Diana DeGarmo performed at a celebration for "Go Arts" month in Atlanta, Ga., this afternoon at Underground Atlanta. In addition to speaking with kids that are considering a career in music, Diana performed one of her newest cuts called "Turn to Me," which according to Rodney Ho of AccessAtlanta.com, was only her second live performance of the song. Watch the performance below:
The song was written by Diana, John Rich and Vicky McGehee and is expected to be included on her upcoming country release, which has yet to be completed (it's halfway done).
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Diana DeGarmo: "Turn to Me"
A 'Carnival Ride' for Christmas
As reported by CountryWeekly.com, two-disc Walmart exclusive of Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride will hit shelves on Tues., Oct. 21. The second disc will include five Christmas songs including four never before heard tracks such as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "O Holy Night," "The First Noel" and "What Child Is This." The fifth song to appear is "Do You Hear What I Hear," which was a hit at Adult Contemporary radio last year, reaching #2 on the chart. It also peaked at #27 on the Country chart.
The special edition of Carnival Ride can now be pre-ordered on Walmart.com for $14.88.
Friday, October 3, 2008
'Idol' odds 'n ends: LaKisha to wed
The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:
>Following on the heels of Jennifer Hudson, LaKisha Jones will wed her fiance, Larry Davis, on Sun., Oct. 5 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Fellow Season 6 alums Melinda Doolittle and Gina Glocksen will also attend.
>Carrie Underwood will co-host the 42nd annual CMA Awards on Wed., Nov. 12, with Brad Paisley. Carrie will perform and is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year while her album Carnival Ride is nominated for Album of the Year. The awards will air on ABC at 8 p.m.
>Kellie Pickler was interviewed by AmericanIdol.com about the release of her sophomore album and her tour with Sugarland among other things. She also performed "Don't You Know You're Beautiful" on NBC's Today Show.
>The third season of American Idol Rewind premiered last Saturday with Season 3's New York auditions. This season of Rewind combines the third and fourth seasons of Idol.
>Justin Guarini announced on his weekly online radio show that he got engaged to his girlfriend, Reina Capodici, at Walt Disney World. They are planning a June 2009 wedding.
RCA pulling out all the stops for "Light On"
It would appear that the RCA Records of old has died and returned as a Jive Records clone, or at least a less-experienced, more clumsy version of the fellow Sony BMG label. RCA, which has been responsible for three Justin Guarini's for every Kelly Clarkson, is determined to have David Cook succeed, and so it is stopping at nothing to get his lead single, "Light On," good press.
Starting two days ago, the front page ad for Nickelback's new single "Gotta Be Somebody" was inexplicably replaced with an ad for "Light On," which comes in addition to a large banner ad and a thumbnail ad on the Pop section's main page. Also on the iTunes front, a mass e-mail was sent out yesterday to all purchasers of Cook's "The Time of My Life" single as a recommendation to purchase "Light On" among other things. And the label's final iTunes tactic comes in the form of a blog post on Cook's official site giving explicit instructions on how to gift the track to other users in order to increase sales.
Similarly on Amazon.com, an e-mail was sent out to the retailer's customers that have purchased downloads on its mp3 store by other Idol alums like Jordin Sparks and Daughtry encouraging them to buy "Light On."
Now, there is nothing wrong with a label trying to promote its artists and their material, especially during its first week of release. But RCA's actions are very inconsistent with what they have been known to do in the past. It is not even a disappointment considering "Light On" is currently #4 on the Top 100 overall songs chart on iTunes considering the amount of competition that was released on the same day. But for some reason, RCA is coming off a bit desperate at this point and there is no real valid reason for it.
Regardless of how many downloads "Light On" sells this week, the single should still have a good shot at longevity considering it has yet to even be sent to radio. It is just interesting to see this new side of RCA. Where was it for Diana DeGarmo, Bo Bice and Katharine McPhee?
HITS predix: Jennifer 215-225k, Kellie 40-45k
As usual, HITS Daily Double revised its predictions today for next week's building album sales chart. Of note to Idol fans were the predictions for Jennifer Hudson's and Kellie Pickler's self-titled albums, which were originally predicted to land at 215-225k and 40k, respectively, based on first day sales.
