Idol Update, Part 2: The New Season, Taylor, Daughtry, Ace and more!
As I posted earlier, FOX has announced the sixth season premiere of “Idol” for January 16th and 17th. The show will then settle into its regular timeslots of Tuesday at 8 p.m. and Wednesday at 9 p.m. The Hollywood round (my favorite part of the early shows) will run over two weeks starting February 6th. According to “USA Today,” the show will again be looking for 12 guys and 12 girls to make the final 24…
The early shows will give us auditions from Seattle, Birmingham, New York, Memphis, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and San Antonio. Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe promised “USA Today” that we’ll see some of the worst singers the show has ever had…
Simon Cowell has already blasted the auditioners in Seattle, saying his time there was “two days of total misery.” Simon says that Memphis was the best. Jewel will join the judges in Minneapolis, Olivia Newton-John in Los Angeles, and Carole Bayer Sager in New York…
There were a lot of rumors flying around (as there always are) that FOX would move the “Idol” results show to Thursdays; but thus far, they’re resisting that. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some “Idol” specials on Thursday to try and help out…
“Idol” reached a chart milestone last week when Carrie Underwood hit #1 on the Hot Country Songs and Country Detections charts with “Before He Cheats.” Carrie’s second #1 single brought Idol’s No. 1 total to 103. This counts all charts compiled by Billboard. Kelly Clarkson has the most No. 1s with 41. Here’s the breakdown of the others, according to “Billboard”:
Fantasia—11
Ruben Studdard—10
Carrie Underwood—10
Clay Aiken—9
Josh Gracin—6
Taylor Hicks—3
Kimberley Locke—3
Bo Bice—2
Diana DeGarmo—1
Tamyra Gray—1
William Hung—1
American Idol Finalists—5
Taylor Hicks is looking to create a new kind of sound on his debut album. He’s calling it “modern wamp,” which he describes as “swamp meets boogie meets jazz meets hip-hop.” He’s working with producer Matt Serletic, who produced the Santana and Rob Thomas smash, “Smooth.”
The tracklist is still being finalized, but one song was written by Bryan Adams and Taylor co-wrote one with John Mayer. The CD has been delayed until December 5th, because Taylor waited until after the Idols tour to start recording, unlike Katharine, Chris and Kellie…
Speaking of delays, Fantasia’s new CD has been postponed until December 12th. I’m guessing someone thought twice about releasing on the same day as Taylor…
You can now hear Daughtry’s first single, “It’s Not Over” at http://music.aol.com/franchise/firstlisten-a. You can also hear clips of three other tracks: “Home,” “Over You,” and “Used To.” Ace Young actually helped Chris work out the lyrics and music to this one while on the Idols tour, and it’s pretty good; but I’m afraid it might sound too “been there done that.” I actually like the other three better, especially “Over You”…
Speaking of Ace, you can now hear his single, “Scattered” for free at www.americanidol.com/music...
Kellie Pickler fans will want to pick up the new issue of “People.” Kellie gets a nice write-up with some cute pictures…
If the voice singing “Time Has Come Today” on the new Monopoly Here & Now commercials sounds familiar, it’s because it’s Bo Bice. Bo is still recovering from the intestinal surgery he had last month, which forced him to cancel the remainder of his tour…
My apologies to all of the Katharine McPhee fans out there for saying last week that she gave a lackluster performance of “I Have Nothing” on “Idol.” Her performance was actually quite good; but I still stand by my statement that it took a lot of guts for her to sing it in front of Whitney Houston…
One other thing about last week’s post. If you haven’t read all of the comments on it, I encourage you all to scroll down and do so. It shows you exactly how strongly Clay Aiken fans feel about his new CD. However, I wanted to clarify that I never said I didn’t like the CD, because I do. I am just disappointed that we didn’t get a better variety of songs. And I’m also upset that you can’t get “Back For More” anywhere. That was a good song that had some real radio potential…
