April 2007 News Archive (Page 3)

Carrie Underwood won a pair of country music awards earlier this week.

But some people are more concerned about the fashion choices of various celebrities. With that in mind, let's break down two country crooners from American Idol seasons past.

Carrie appears nice and understated, but Kellie Picker is practically falling out of her dress. Looks like those new "shoes" she bought recently are taking on a life of their own.

But what do you think, readers? Which look is better?

For the record: we don't care about the sexuality of Ryan Seacrest.

As long he continues his witty banter with Simon Cowell, we're pleased.

But some people care about this sort of thing. Such Seacrest himself, evidently. We overheard him whispering to Melinda Doolittle during the results show Wednesday night ...

We've already posted a review of the new Bucky Covington album. But here's a brief track-by-track critique of each of the songs on the CD ...

American Friday Night: Sets a recurrent theme of good-old-boy rural-life nostalgia, which may reflect Bucky's background but also forms the subject matter for every third song you hear on a country album these days. So if the song itself isn't gripping (this one comes close with its rock edge, but falls short), it becomes a little too familiar.

A Different World: The single, and I'm liking it better musically in the context of the album. A bit lush in the production, but a likable song, if one better suited to a sour old coot in the 50+ demographic than someone who just came off of American Idol.

I'll Walk: Only in country music do you get tearjerkers built on clever wordplay like this. Some people can't stand 'em, but I'm fascinated by the structure and the songwriting artistry (or, if you prefer, contrivances). Built around the title declaration, the song has, in the first verse, the female protagonist saying she'll walk home after a fight with the singer; then, after a speeding car deprives her of the use of her legs, she declares in the second verse that she'll walk again someday; finally, in the last verse, she looks up from her wheelchair as her daddy prepares to walk her down the aisle to be wed to the singer, and says -- you guessed it -- "I'll walk."

Back When We Were Gods: Nostalgia for the good old high school days, but merely a routine rocker.

Ain't No Thing: A dull, overlong, overproduced rocker that's almost saved by an impassioned guitar solo.

I'm Good: More clever wordplay, attached to a sprightly Southern pop tune that reminds me a little of Arthur Alexander's oldie (the hit was by Steve Alaimo) Every Day I Have to Cry.

Empty Handed: A morality tale that's probably the best rocker on the record.

Hometown: A bucolic, nostalgic reverie that sort of lulled me to sleep.

It's Good to Be Us: Promising, rockin' celebration of carefree, penniless youth (cf. Back When We Were Gods) that's let down by a strictly ordinary chorus.

Carolina Blue: Fond reminiscence about the girl the singer left behind in Carolina when he went to Hollywood. Sounds like a future single; strictly assembly-line country.

The Bible and the Belt: Tribute to the educational value of scriptures, gospel singing and corporal punishment, the second of which threatens to overpower a fairly slight rocker.

After being eliminated Wednesday night, Sanjaya Malakar sat down with Entertainment Weekly for an interview ...

Let's start with the positive. I love how you changed the lyrics of ''Something to Talk About'' to say ''other than hair'' instead of ''how about love.'' Did you plan that?
It was kind of on-the-spot. I was basically saying, ''Come on, America. There are so many more important things you can be talking about other than my hair.'' Because there are a lot of intense, important things going on. I just wanted to put that out there.

You hadn't even been in the bottom three for weeks, and then all of a sudden you got voted off. Were you shocked?
When I saw the show on Tuesday I felt like I was going home. I tend to be psychic because my name means ''Spiritual Psychic.'' If I am in any way, that was the point where it showed. I felt it in my bones that I was going home. On Wednesday I was just down in the dumps. People were coming up to me all day and saying ''What's wrong?'' I would say ''Nothing.'' I was just really quiet.

I love that you didn't try to hold back the tears after Ryan Seacrest announced you were going home.
It was sad. We've all become such a close family. We see each other all day, the contestants and the staff. To leave them is really hard. That's the hardest part of getting cut. When I was crying it wasn't even like I'm so sad for getting voted off. It was more that I was so sad to be leaving these people.

You hugged LaKisha Jones for a long time. Did she say anything that was especially comforting to you?
She just said, ''Stay strong and keep going because you're gonna be big.'' I really love every one of them with all my heart. I'm glad I was able to be in this show because they're all genuinely good people. It's hard to find people like that and I found it on a whim. I didn't even plan on auditioning. It was like, they're coming to the Seattle Center and I was like, ''Hey I can sing. Let's go!''

You're only 17 years old. I can't imagine having gone through everything you went through — for better and for worse — at 17. How did you cope?
My family was definitely a huge support and a really big reason I was able to stay for so long. Also, I didn't let things get to me. I knew if I did I would drive myself crazy. It's gonna happen. There are always haters and there is always support. If you focus on the hate it's gonna drive you crazy. I tried to focus on the positivity in everything, whether it was a negative comment or bad publicity. I tried to learn from everything that happened and being on this show was a huge learning experience.

Does that mean you found the positive in the Vote for the Worst website and the fact that Howard Stern wanted to bring the show down by encouraging his listeners to vote for you?
If someone is gonna vote for me on Vote for the Worst they're maybe gonna vote once or twice. Even if a million people vote once or twice, that's not going to make a dent in how the real fans vote. I feel like I got where I was because of my fans.

