January 2007 News Archive (Page 3)

Don't look for Joss Stone to be judging any American Idol auditions in the future.

The singer has revealed that she turned down an offer to appear as a guest judge on the show.

The 19-year-old singer was invited on the show by Simon Cowell, but refused because she is opposed to the "cruel" nature of TV talent searches."I find these shows far too cruel," Joss said. "Music should be allowed to develop naturally."

Stone's third album, Introducing Joss Stone, will be released in March. We'd pretty sure she'd have agreed that Sundance Head has a big future, though.

Ace Young wants to know whether he's really connecting with his fans.

"I need to know if 'it' is working," he said to The Grand Rapids Press before meeting nearly 1,200 fans who congregated Saturday outside Van Andel Arena.

At least two fans believe Young's link with his fans is in fine form.

"He represents everybody, and he's so down to earth," said Michelle Flint, 26, of Grand Rapids, who was waiting to meet the former American Idol contestant before his appearance at the first intermission of the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game.

"Ace is so nice, and he hasn't let his fame go to his head," said Brittany Duba, 18, of Grand Rapids.

Young, who finished seventh during last season's American Idol contest, was excited about sharing songs old and new with the sold-out crowd.

"I'm singing 'Scattered,' my first single, and 'Dream On' by Aerosmith," he said. "I want my fans to know you can always dream for the future."

As much as the Denver native is thrilled about performing and writing music with Desmond Child for a forthcoming album, his greatest joy is in giving back through his charitable efforts.

"On my website, I feature some kids with cancer, and one of them, McKenzie, is 3, and she just relapsed and needs a bone marrow transplant," he said.

"To see so many of my fans get tested to see if they are a match is amazing."

Because of his brother's car accident ten years ago, Young is especially sensitive to the needs of families with hospitalized children.

Along with his fan club, Highrollers with Heart, Young has raised more then $80,000 for a "family amenities" area at Denver Children's Hospital.

Keep those chins up, Sundance Head, Porcelana Patino and other American Idol Six contestants: Even if you don't win this season, there are big things ahead.

Just ask former, supposed losers on the show.

Bucky Covington (pictured) said he likes to think he wasn't "kicked-off" as a finalist on the fifth season of American Idol. He described it as being "invited to leave."

"I definitely got the boot, hard. But, hey, you know, the good thing about American Idol is you don't have to win it to do something with it. I think that's the biggest thing about the show is that a lot of people that don't win still end up [with entertainment] careers," Covington said during Thursday night's broadcast of CNN's Larry King Live.

Kimberly Caldwell said when she was eliminated from the second season of Idol as one its finalists, it took a while to sink in.

"When it first happened, I just thought, you know, I'll go back to the house and I'll just, you know, practice my song and come back next week and sing Cher. But that didn't happen," Caldwell told King. "So, I mean, yes, it was sad at first. It really was. And then I realized, listen, I can take this opportunity and I can make it into something for myself or I can decide to go back to Katy, Texas and sit there and try to sing at like a local pub. And that's not what I wanted for myself. So I decided to take the bigger step and stay in Los Angeles and really pursue everything."

Caldwell said she's been "really lucky" since that day she left Idol, first landing a job on Fox Sports' 54321 television show and later as co-host of the TV Guide Channel's Idol Tonight. She's also working on a "country rock" album, just filmed a movie in Vancouver and is the new spokesmodel for Michael Antonio shoes, the catalogue of which just came out and was seen by original runner-up Justin Guarini.

"It looks good. It looked very good," said Guarini about Caldwell's appearance in the catalogue.

Guarini said although he finished second to Kelly Clarkson during Idol's inaugural season, the experience was definitely worth it. He's currently working on his third album, just finished filming the movie Fast Girl and will be co-hosting the upcoming second season of Idol Tonight alongside Caldwell.

"Honestly, [American Idol] gave all of us the keys to a career. I mean you can't buy the sort of exposure that we got on that show," Guarini told King. "And, I mean, the fact that this is a reality TV show that is based on talent, not about stabbing some teammate in the back...It's not about some wacky family versus some other wacky family. It's about talent and it's about America choosing who they want to hear and see on the radio."

Continue Reading...

We've already reported how traffic across search engines has taken off on terms such as "American Idol auditions" and "Paula Abdul drunk."

Now, American Idol Six hopefuls that have made it to Hollywood are jumping on the online bandwagons. The following contestants have had domain names registered already, as they plan ahead for future websites:

• Sundance Head
• Amanda Coluccio
• Antonella Barba
• Jenry Bejarano
• Porcelana Patino
• Rachel Zevit
• Anna Kearns
• Sanjaya Malakar
• Shyamali Malakar

As Paris Bennett prepares to release her album in March, she found time to sit with Entertainment Weekly and discuss American Idol auditions so far ...

