As we wish readers a very happy holiday season, we also wanted to remind everyone that we've updated our American Idol Music section.
It now includes recent releases, such as:
We hope everyone has a safe, healthy holiday. And remember: the new season of American Idol kicks off January 16. We can't wait.
With NBC's "Grease: You're The One That I Want weeks away from its debut, American Idol producer Simon Cowell has announced he will similarly cast the leads for a West End production of that fifties-friendly musical.
Cowell's production company, Syco TV, will co-produce the show slated to air on ITV. The stage production is scheduled to hit the West End in summer 2007.
Producer David Ian â who will appear as a judge on "Grease: You're The One That I Want" â has also been lined up to appear as the lead judge on the new ITV show. The impresario will also produce the stage show with Paul Nicholas and TalkbackThames.
ITV and Cowell secured the stage rights for Grease for a London West End run. The show will witness auditioners competing for the leads of Sandy and Danny in the forthcoming production.
Who knows, if an American Idol singer from season six doesn't win it all this year, maybe he/she now has a back up plan ...
Apparently at universities in the south, geography is not widely taught, as southern gentleman Clay Aiken has yet to discover the Pacific Northwest is part of America. Hence, if you wish to hear Clay sing, and hail from that unfortunate corner of the U.S., pack your bags, check your boarding pass, and hop on the nearest plane for the East Coast.
Clay Aiken is currently singing with several symphony orchestras as a guest artist for this mini-Christmas tour, which kicked off December 1 in snowy Illinois - necessitating a last minute change of plans to leave his 28th birthday celebration and head to Chicago a day early.
The tour will finish in Greensboro, N.C. on the 23rd, just in time to celebrate Christmas at his new home in Raleigh.
I caught up with the tour in Baltimore after a lovely red-eye flight from the Pacific Northwest. Clay is touring without his usual back-up singers and band, though he is traveling with his music director, Jesse Vargas, from his first Joyful Noise tour in 2004.
In each city, the symphony plays anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, and then Clay sings the second half with the orchestra providing the musical accompaniment. The set list comprises songs from his first Christmas CD, Merry Christmas With Love, and four lovely additions from his Wal-Mart exclusive EP, All Is Well.
Clay is in a league of his own with Christmas carols, and this tour proves as much. His range has grown each year of his career, and the finale, "All Is Well" is a how-to primer on soft, low notes sung with passion up to the soaring, glory notes well above a tenor's range.
In each city, while Clay might have crossed his fingers and planted his feet for luck in hitting that final note, the audience shot to its feet and screamed in appreciation as he hit it. Even more impressive is that for the last week, Clay has been suffering from a debilitating inner ear infection that has given him vertigo and dizziness.
We're guessing that Elliott Yamin likes his new teeth.
According to People magazine, the American Idol fianlist also says "holiday movies" get him in a festive mood. As for his DVD collection, Yamin says National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation always makes him cheery.
A pair of the most beloved contestants from last season's American Idol will soon be making their marks in parades and carnivals.
First, we reported on the upcoming performance of Katharine McPhee in the Rose Parade.
Now, the actual winner last year, Taylor Hicks will reign as the Krewe of Endymion's grand marshal for the 2007 Carnival season. The gray-haired, 30-year-old soul singer from Birmingham, Ala., will be leading a contingent that includes singer Al Green and the musical groups Journey and Styx in the parade.
Hicks was in New Orleans for a wedding just before Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005. With his flight out of town canceled, he took a cab to West Monroe and turned his free plane ticket into an American Idol audition trip to Las Vegas.
Endymion is among the city's largest Carnival groups. For Carnival 2006, Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd served as co-grand marshals. The parade has hundreds of participants and roughly 30 floats.
Endymion will roll down historic St. Charles Avenue on Feb. 17, the Saturday before Mardi Gras, which is Feb. 20.
Katharine McPhee will be doing a first-ever in the Rose Parade New Year's morning.
She'll be singing live from a float. That's right: no lip-syncing will be involved at all.
The sponsors of the float, LifeSource Water Systems, say this will be the first live vocal performance from an entertainment float in Rose Parade history. And what better person to set the standard than this former American Idol favorite?
The float is called "Clean Water." On it, McPhee will be in the middle of a lush garden setting, standing between a giant leaping frog and a working faucet gushing 400 gallons a minute of water.
Sounds like fun to us! A reminder, while we're here: Katharine's album is now due to come out January 30.
The self-titled album of Taylor Hicks came in at No. 2 on the Billboard chart, selling more than 298,000 copies in its debut week. There's good news and not-so-good news embedded in that figure.
Good news: In today's depressed record-sales market, 298,000 is something to be proud of. If his sales pattern holds, he should rack up a healthy total in weeks and months to come.
Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have both enjoyed steady sales that are the envy of most artists - and Taylor's debut number is right in their neighborhood (just slightly higher than Kelly's for her first album, a bit less than Carrie's).
Not so good news: He didn't debut at No. 1, being thumped by Young Jeezy's 352,000. Kelly and Ruben, among American Idol winners, did hit No. 1 on their first week (as did Clay).
On the other hand, Carrie also came in at No. 2 and Fantasia debuted at No. 8. So one can never know.
The scales of American Idol may have tipped in Ruben Studdardâs favor in 2003, but there are other scales he would like to tip a bit less.
After shedding almost 100 pounds, the Birmingham native and American Idol champ says he wants to help other residents of Alabama to lose weight. Heâs asking the 25 percent of the stateâs residents who are obese to lose 10 pounds in eight weeks â a total of 10 million pounds.
Since committing to a weight-loss program this summer, Studdard has lost nearly 100 pounds, started eating healthier and begun exercising, according to a news release announcing the program.
âIâm not where I want to be, but Iâm on the right track, and Iâm excited about encouraging other Alabamians to begin their own weight-loss journeys,â said the 28-year-old singer, whose third album, "The Return,â was released in October by J Records.
Studdard told The Associated Press in a recent interview that he wanted to get in shape âbecause I have a family history of diabetes and high blood pressure and things of that nature.â
âI felt like it was necessary for me to combat those issues at a young age before it became a bigger issue. I went to this place called Duke Diet & Fitness Center for a month and learned how to change my eating habits.â
Scale Back Alabama, an eight-week weight-loss campaign, kicks off Jan. 4 with an event featuring the former American Idol. The campaign is being jointly sponsored by Alabamaâs hospitals, the Alabama Department of Public Health and Barber Diaries.
For those unaware, there has been recent controversy around Miss USA, Tara Conner. She was ordered to enter rehab in order to deal with a drug and alcohol problem.
We bring this up because one of the friends Conner made during her many nights out appears to have been Constantine Maroulis.
According to reports - and the attached picture of the two at a party - Maroulis and Conner spent a night on the town at a NYC pool hall last October, partying with pop singer Ryan Cabrera and Six Degrees star Jay Hernandez.
The evening was even caught on video camera by Maroulis, who looks straight into the lens and admits that they "have to get to some partying. You know how it is."
Sounds to us like Miss USA had some American Idol worshipping of her own going on for awhile!
We already talked about the big surprise.
Now, TMZ.com has exclusively obtained a script and production schedule for the new season of American Idol. Season Six contestants who make it to Hollywood will be put into singing groups and judged on their performances.
Contestants for the new season were asked to perform various musical numbers, including songs by the Bee Gees, Beach Boys, The Supremes and The Four Tops. Wannabe Idols are tossed into a film-style schedule, starting their day at 6:30 a.m and wrapping at 5:30 p.m.
One of the songs they are judged on? California Dreamin'. Seems apt for American Idol hopefuls, doesn't it?