Today's numbers are mostly unchanged, but Kellie's album is now carrying a slighly more optimistic prediction of 40-45k copies for its opening week. Still underwhelming, but the album should see better days ahead as its lead single "Don't You Know You're Beautiful" begins to gain ground at radio.
'Idol' BB 200: 'Carnival Ride' #54 (10/11/08)
Continuing her reign as top Idol alum represented on the Billboard Top 200 album chart for the week of Oct. 11 was Carrie Underwood, whose sophomore effort Carnival Ride fell #45-54. The album picked up an additional 9.2k copies despite a 13% decrease in sales and left it with 2.35 million total.
Next up was Daughtry's Daughtry, which fell 13 spots to #65 as a result of 19% decrease in sales. The album's take of 7.7k for the week now puts its total at 4.24 million. Jordin Sparks followed at #114 with Jordin Sparks, which accumulated another 5.2k copies. Its 43-spot free fall was a side effect of its 25% sales decrease, and its total now stands at 922k.
And then there is Kristy Lee Cook, whose Why Wait plummeted 104 spots to #153 in only its second week. The monstrous 60% drop resulted in only 3.8k copies sold for the week, pushing its total at 13.3k. Odds are highly likely that this will be the album's last week on the chart.
Full chart positions courtesy of tony over on Pulse are as follows:
054 045 Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride 9,154 -13% 10,555 2,350,320
065 052 Daughtry - Daughtry 7,657 -19% 9,423 4,236,434
114 071 Jordin Sparks - Jordin Sparks 5,244 -25% 7,000 921,833
153 049 Kristy Lee Cook - Why Wait 3,789 -60% 9,548 13,341
Total sales in bold.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Poll of the week: Diana favorite Broadway star
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%)
Total votes: 63
'Idol' Hot 100 - "Crush" #20 (10/11/08)
For the second week in a row "Crush" led all Idol-related tracks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of Oct. 11. David Archuleta's single dropped five spots to #20, only one spot ahead of Jordin Sparks' "One Step At a Time," which slid #19-21.
Continuing its upward streak was Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight," which jumped into the Top 40 this week at #36, up from #41 the previous week. Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream" held steady at #43 while David Cook's "The Time of My Life" neared the end of its run in the Top 50 following a #48-49 drop. Daughtry's "What About Now" rounded out Idol-related track on the Hot 100 inching up one spot to #54.
Full chart positions courtesy of bks over on Pulse are posted below:
Hot 100
20 15 David Archuleta, "Crush"
21 19 Jordin Sparks, "One Step At a Time"
36 41 Jennifer Hudson, "Spotlight"
43 43 Carrie Underwood, "Just a Dream"
49 48 David Cook, "The Time of My Life"
54 55 Daughtry, "What About Now"
Digital sales roundup: "Crush" #12 (9/27/08)
David Archuleta led all Idol alums on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart, as "Crush" fell two spots to #12. The drop follows a 20% dip in sales to 71.6k for the week, pushing its total to 566.6k.
Labelmate Jordin Sparks followed with "One Step At a Time," which slid just 9% dropping #24-27. The single is slowly but surely marching toward platinum status, as its take of 44.7k places its total just shy of 750k.
Jennifer Hudson rounded out sales for Idol alums made public, as "Spotlight" inched ahead one spot as a result of a 3% sales increase to 13.2k for the week. It now stands at 144.6k. Next week should see improvement for the single, as Jennifer's debut album hit stores yesterday and "Spotlight" has been climbing on iTunes ever since.
Full numbers and chart positions courtesy of bks on Pulse as follows:
012 010 David Archuleta, "Crush" 71,631 -20% 90,005 566,629
027 024 Jordin Sparks, "One Step At a Time" 44,762 -9% 49,457 747,336
099 100 Jennifer Hudson, "Spotlight" 13,241 3% 12,875 144,611
Total sales in bold.
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