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: With the new season of American Idol, do you have any favorites so far?
Paris Bennett: I've only seen the first two shows, so it may change, but I liked Jared Fowler, from Minneapolis. He was the guy in the Navy, and he can really sing. Doing that Rascal Flats song, he was great.

Do you miss being on the show?
Not at all. I'm not into that whole compete-for-your-talent thing... I want to know how long this can go on. It's going to start repeating itself, finding the same people over and over until you've seen it all. They already have an Idol in every genre. How long is it before you're bored and it just becomes a popularity contest?

What do you make of Paula's recent behavior?
I saw the footage and laughed. Everybody makes mistakes, and she's only human. People give her such grief, but I love [Paula Abdul]. And all that stuff makes for great TV.

You got asked to judge auditions for a New Orleans high school production of Dreamgirls. How was it to sit on the other side?
I wasn't harsh, but I tried to keep it real. I would say, ''Singing's not for you,'' or, ''Do you have another talent? Maybe poetry? Keep that one.'' But the kids were amazing. McDonald High School is the first all-black performing arts school in New Orleans, and they lost their theater equipment after Hurricane Katrina, so they're raising money to get it all back and be one of the first high schools to put on Dreamgirls as a play.

I have a lot of respect for those kids, who are living in trailers and trying to go to school without enough teachers to teach them. It was a big learning experience for me.

Tell us about your upcoming album.
It's very pop, but at the same time, it could be played at any club. The songs are all about me - things that relate to my life, my issues about not having a dad around, negative influences of people around me, and relationships in general.

Any featured guests?
Kevin Covais is on my record. He does a rap.

Kevin, as in ''Chicken Little?''
Yes. We're good friends and decided to do this sweet, funny interlude called ''Let Me Rap.'' What the world doesn't know is that he can really rap! He should do a rap record.

What about your nickname, Princess P — what is its origin?
I was the first girl grandchild in my family. That's where it comes from, but it definitely suits my personality. My motto is that the world has been officially princessed, which means I've basically put you in my world, where everyone should live a life of royalty and love themselves.

Are you happy with American Idol so far this year? Auditions such as Sundance Head, Sarah Krueger and Melinda Doolittle have you excited for future rounds?

Us, too.

Nevertheless, there's always room for improvement. Courtesy of a Philadelphia American Idol blogger, here are ways one fan would enhance the show:

Let the Dawg be the Dawg. I love the grouchy, self-aggrandizing Randy Jackson who’s worked with every artist in the known world and who so shuns actual musical theory that he has devised his own music vocabulary for the show. He shouldn’t try to “impress” us with things like “proper grammar” or “actual words” or “lines of thought.” We want the “dudes.” We want the “dawgs.” We want the “dope.”

Let Paula be Paula. No one likes a sober, coherent Paula Abdul. When it’s week four of the finals and all the contestants are butchering Randy Newman song after Randy Newman song, the prospect of a quote from Paula like, “Sometimes when I’m a princess in…where…smoky banjo,” is all we have to keep us tuned in.

Let loose the Seacrest. It’s been said that it seems like Seacrest is auditioning for a spot on The Office with all of his pregnant pauses and eye rolls. I miss the talky spin doctor who is the glue that holds the whole darn mess together. And I’m sick of the T-shirts. You’re Ryan Seacrest. Suit up, for Pete’s sake.

Let the contestants sing duets (at least one week). That’s the exact sort of thing that makes for great drama on Nigel Lythgoe’s other, far superior brain trust, So You Think You Can Dance. It would also open up our American Idol world to a whole wealth of new songs and it would be a great way to mix things up during the top 24 round.

Tell Simon to quit phoning it in. His quips have gotten stale. We should all play a drinking game for whenever Simon says “cabaret” or “Broadway” or “old-fashioned” or “Portuguese dinner theater.” Hopefully he’ll come back all fresh and sparkly when the show is live again with fresh, new phrases like “Bolivian dinner theater."

American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry will perform a free concert in downtown Greensboro on March 23.

Greensboro Coliseum officials organized the show as a prelude to the NCAA women's basketball tournament games on March 24 and 26; they hope the concert helps the city's bid to host the 2012 women's Final Four.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 people are expected to attend the concert.

Daughtry, meanwhile, just achieved the top ranking on the Billboard album sales chart. It's an impressive feat for a CD that's been out for over two months already.

Her audition wasn't as stirring as that of Sundance Head.

