Other Great Reality Shows > American Idol
American Idol Season 7
TexasLady:
HMMMM!!!
--- Quote ---Idol' Singer a Ringer? Album Already Out
How much of a ringer is "American Idol" contestant David Cook? His self-released album, "David Cook," is on the charts and the current season isn’t even over.
Cook’s 2006 CD, “Analog Heart,” was the No. 1 downloaded album all weekend on Amazon’s MP3 service. It even beat Mariah Carey’s "E=MC2."
Back when Cook auditioned in Omaha for "American Idol," he was identified as a bartender who happened to be a friend of Chris Daughtry, a now wildly successful post-"Idol" graduate.
It sure didn’t seem like Cook had a big career already — albeit regionally. He’d already appeared on a couple albums with a local group, and there was some vague mention of a solo album that he’d made himself.
But if "Analog Heart" is now being offered officially to proper downloading services — and not on just mysterious indie platforms — then Cook has to be behind it. That’s a first: an album out from an "Idol" contestant before the contest has concluded. What if he doesn’t win?
More importantly, what happened to "American Idol" simply being a competition for totally unknown or undiscovered artists? What fueled the fantasy for the audience was the concept that anyone — the waitress down the street who had a nice voice — could suddenly become a superstar. It was one thing when Carly Smithson (nee Hennessey) was revealed to have released an album five years ago. But for Cook to have one out now, I think, disqualifies him as a true competitor.
And P.S.: Isn’t this some strange way to get around the "American Idol" contract for management and a recording contract? In the past, "Idol" contestants had to agree to be managed by 19 Entertainment and give BMG first right of refusal for their albums. But a digitally available album made before the show and released before the winner is known? Hmmm…Seems like that bartender from Omaha was smarter even than wily Simon Cowell.
--- End quote ---
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351917,00.html
Jetgabriel:
Cook and Arch are my predictions for the Top 2. And they were the best of the night.
Brooke forgot the lyrics... and Paula seemed to run out of compliments.
I actually thought this night was horrible.
I'm starting to like Syesha more, just because she's cherishing and enjoying every second when she is on that stage...
rosesrred:
--- Quote from: Jetgabriel on April 23, 2008, 01:03:28 PM ---Cook and Arch are my predictions for the Top 2. And they were the best of the night.
Brooke forgot the lyrics... and Paula seemed to run out of compliments.
I actually thought this night was horrible.
I'm starting to like Syesha more, just because she's cherishing and enjoying every second when she is on that stage...
--- End quote ---
:pull My DVR is giving me so many problems :pull Everything that was recorded on my DVR last night American Idol, Dancing With the Stars and Hell's Kitchen all recorded in my ever famous Gray Screen! You can believe I was on the phone with Direct TV first thing this morning with a huge complaint. Poor girl on the other end was trying to tell me I really didn't miss much on American Idol it wasn't anyone's best performance. Luckily at 9:30 we turned to Hell's Kitchen and was able to catch the last half! Geez I'm so frustrated. (:;)
rosesrred:
Courtesy of TMZ.com
JASON CASTRO: ALL BUT A MEMORY
American Idol" message boards are buzzing that tonight's "Idol" castoff will be Jason Castro -- and it's allegedly Ryan Seacrest who leaked it!
An email exchange posted on an "Idol" fan site points the finger at Ryan -- saying he blabbed that it's Castro that's getting the boot.
Only problem ... Ryan doesn't even know yet himself!
While Ryan has said in the past that he finds out who gets sent packing the morning of the show, we're told the only two people who know the big name at this point in the day are the two executive producers -- Nigel Lythgow and Cecile Frot-Coutaz.
In fact, Nigel told us exclusively who will go home tonight -- the person with the least number of votes.
rosesrred:
Thanks to E! News Online
The Brooke White Reboot: How Big a Sin?
Today 3:36 PM PDT
Fox, The WB
To stop or not to stop?
The American Idol judges couldn't agree if Brooke White did the right—or wrong—thing last night by rebooting her performance of "You Must Love Me."
And there's not quite a consensus among outside singing experts, either.
"Unless it's a total trainwreck, I think you try to make it through," James Lugo, a record producer and vocal coach, said today. "Personally, I think starting and stopping is kind of hack."
To Gina Eckstine, a singer and vocal teacher, going forward is the only way to go. Most of the time.
"If there's no more, and you can't move ahead, sometimes you just have to admit it," said Eckstine.
White opted for the latter route on Tuesday. Some 13 seconds into her performance, she turned to the house band and said, "I'm sorry." Taking the hint, the band restarted the song. White made it through the number, introduced by Madonna in the movie version of Evita, without further incident.
After the song ended, Paula Abdul, the nice Idol judge, looked pained as she considered her words. Firmly but gently, she offered White the following edict: "You must never start and stop."
In a twist, Simon Cowell, the non-nice Idol judge, gave White a pass on the do-over, apparently because it entertained him. "This is why I love live TV," he said. "It was so dramatic—the beginning, you know."
Under questioning from host Ryan Seacrest, White said she restarted because "I lost the lyric."
Cowell claimed he would have done the same thing, and called White's decision "brave." Abdul persisted, telling White she should have vamped until she found the words. Cowell and Randy Jackson, the wild-card Idol judge, disagreed.
On the matter of to vamp or not to vamp, Abdul offered the best advice, the singing experts said.
"I'm not always in agreement with Paula Abdul," Lugo said. "But I am this time."
Eckstine was also on board with the "Straight Up" star. "Most of the time the audience doesn't [realize you've] made a mistake," she said.
The daughter of the late singing great Billy Eckstine, Gina Eckstine said her father taught her how to cover a muffed lyric: "If you forget the second verse, sing the first verse again."
In general, Lis Lewis, a Los Angeles-based vocal coach, concurred. But she reminded that American Idol is unique in that the judges, Abdul included, have tended to point out when a singer misses a lyric.
"Who cares? Except them [the Idol judges]," Lewis said. "The audience wouldn't care. The audience wouldn't really notice."
Lugo sounded a big amen. "Dude, you're singing cover songs," he said. "Who gives a s--t if you forget the lyrics? I think it's irrelevant."
Interestingly, on Tuesday's Idol, botched lyrics, outside of White's botched performance, were, for once, rendered irrelevant.
Both David Archuleta and Carly Smithson missed lines. Archuleta even mumbled through a rough patch. But neither was called out on the breaches. (Archuleta did, however, get a talking-to from Abdul during the first Beatles week when he sang gobbledygook for a few measures of "We Can Work It Out," and, to compound the sin, let the mistake show on his face.)
Lewis said she wouldn't even consider White's faux pas all that bad—"if she hadn't done it before."
Four weeks ago, White started, stopped and restarted "Every Breath You Take." The relaunch stood out less than Tuesday's because it came after White, providing her own accompaniment, had played but a few notes on the piano. Indeed, even White seemed to forget about the gaffe, saying that last night was the first time she'd missed a lyric. And, technically, she was correct. Her problem with "Every Breath You Take" was the key, not a lyric.
Whatever the case, both do-overs stood out to Lewis. "It seems to be a crutch she's relying on," she said.
Eckstine, who didn't watch Idol last night (not to worry—she TiVo'd), said she wasn't surprised to hear that it was White who suffered the meltdown. "She's been very unsteady and unsure," she said.
But will White's latest trouble be her last trouble? Will it seal her fate as Wednesday night's unchosen one?
"Unfortunately, if you're on a show like American Idol," Eckstine said, "you are being judged."
On every breath you take. Or not.
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