December 2006 News Archive (Page 5)

The battle begins tomorrow. The most recent winner of American Idol, Taylor Hicks, will be releasing his first solo album.

Also hitting record stores across the nation: the latest effort from another Idol winner, Fantasia Barrino.

Which artist will sell more records? Which CD is better? A blogger over at Entertainment Weekly weighs in:

My gut feeling is that Taylor's week 1 sales will be a tad higher. After all, his season is freshest in American Idol fanatics' minds, and one should not underestimate how many fortysomething chicks out Christmas shopping for their families will be willing to part with a twenty-dollar bill to support their favorite gray-haired hip-swiveler.

That said, I think 'Tasia may move more CDs in the long haul.

I'm almost done listening to her new disc and I've heard at least four potential smashes she could use to follow up the fierce first single "Hood Boy" - "When I See You," "Uneligible," "Not the Way That I Do," and the insanely addictive "Baby Makin Hips."

As far as I'm concerned, Fantasia does for 'Tasia what Breakaway did for Kelly Clarkson; it transforms her from reality-TV sensation to full-fledged artist - and hopefully, a multiplatinum one at that.

To many critics, the winner of last year's American Idol wasn't actually the best singer.

Oddly enough, that victor himself - Taylor Hicks - would agree. He doesn't give credit to his ideal vocal stylings for the championship, but rather to hard work and focus.

"I won because all I did was sleep, eat and breathe music - nothing came at the expense of the music," he said to The New York Post. "I have focus, and I don't just mean when I was on American Idol. My focus goes back to when I was a struggling songwriter and performer."

Hicks first struggled in the juke joints around his home in Birmingham and in the seaside bars along Florida's Gulf Coast. In those pre-Idol years, he managed to knock out a couple of indie albums and resigned himself to the rolling-stone life of a traveling musician.

On his upcoming self-titled CD, "Taylor Hicks," the singer gives the hand-to-mike existence of band life a nod with a heartfelt cover of the early Marvin Gaye composition "Wherever I Lay My Hat." But all that devotion to craft hasn't done much for Hicks with the ladies.

"Trying to balance the music with a personal relationship has been tough on me over the years," he said.

Even worse, Hicks laments that he can't get a dog because he's moving out of his apartment.

"I'm as close you can get to a traveling musical gypsy, and that's all I ever wanted," he said. "For now, it's about my career. Being a performer comes first."

But he's not complaining. There's certainly no part of Taylor that wishes Katharine McPhee had beaten him out.

"It's been a whole lot of work. The learning curve has gotten larger. I've got a lot to learn about recording and performing besides what I already know," Hicks said.

According to Diana DeGarmo, runner-up in the 2004 American Idol, the Melbourne woman that stalked her was "trying to ruin my life ... [with] sadistic cruely."

Posing as a fan, the woman blackmailed and stalked DeGarmo.

In a statement to Victorian detectives witnessed by an FBI agent, DeGarmo said Tanya Maree Quattrocchi unleashed a "text message war," while also placing hundreds of phone calls and attacks on her email accounts earlier this year.

DeGarmo said she felt trapped by Quattrocchi who "terrorized me for almost five months of my life that I can never get back." The criminal pled guilty yesterday to a charge of blackmail and stalking.

The troubling events began when DeGarmo accepted Quattrocchi, who posed as a teenage girl from Minnesota, into her MySpace account in February. After replying to a series of questions about American Idol and her singing, DeGarmo was continually pursued by this supposed fan, as she asked for personal information before posing as the singer and tricking the site's server into supplying her password.

According to a police summary, between March and June, Quattrocchi rang DeGarmo 369 times and text-messaged her 570 times.

In April, Quattrocchi emailed the singer's producer pretending to be her and was given two of her unreleased songs she later threatened to release publicly if DeGarmo did not meet her online.

"No matter how many times I changed my passwords or tried to keep my information safe, she would always break back in," the American Idol finalist said of her stalker.
After Quattrocchi was arrested on June 30, she told police she knew DeGarmo wanted her to leave her alone, but did not believe she was a stalker. She said she never planned to release the songs; it was a ploy so DeGarmo would contact her.

Ryan Seacrest recently sat down with Access Hollywood.

He talked about American Idol returning to TV in January - and noted that despite five seasons of picking through the country's most talented and untalented pool, the sixth series will still be packed with drama.

"When we set out to audition the contestants this year I think some of us thought, what's gonna be left? We've done this for so many seasons and we were fulfilled," he said. "We saw plenty of naïve talent [and] we saw plenty of good talent, so it's gonna make for a very, very dynamic audition series."

Seacrest said this year he's gotten fairly good at spotting contestants who audition for the exposure despite a lack of talent. He also found, especially on the West Coast, a large number of candidates who were unaware they had singing deficiencies.

"I know in Seattle specifically we got tired of a few of these contestants that were just from another planet," he told a gathering of reporters Thursday. "We have been surprised this year that even those who we thought were putting us on we're really naïve and believed they were talented enough to make it to a second round of the show."

American Idol also came across a rather determined group of auditionees during try-outs.

"You will see some of the most aggressive contestants," Seacrest noted. "More so than ever, the contestants who came out to audition came out to win and will let nothing stand in their way."

But enough about the talent pool. Ryan weighed in on what we can expect from Judge Simon Cowell, too.

"He's become grumpier," Seacrest said. "It's strange because he's getting richer, but he's getting grumpier. It doesn't seem like it adds up."

When it comes to post-American Idol careers, a certain movie title comes to mind: From Justin to Kelly not only stands as the worst after-Idol decision ever, but the title perfectly sums up the divide between what can happen if things go terribly wrong or terrifically right.

