 2005, courtesy of which he released his debut album Red. The album, which was produced by David Foster, did well enough to make it into Billboard's Top 10 Jazz albums chart but failed to muster much in the form of sales, totaling roughly 21k copies since its release.
John's debut single was "Come Fly With Me," a cover of Frank Sinatra's 1957 hit. He also covered Maroon 5's "This Love" and The Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere."
After departing Maverick, John joined his fellow Season 3 alum Leah LaBelle at Berklee College of Music in Boston where his is now a student and should graduate in 2010.
Are American Idol and the Beatles headed for holy matrimony or a quick hookup followed by a messy breakup? Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe said on Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM morning show Wednesday that Sony had agreed to allow the show's contestants to perform songs from the Lennon/McCartney songbook after six seasons of denying their requests. According to this EOnline article, there are plenty of tunes to choose from:
On the Sony/ATV website, there are more than 180 songs listed that are credited to either: Lennon-McCartney; McCartney, minus Lennon; Lennon-McCartney with Starkey (aka Ringo Starr); and Lennon-McCartney with Starkey and Harrison (as in George).
Following Wednesday's announcement, RealityTVWorld.com's Christopher Rocchio reported that the Top 12 week's theme will in fact be songs from the band's songbook. This could either be a worthwhile gamble or a major disappointment. But who can really picture Alaina Whitaker taking on Yellow "Submarine" or Danny Noriega attempting "Hey Jude"?
A side note: the IDOL LIVE blog will return Tuesday for the Top 8 guys' performances at 8:00 p.m. ET.
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.