But Sarah Burgess did capture many hearts with her tale of persistence. Watch the clip below and see how she fled to New York auditions against the wishes of her parents - and the wowed the judges:

Having received flak for supposedly being too mean during American Idol auditions, the snarkiest judge of them all is actually hearing praise now.

The Special Olympics has put out a statement commending American Idol for not going soft on one of their own. It especially applauds Simon Cowell for how he reponded to Jonathan Jayne during auditions on the show’s premiere.

The statement reads:

While polite isn’t a word one would normally associate with Cowell and company, a viewing of the episode in question shows that the judges were in fact gracious and very encouraging to Jayne during his rendition of "God Bless America.” At one point, [co-judge Paula] Abdul commented admiringly about Jayne’s spirit and advised him to ‘Always believe in yourself.’” […]

[P]eople with intellectual disabilities don’t want to be pitied. They want to be judged for who they are and appreciated for what they can achieve. American Idol should be commended for providing Jayne with the same opportunity to succeed as any other contestant.

We agree. It's nice to see common sense portrayed in response to Simon and the judges, as opposed to the knee-jerk reaction that honestly is always cruel.

Are American Idol auditions judged too meanly this season? It's been a common source of contention.

TV critic, Dalton Ross, of Entertainment Weekly, however, doesn't blame Simon, Randy or Paula. He actually says they've been nicer than ever on some occasions. Check out what else he recently wrote:

Another season of American Idol auditions means another season filled with incompetent singers cluelessly showcasing their wares for an entire country.

But this year, something seems different. According to everything I've read and everyone I talk to, the judges of American Idol have suddenly gotten a lot meaner, lighting into contestants like never before. Frankly, this is hogwash.

Go back and watch season one - Simon was just as rude and crude as he is now. I don't see any difference there at all. That's not to imply that this season of Idol has not been meaner than past ones; it's just that the judges are not the ones to blame. The producers are.

Remember, it's not Simon, Randy, and Paula weeding out who makes it onto TV from the tens of thousands of applicants. The producers take care of that. They are the ones that pick out the people who make it before the holy trinity. Their job basically seems to consist of sorting stadiums full of auditioners into three groups, which are:

Group 1: The Really, Really Good
These people have genuine talent and are sent in to Simon, Randy, and Paula to see if they are worthy of being addressed as ''dawg'' and sent to Hollywood. We'd count Sundance Head, Sarah Krueger and Kia Thorton in this group.

Group 2: The Really, Really Bad
These people have no talent whatsoever, yet are also sent in to Simon, Randy, and Paula as a form of comic relief. Their badness dominates the first few weeks of the show and enables us, the viewers, to feel better about ourselves through the mocking of others.

Group 3: Everyone else
Most people fall into this category — the mild, the mediocre, the middle-of-the-road. These people are dismissed on the spot since they are neither good enough to stand a chance at winning, nor bad enough to provide any good laughs.

Where this season's Idol differs from previous ones is that the people in Group 2 have gone from ''really, really bad'' to really, really sad. Some of the contestants being brought in front of the judges (and, in turn, a national audience) are clearly in need of help — and I'm not talking about vocal training.

Nicholas Zitzman went beyond merely socially awkward, and there was something vaguely non-human about Darwin ''Mischa'' Reedy and her practically identical mother. But the show sunk to a new low with another debatably dynamic duo: Jonathan Jayne and Kenneth Briggs.

Kenneth was the guy Simon compared to a monkey, calling the bug-eyed contestant a ''bush baby.'' Some saw that as unnecessarily harsh, but Simon has never pulled any punches in his commentary on contestants' looks. This is nothing new, and he has actually uttered comments much worse than that.

What made this situation different was the fact that Kenneth was even in the room to begin with, seeing as how he didn't — and I'm trying to be gentle here — appear to possess the highest IQ.

Which brings us to Jonathan Jayne. Jayne is a perfect example as to exactly why the judges are not to blame. For those who don't remember, Jonathan was the large guy who crooned ''God Bless America.'' Turns out he is a former Special Olympics participant.

Paula was typically kind after his somewhat excruciating performance, but it should be noted that Simon was as well, even saying ''You're a nice guy. I like you, but this is not the career path for you.'' Randy then thanked him for showing up. So why again are the judges under fire? Heck, even Special Olympics International praised them for being ''gracious and very encouraging.''

Yet the judges are still catching the heat, when it was the field producers who put Jayne in the room to begin with. If it was to see him mocked, then they are evil. If it was to chalk up an easy and compassionate story line, then they are merely shamelessly exploitative. Either way, it's pretty classless.

Now, let's move on before I emotionally shut down over the realization that I just wasted almost 700 words defending Paula freakin' Abdul.