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The following report from this week's American Idol is courtesy of People magazine ...

Say What?! When Ryan Seacrest announced that Sanjaya Malakar was going home on Wednesday's show, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe gasped with surprise as he turned to Simon Cowell. The rest of the Idols were there to support a tearful Sanjaya: the remaining Top 6 made their way over to their fallen pal for one final group embrace.

And after the 17-year-old singer's final performance, Randy Jackson came onstage to shake hands and give him a hug goodbye, all the members of the house band walked over to wish him well and members of the crowd screamed, "We love you, Sanjaya!," prompting him to flash his famous smile one last time before leaving the stage.

Timed Out: Each week, the judges have been getting closer and closer to missing that mark when the stage manager starts to count down 30 seconds to airtime. On Wednesday, Paula Abdul – who had cut it about as close as one can previous times – finally did and was only halfway to her seat as Ryan introduced the show.

Lucky for her, the host kept his focus on the task at hand as she subtly tiptoed by just a few feet away and squeezed into her chair.

Tsk, Tsk: When Ryan tried to make Melinda Doolittle choose which of the two Idol groups (Jordin Sparks, Phil Stacey and Chris Richardson or Sanjaya, LaKisha Jones and Blake Lewis) was the night's bottom three, Randy Jackson turned to producer Nigel Lythgoe during the commercial break and shook his finger in shame at the man who orchestrated the stunt – and had been lining up the Idols just moments before onstage.

Bucky in the House! Season 5 finalist Bucky Covington, who countrified last season with his vocal stylings, was in the house – and the judges were happy to see him (Randy even gave him a high five). Other former Idols there for country night: season 4's Amanda Avula and season 3's Matt Rogers, who was greeted by an excited fan screaming, "You rock, Matt!"

Uncomfortable Scene: In order to make it clear that Simon was not disrespecting the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy, the show aired the judge's yet-unheard comments to Abdul about Chris Richardson's nasal-y performance. Chris sat stone-faced as he had to relive the moment and listen to Simon trash his singing to Paula.

But Chris got a boost from some Redondo Beach, Calif., high-school cheerleaders, who came out to support their favorite Idol. During the commercial break, one of the girls took the microphone from warmup comedian Cory Almeida and shouted, "We love Chris 'cause he's a hottie!"

It was a fun run.

But the bandanna look just didn't work for Sanjaya Malakar this week (and the awful singing may not have helped, either), as he was finally voted out of American Idol.

Standing next to Lakisha Jones - the contestant with the second lowest vote total last night - Sanjaya is about to learn his fate below ...

American Idol Season 5 finalist Bucky Covington's self-titled debut hits stores this week - and the Lyric Street Records album is already garnering rave reviews.

Here's what a few of the nation's toughest critics are saying about Covington:

Dallas Morning News: "Easily the best country album by an American Idol contestant."

Miami Herald: "The most cohesive album to come out of the franchise yet."

Entertainment Weekly: "The North Carolinian with the throaty drawl could sell everything-from the cheeky to the weepy. And he does." B+

Associated Press: "Covington delivers. His gritty growl comes alive…[and he sounds like the star he could evolve into…

Wow. Rave reviews, indeed. Expect this CD to compete with Daughtry on the music charts next week.

Let's forget about the hair of Sanjaya Malakar for a moment.

And let's not worry about comparing the different looks of Katharine McPhee right now.

Instead, we'd like to focus on Jennifer Hudson. The Oscar winner may have dissed American Idol a few times recently, but we can still have an opinion on her hair.

Which look do you prefer? Straight or curly?

Simon Cowell may not be the only one sick of Sanjaya-mania.

American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar was booed by the crowd at a recent Dodgers-Padres baseball game in Los Angeles.

"He was just sitting there having a good time with his friends, just like a regular person. And when the Dodger camera noticed him, the cameraperson ran over and taped him."

"Sanjaya's face pops up on the big screen right away. At first he smiled, he seemed to like the attention. But then the entire crowd at the stadium started to boo and it was loud! His smile faded a bit and his eyes looked sad," said an eyewitness who was at the Dodger stadium to watch the game.

"It's like he was trying to keep a fake smile on, but you could tell he was crestfallen. He just kept waving and smiling for a few seconds more then his image went off the screen," added the eyewitness.

Awww, that's too bad. We don't want Malakar to be hurt. But it is time for him to tonight. Let's leave the competition up to actual talents, such as Melinda Doolittle.

America voted and Idol chatter rules - at least in the office where about half of the workforce thinks talking about TV improves camaraderie.

A survey by staffing company Spherion Corp. released on Tuesday found that American Idol is the most talked-about U.S. television program in the workplace for the second year in a row.

Thirty-seven percent of 2,800 U.S. workers named the FOX program as the show they most often discussed at work, up from 35 percent last year, and compared with 17 percent who named medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

The shows 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland, crime investigation series CSI, and medical series House rounded out the top five.

The survey found about one in five employees engages in Idol chatter on company time, with women more likely than men to bring up the show or discuss its contestants, according to the poll conducted for Spherion by researcher Harris Interactive.