MTV.com recently reported on the direction careers can take once FOX cameras top rolling.

Justin Guarani has had the most disastrous career of any former winner or runner-up since Idol began. Meanwhile, Kelly Clarkson has arguably had the greatest, with her third album one of the most anticipated releases of 2007.

So what did Kelly do right and Justin do wrong? It's not easy to pinpoint, but it's safe to say translating American Idol fame into legitimate stardom is no easy task. Fortunately — with Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler and other Idol alumni attempting to launch careers this fall — those who have been there were willing to share some lessons learned.

American Idol advice
"Really stick to what got you to the finals," Guarini offered. "That's the most important thing. I think that at times with my first album, it was a little bit of 'throw it at the wall and see what sticks,' whereas I hope with these guys, they're going to stick with the sound that got them there."

Since parting ways with the management and record label associated with Idol, Guarini has juggled managers (including Jennifer Lopez mastermind Benny Medina) and publicists, something season-three finalist Jennifer Hudson cautioned against."You wanna have everything in place, make sure you've got your whole team together, because you're gonna need that support behind you," said Hudson, who is garnering Oscar buzz for her role in Dreamgirls after a slow start. "Just be ready, because it's gonna be crazy. You're gonna be thrown back out into the world, but you're not gonna be that same Jennifer that nobody knew."

Like Hudson, fellow season-three finalist Jon Peter Lewis failed to get a major-label contract right out of the gate (although Hudson just inked a deal with Clive Davis' Arista Records), but he's since self-released an album and is touring regularly.

"I would say that anybody from Idol, winner or loser, has to learn to take good advice," JPL said. "There's a lot of people who are gonna tell you a lot of things, and you gotta look past the B.S. and listen to people when they have a good thing to say."

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We already knew that Elliott Yamin had a great voice.

Now, thanks to the fame he earned on American Idol, the singer has a great, new look as well.

On the show, Yamin mentioned that diabetes had rotted his teeth and he was left with a crooked smile as he belted out tunes that most fans gobbled up (just not enough to have him defeat eventual winner, Taylor Hicks).

"The next thing you know I got offers from dentists all over the country to fix my teeth for free," Elliott said.

And so it's been done. Yamin, who has just landed a new publishing deal with Sony, has many things to smile about in life. Including shiny new, beautiful teeth!

Following her performance at the Billboard Music Awards this week, Paris Bennett sat down with TeenMusic.com. Here's a summary of that interview:

TeenMusic: Did you go on the American Idol tour after the show was over?
Paris: I went on the tour this summer and now I'm getting ready for a promotional tour coming up on my own. We're all kind of on our own now and separated and I'm kind of sad but I get a chance to see them all. Lisa and me are best friends so I get to see her and [Kevin Covais] when I got to New York. I get to see everybody at least once or twice a month. I miss them all. That was my new family.

TeenMusic: Where are you from?
Paris: Fayetteville, Georgia. My family is still there.

TeenMusic: What's coming up next for you?
Paris: I have my new album coming out which is called "Princess P." My first single is "Dreamin'" coming out next week. The album comes out in February. We haven't done a video yet but we're getting ready. Basically, it's about my American Idol experience, my life before and life after. I'm co-writing it. This being my first album, I'm co-writing with Ray Issac, a new guy. I have a producer doing writing with me.

TeenMusic: Holiday Plans?
Paris: For Christmas, I'll be on the Disney cruise. Me and Bianca Ryan are performing on the cruise and my family is going to come and join me on the cruise. Disney has their own island. We're going to go to St. Lucia and it is fabulous. I only have to sing one day on the cruise so I'm going to get some rest and chill out.

TeenMusic: One thing you want for Christmas?
Paris: You know, Reggie Bush but I don't think...[laughs]. I really want is a Playstation 3 but I'm waiting to see what's in the box and under the tree for me.

TeenMusic: Who are you rooting for for the awards? Or, who do you wish was nominated?
Paris: I'm not sure of all the nominees but Fergie should be nominated and All American Rejects for sure. Okay Go really needs one for video. Ciara, Chris Brown and Ne-Yo.

TeenMusic: Who were you listening to as a teen?
Paris: Gladys Knight, Sarah Vaughn, Billy Holiday, Etta James. I'm a little person with an old soul so I go way back, Aretha Franklin.

TeenMusic: Who do you wish you could spend a day in Vegas with?Paris: Gladys Knight, just being in her presence is all I really want. I would do anything to hang out with Gladys Knight. She's my favorite.TeenMusic: Message to your fans?
Paris: Keep dreaming, be you.

At the premiere for Dreamgirls last night, Jennifer Hudson more than held her own on the red carpet. She stood out, even, among other stars such as Beyonce.

Co-star Jamie Foxx said:"We are now watching a star – Jennifer Hudson – that's being born ..."

Amen.

As December 12 and the release date for his new album nears, we're receiving more information on songs Taylor Hicks will be covering.

The American Idol Season Five champ will tackle tunes written by Bryan Adams, Rob Thomas and Marvin Gaye on his upcoming self-titled effort.

Here are a few selections from the upcoming CD:

• "Ain't That Peculiar," originally performed by Gaye
• "Wherever I Lay My Hat," written by Gaye
• "Dream Myself Awake," by Thomas

"Soul Thing" and "The Deal" were both written by Hicks and released on his second independent album before he tried out for the FOX show.

One ... two ... three ... four ... five.

No, we're not counting how many albums Chris Daughtry has sold (that would be A LOT more than five).

But we did almost run out of fingers on one hand for the number of trophies Carrie Underwood took home last night at the Billboard Music Awards. The American Idol victor won for Country Album of the Year and Country Artist of the Year.

Paula Abdul presented at the show.