There were a few Idol-related shockers at the special (yet pointless) one-hour 51st Grammy Awards announcement special, most of them having to do with who wasn't nominated.
CBS shamelessly stretched out the televised announcements for a few select "important" categories in tonight's special, with only one nomination in a major category going to an alum. Jordin Sparks was nominated for her single "No Air" along with Chris Brown in the Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals category.
But it was Jennifer Hudson that got the most nominations for an alum, as her "Spotlight" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song, her duet with Fantasia of "I'm His Only Woman" received a nom for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals and her debut album, Jennifer Hudson, got a nomination for Best R&B Album.
One of the more surprisingly revelations was how few nominations Carrie Underwood received. She was able to manage a nom for "Last Name" in the Best Female Country Vocal Performance category and for "Ever Ever After" from Enchanted in the Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media category.
Full Idol-related category list follows:
Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals
* Lesson Learned - Alicia Keys & John Mayer
* 4 Minutes - Madonna, Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
* Rich Woman - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
* If I Never See Your Face Again -Rihanna & Maroon 5
* No Air - Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
* Me, Myself And I - Beyoncé
* Heaven Sent - Keyshia Cole
* Spotlight - Jennifer Hudson
* Superwoman - Alicia Keys
* Need U Bad - Jazmine Sullivan
Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
* Ribbon In The Sky - Boyz II Men
* Words - Anthony David Featuring India.Arie
* Stay With Me (By The Sea) - Al Green Featuring John Legend
* I'm His Only Woman - Jennifer Hudson Featuring Fantasia
* Never Give You Up - Raphael Saadiq Featuring Stevie Wonder & CJ Hilton
Best R&B Song
* Bust Your Windows - Salaam Remi & Jazmine Sullivan, songwriters (Deandre Way, songwriter) (Jazmine Sullivan)
* Customer - I. Barias, Raheem DeVaughn, C. Haggins, K. Oliver & J. Smith, songwriters (Raheem DeVaughn)
* Heaven Sent - Keyshia Cole, Jason Farmer & Alex Francis, songwriters (Keyshia Cole)
* Miss Independent - M.S. Eriksen, T.E. Hermansen & S. Smith, songwriters (Ne-Yo)
* Spotlight - Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen & Shaffer Smith, songwriters (Jennifer Hudson)
Best R&B Album
* Love & Life - Eric Benét
* Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA - Boyz II Men
* Lay It Down - Al Green
* Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson
* The Way I See It - Raphael Saadiq
Best Female Country Vocal Performance
* For These Times - Martina McBride
* What I Cannot Change - LeAnn Rimes
* Last Name - Carrie Underwood
* Last Call - Lee Ann Womack
* This Is Me You're Talking To - Trisha Yearwood
Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media
* Down To Earth (From Wall-E) - Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman, songwriters (Peter Gabriel)
* Ever Ever After (From Enchanted) - Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz, songwriters (Carrie Underwood)
* Say (From The Bucket List) - John Mayer, songwriter (John Mayer)
* That's How You Know (From Enchanted) - Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz, songwriters (Amy Adams)
* Walk Hard (From Walk Hard — The Dewey Cox Story) - Judd Apatow, Marshall Crenshaw, Jake Kasdan & John C. Reilly, songwriters (John C. Reilly)
The real travesty was the fact that Leona Lewis lost out to the Jonas Brothers in the Best New Artist category. Truly an embarrassment to the music industry.
A full list of nominees for all 110 categories can be found on Grammy.com. The 51st annual Grammy Awards will air on CBS on Mon., Feb. 8 at 8 p.m.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
'Idol' alums nominated for 51st Grammys
'Idol' Hot 100 - "Crush" #27 (12/13/08)
The Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of Dec. 13 was once again sparsely populated with tracks by Idol alums.
For the umpteenth time in as many weeks, David Archuleta's "Crush" led all other tracks by former finalists, as it fell four spots to #27. Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight" also took a bit of a downturn, as it fell #25-33.
Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream" followed the negative trend as it fell eight spots to #44. And David Cook topped off all Idol-related tracks with "Light On," which reversed the downward trend by zooming ahead 31 spots to #60.
Full chart positions courtesy of bks over on Pulse are posted below:
Hot 100
27 23 David Archuleta, "Crush"
33 25 Jennifer Hudson, "Spotlight"
44 36 Carrie Underwood, "Just a Dream"
60 91 David Cook, "Light On"
Daughtry to perform at inaugural ball
Daughtry will perform at one of the million-and-a-half inaugural balls being held for president-elect Barack Obama from Jan. 20-21, 2009. Rebecca Patterson of Sikeston, Mo., will be one of the lucky few to see him perform (Daughtry, not Obama) at the ball, as reported by KFVS Heartland News 12:
She will attend the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009. Besides watching the swearing in, she'll also attend on the black-tie inaugural balls with headline entertainment from American Idol singer Chris Daughtry.Although she said seeing Obama being sworn in is going to be "memorable" and that she will "tell [her] grandkids about [it] one day," IDOL LIVE is willing to bet she is secretly more excited to see Chris.
