May 2007 News Archive

Forget Antonella Barba for a second.

Is Blake Lewis making a move on this year's American Idol champion?

We doubt it. But Jordin Sparks and everyone's favorite beat boxer sure do look chummy during MTV's Total Request Live yesterday. They were just making fans swoon, of course. There's no real love connection here.

Or is there?!?

Former contestants and guest stars enjoyed a sales boost out of last week's American Idol finale.

Chris Daughtry's self-titled Daughtry album made a 45% leap, moving 74,218 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. His single Home increased 17% with 85,925 in digital sales.

Other big winners:

• Kelly Clarkson's Never Again (80,451, up 26%)
• Green Day's Working Class Hero (24,472, up 440%)
• Gwen Stefani's 4 in the Morning (16,088, up 247%)

Idol winner Jordin Sparks placed four new songs in the digital top 200, including trophy tune This Is My Now (No. 12 with 74,303 downloads).

Jordin Sparks won a lifelong battle to accept herself when she was crowned American Idol champ last week.

"I think it really helped boost her self-esteem and made her realize she's beautiful as she is," her grandmother, Pam Weidmann, tells People magazine. Jordin's mom, Jodi, says of her daughter's May 23 victory: "It was huge to see her confidence level grow. ... She's standing taller now."

At 5'10" and size 12 by the time she was in junior high school.

"I stood out everywhere," says the singer, who used to hunch, wear oversized clothing and search in vain for her size at teen mall stores. "I'd look at my friends who were just naturally tiny, and maybe they weren't even a size 2, but they were smaller than me and that was good enough. I was like, 'Oh, why can't I look like that?' "

Sparks says she tried dieting every now and then, but failed because"I like food too much to do it. I would try, like, 'Hey I'm going to diet and I'll be a size 8 by the end of the summer,' but it never worked out."

One day at their local mall, Jordin and her mom came across the newly launched plus-size store Torrid.

"It was like angels – 'ahhhhhhhh!' – shining down on it because it's sizes 12 and up. They have clothes for girls who aren't an average size so they can totally feel cute and flirty and still keep up with the latest trends," Jordin says, noting that being the store's smallest size was "great for my self-esteem."

In fact, just before auditioning for American Idol, Jordin landed a modeling gig for Torrid. "I think it really helped boost her self-esteem and made her realize she's beautiful as she is," says her grandmother.

Her parents' attitudes also helped Jordin feel good about herself. "My mom and my dad always were saying, 'You're beautiful, Jordin,'" says the Idol winner, whose father Phillippi,, a former star cornerback for the New York Giants, is 5'11" (mom is 5'6").

After nailing her audition, Jordin's confidence began to soar. For the first time in her life, she embraced her right to bare arms.

Before the show, "I liked to wear sleeves because they would cover up my arms," she says. When the show's stylists made suggestions, "I'd go, 'This dress is way too beautiful. If I add sleeves it will ruin it.' So I just got over it."

These days, "I'm really comfortable in my own skin," Jordin says with her signature wide smile. "I learned that I'm not ever going to be a size 2. I would look so weird as a size 2. Somebody would blow and I would fall right over. It just wouldn't be healthy."

Thanks to USA Today for the following update on how often various American Idol artists are heard on the radio...

Let's start with the Nielsen BDS/Arbitron/Radio & Records custom chart, which measures and weights radio airplay from all formats (and therefore is the toughest chart to succeed on. There are two Idols in the top 10: Carrie Underwood, with Before He Cheats (which moved from No. 10 to No. 7 this week after 39 weeks on the chart), and Daughtry, whose Home makes a huge jump from 21-10 after 7 weeks.

  Next is It's Not Over by Daughtry, declining now and dropping 26-28 after 23 weeks. Fantasia's When I See U drops 43-45 after nine weeks, losing 3.4% in total radio audience from the previous week, but still, even if it's peaked, it's helped revive sales of her album. Carrie's Wasted drops 54-60 after 18 weeks.

Of particular significance, Elliott Yamin and Wait for You rises 88-75. (The significance is that he's now, after Daughtry, just the second Season 5 Idol to hit this chart. Taylor and Katharine haven't done it yet.)

Also significantly, Kelly Clarkson's Never Again drops 64-76 in just its sixth week. Not a good start for the campaign on her new album. Is Clive annoyed, or was he teaching her a lesson in obedience? Finally, Bucky is up 86-84 with A Different World, which as we'll see is doing fine in country.

Sorry, Simon Cowell haters, you've still got a few more years with the honest judge.

Simon told our Extra reporter, and girlfriend, Terri Seymour that the clock on Idol is ticking for him, and that in a few years he'll leave the reality show.

“There comes a point where you’ve got to move on,” Simon explained. “You’ve got to say when your time’s up.”

So, when might American Idol contestants be free from his jabs and insults?

“This is the year I decided that on American Idol, once I’ve done 10 series, your time’s up. It’s time to do something new,” he said.

But will he leave TV forever after that?

“I think I’d rather drop dead than retire," he said.

Son, don't worry fans, you'll be seeing plenty of Cowell on some stage for many years to come.

Korina Lopez posted a review of a Daughtry concert in Washington on the USA Today American Idol blog. Here it is...

Chris Daughtry don’t need no stinkin’ Idol title.