Digital sales roundup: "Crush" #22 (11/29/08)
Only two tracks by Idol alums made appearances on the published portion of the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart, once again led by David Archuleta's "Crush." The single rebounded a bit with a 6% rise in sales to 48.7k downloads for the week, marking an advancement of #22-19. Its total now stands at 1.086 million.
David Cook's "Light On" was the only other track to make it on the visible part of the chart, as it surprisingly jumped 80% to 20.3k downloads. This movement was undoubtedly the result of a pickup in promotion, as the single went ahead 31 spots to land at #67 for the week. Its total is now 279k.
Full numbers and chart positions courtesy of bks on Pulse as follows:
22 19 David Archuleta, "Crush" 48,681 6% 45,845 1,086,183
67 98 David Cook, "Light On" 20,300 80% 11,286 278,953
Total sales are in bold.
Kat: "I'm not making a country record, dont worry!"
Katharine McPhee caught up with a few fans on the streets of New York City a few days ago to sign autographs before getting into a car. When mentioning the fact that she was working on her sophomore album in Nashville, Kat blurted out "I'm not making a country record, don't worry!" as if that was a real concern. Watch the exchange below:
Just the thought of Kat singing "When God Fearin' Women Get the Blues" is a bit off-putting, but it's good to know she's working on music. Hopefully it will be more in the vein of her Japan Airlines commercial jingle than her offering on The House Bunny's soundtrack.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
HITS estimates: Cook 108.6k, Arch 68.2k
In a traditionally healthy week for album sales, David Cook saw his album plummet while David Archuleta saw his rise modestly according to HITS Daily Double's estimates released today. Cook's self-titled major label debut fell #3-10, down 62% from last week's take with 108.6k copies.
Although this might seem alarming considering the week is supposed to be extremely healthy for music sales in general, the drop is in line with second-week drops of similarly large releases. To put it into perspective, Beyonce's I Am...Sasha Fierce dropped 50% from its opening last week, while Nickelback's Dark Horse decreased by 47%.
Arch on the other hand saw a slight increase in his debut album's take according to estimates, as David Archuleta rose 8% to 68.2k copies, placing it at #18 for the week.
Although both Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride and Jennifer Hudson's self-titled album appeared on the building sales chart before the final update, neither was able to finish in the Top 50.
Finalized figures from Billboard should be out by tomorrow night.
Britneymania brings Marque Lynch mention
In the highly anticipated (and very disappointing) MTV documentary on Britney Spears Britney: For the Record, which premiered on the network on Sunday, an old Idol hopeful's name came up (at 7:05 in the video below) over dinner in New York City when the actor mentioned he had previously starred in the Broadway production of The Lion King.
Marque Lynch, who was in Group 1 during the Top 32 in Season 3, was referenced by a Broadway actor from the show In the Heights while he was eating dinner with Britney, a name she immediately recognized. On the show, Marque performed "Wind Beneath My Wings."
Although this might seem strange at first glance, it is not as obscure as one might think. Before auditioning for Idol, Marque was a regular castmember on Disney's The New Mickey Mouse Club with Britney, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and even Ryan Gosling. See him perform Tevin Campbell's "Always In My Heart" from the show with Timberlake and Gosling below:
How's the for six degrees of Idol-nation?
Monday, December 1, 2008
Cook on 'Ellen'
The episode that was taped last week featuring David Cook on Ellen aired this morning. In his sit-down with Ellen, Cook chatted about his current activities and was treated to the now viral video of David Archuleta fangirls going into self-destruct mode following the announcement that Cook had won Idol. He then performed "Light On." Watch the performance below:
Following his performance, Cook was given the opportunity to dunk Dr. Drew Pinsky of Celebrity Rehab in a Sara Lee dunk tank. Although he didn't have the greatest aim, he was able to walk up to the target and press it, sending Dr. Drew into a world of wet. All in a day's work for Cook.
Keeping up with Frenchie Davis
Season 2's outspoken Aretha-like axed contestant Frenchie Davis was an early front runner until racy photos of her leaked. Despite the fact that she was never really able to compete on Idol the way she was supposed to, Frenchie has been able to secure a foothold in the entertainment industry regardless and has become a person of authority when it comes to discussing the show.
Like many Idol alums, Frenchie has found her niche in musical theatre. Having played a multitude of parts in the Broadway production of RENT beginning in 2003, Frenchie was perhaps best know for the soloist in "Seasons of Love." After taking a break to play the role of Effie in a west coast tour of Dreamgirls in 2004 prior to Jennifer Hudson immortalizing the role, Frenchie returned to RENT where she stayed until May 2007.
Frenchie has taken time to experiment in the recording studio as well, where she has recorded "Silent Night" for the Idol compilation album American Christmas, which was released Nov. 25.
She can now be found starring in the 30th anniversary national tour of Ain't Misbehavin', which will is scheduled to run until spring 2009. Former fellow Season 2 alums Ruben Studdard and Trenyce are also starring in the production.
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