His self-titled debut album, which sold 1 million copies in just five weeks, has far eclipsed the sales of last season’s winner, Taylor Hicks. And on Thursday night he was greeted by a sold-out crowd of fans from all over the spectrum, from kids with their parents to tweens to baby boomers.

His performance was solid and energetic. He sang candidly about past heartaches, dedicating tunes such as Used To to everyone “who’s had their heart broken.”

He finessed his rocker roar with enough pop melody to please both his rock-leaning fans as well as his pop-loving peeps with Over You and What I Want. Saving his best for last, he rounded out the evening with his hits Home and It’s Not Over, and the cheers shook the roof.

If there were a guide called How to Be a Rocker, Daughtry’s performance was flawless. He’s got a great voice; he’s good-looking in a Vin Diesel, muscle-bound sort of way, and his band played their instruments with aplomb.

So what was missing? While his performance was solid, it was also formulaic. He believably acted the part of rock god, wearing eyeliner, swaggering around the stage, reaching toward his fans' outstretched hands just far enough to brush their fingertips before he pulled back.

A couple of times per song, Daughtry hopped on what fellow concertgoer Alex Nicholson of Washington D.C., amusingly called “the awesome box” (a black box that he’d stand on throughout the show, like a mini-stage) as if to punctuate the highlights of each song. Sounds a little cheesy, right?

He also demonstrated a kind of arrogance that was off-putting, the sort of swaggering that works for the likes of Steve Tyler or Mick Jagger, and not (yet) for Chris Daughtry. He’s a long way from their rank.

What makes Daughtry so popular is his accessibility. His fans feel connected to him, having watched him rise from the ranks of everyman to rock star.

Let’s hope he remembers that as his success grows. And judging from the tattoo of DAUGHTRY across his back, he’s well on his way to becoming blinded by fame and forgetting the people who made him what he is today - his fans.

Is Blake Lewis dating Antonella Barba?

We don't know for sure.

But we do know that the second place finisher is at no loss for fans. While Jordin Sparks may have been named American Idol this season, there's no doubt Blake has a bright future ahead of him. As he performs below in front of numerous fans, it's not difficult to imagine what he's thinking...

Attention, Brad Pitt: American Idol winner Jordin Sparks has a crush on you.

"He's just really cute," Sparks, 17, said Friday, hastening to note that she doesn't know the actor also known as Angelina Jolie's baby daddy.

Two days after besting Blake Lewis in the TV talent contest, Sparks took part in a teleconference in which she was grilled about everything from her favorite star to what she thought her earning power would be.

"I don't know. I'm just looking forward to doing the best that I can do," Jordin said.

Sparks, the youngest American Idol in the show's six seasons, is making the rounds of TV shows in Los Angeles and New York before she returns home to Glendale, Ariz., later next week for a break.

"It's been pretty crazy," she said, sounding hoarse but still as upbeat as the average teenager. Which is what she is, Sparks said.

"I'm just a normal, quirky 17-year-old," she said. Her biggest moments before American Idol were getting rid of her braces and gaining her driver's license.

How will she stay grounded, resisting entertainment industry pressures that can include an extreme emphasis on weight?

"Oh, that super-thin stuff - Hollywood needs to get over it," she said.

Asked what she'll sing on the American Idol concert tour with other finalists, she wasn't ready with an answer. But she probably won't focus too much on Lewis' specialty of beatbox sound-effects.

"He's tried to teach me but I'm really horrible at it," Sparks said.

Simon Cowell is a smart man. Count us among those that admire his honest.

After his interview yesterday on Good Morning America, though, Britney Spears might not be in that camp. The American Idol judge offered some candid advice to the troubled singer.

Cowell told ABC news correspondent Juju Chang that Spears is perfectly capable of saving her career because she's "still one of the most talked about pop stars on the planet."

"She has the X-factor because people want to write about her," Cowell says. "She's not conventional, she's not normal."

That's definitely true.

At the same time, Cowell says that Britney "can't handle the tension and the pressure" that comes from being in the spotlight so she needs to refocus herself at home.

"Lock the door, don't go out with your stupid friends, have some home-cooked food, get a sense of reality," he says. "Go lie in the garden, okay? And then say to yourself, 'There's more good in my life than bad. I'm still a rich, talented girl – now I want to get my career back on track.' End of story."

Of course, the interview wasn't all about Spears. Cowell also revealed why he believes Jordin Sparks is the new American Idol. "Jordin was the most improved over the whole season," he says. "She didn't start the best but midway through, this was the girl who suddenly got momentum."

Still, Cowell feels that Sparks wasn't necessarily the one who deserved the title. "[Melinda Doolittle] should have won," he says. "She tried the hardest, was consistently the best and had the best voice."

The folks at iTunes have made available five singles and an EP of studio performances by Jordin and Blake of songs they sang during the season. Here's the rundown:

Jordin Sparks EP: This Is My Now (interesting that it's not a single on its own; that probably comes later), I (Who Have Nothing), A Broken Wing, To Love Somebody, Wishing on a Star.

Singles: If We Hold On Together, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Rhythm Is Gonna Get You, On a Clear Day, Hey Baby.

Blake Lewis EP: You Give Love a Bad Name, Time of the Season, I Need to Know, Love Song, When The Stars Go Blue.

Singles: You Should Be Dancing, Mack the Knife, Imagine, This Love, You Keep Me Hangin’ On.