American Idol 2008

[bostonparis 0]

Oh, this wasn't up this morning!

Luke Menard is VERY cute. So is the Aussie.

[Jenn! 918]

Oh, this wasn't up this morning!

Luke Menard is VERY cute. So is the Aussie.

He kinda looks like Luke Perry!

[Alex+R 0]

I saw the last 5 min of this... what's with all the furriners this year?

[bostonparis 0]

They finally got their visas!

And Luke DOES look like Luke. But a cuter version. I just wish I could have heard him sing!

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

100% Agree. They push and showcase the ones they really want or want someone else to help.

I think it's too bad they didn't show ALL of the top 24 sing at least a little. I think those people mentioned in the beginning of the EW article might get shafted because they don't have a dead father or something else.

But I like this season a LOT more than last year. I did not give a ####### who won by the end!

I couldnt agree more. Its like you almost know for sure when they do this entire segment on their lives that they are going to make it.

[♥JP♥ 5]

Or the ones they want to humiliate. In hindsight I think they did that to the homeless kid, they exploited him with those segments even though they knew he didnt make the cut. Lame.

100% Agree. They push and showcase the ones they really want or want someone else to help.

I think it's too bad they didn't show ALL of the top 24 sing at least a little. I think those people mentioned in the beginning of the EW article might get shafted because they don't have a dead father or something else.

But I like this season a LOT more than last year. I did not give a ####### who won by the end!

I couldnt agree more. Its like you almost know for sure when they do this entire segment on their lives that they are going to make it.

[yogib37 3]

that sucks...

last year they got rid of some good female singers and kept some mediocre guy singers...

yeah like sukjaya :lol: :lol:

[Marilyn. 340]

so did the pecan pie guy make it through or not??

[Marilyn. 340]

not sure if this has already been mentioned in here... interesting article on Carly Smithson

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/realityro...ons-secret-past

there is a music video at the end of the article...

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

Very true! If you get plenty of face time your are either very good or laughable. Half of the top 24, I don't even remember seeing at the initial auditions. Mediocre gets you nothing on American Idol, or the rest of world, to be honest!

Or the ones they want to humiliate. In hindsight I think they did that to the homeless kid, they exploited him with those segments even though they knew he didnt make the cut. Lame.

100% Agree. They push and showcase the ones they really want or want someone else to help.

I think it's too bad they didn't show ALL of the top 24 sing at least a little. I think those people mentioned in the beginning of the EW article might get shafted because they don't have a dead father or something else.

But I like this season a LOT more than last year. I did not give a ####### who won by the end!

I couldnt agree more. Its like you almost know for sure when they do this entire segment on their lives that they are going to make it.

[eau_xplain 2]

Oh, this wasn't up this morning!

Luke Menard is VERY cute. So is the Aussie.

He kinda looks like Luke Perry!

I thought so too Jenn!

[eau_xplain 2]

not sure if this has already been mentioned in here... interesting article on Carly Smithson

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/realityro...ons-secret-past

there is a music video at the end of the article...

Very interesting article Marilyn. So, now that it's out, is AI going to admit that they let someone who has recorded an album (that flopped)?

[Jenn! 918]

What is "American Idol," really? Is it a competition designed to find the best singers, period, or only the best undiscovered singers?

That's the most pressing question as season seven enters the audience participation phase tonight, with a top 24 group where nearly half the contestants have some kind of professional or semi-professional singing experience.

Drawing much of the attention is Carly Smithson, an Irish-born singer who once had a major label record deal with MCA. The label spent more than $2 million trying to promote her debut album, which wound up selling only 378 copies (that's not a typo) in its first three months here in the States.

But Smithson's only one of many alleged ringers this time around.

New Jersey's own "Idol" representative, Hoboken resident Joanne Borgella, has already been the winner on another reality competition show, Oxygen's plus-sized beauty pageant "MoNique's Fat Chance." Other "Idol" semi-finalists with reality show credits include teenager David Archuleta, who was a winner on the recent CBS revival of "Star Search"; Syesha Mercado, who was a contestant on ABC's little-seen and short-lived "Idol" rip-off "The One: Making a Music Star"; Jason Castro, who appeared as the love interest of the title character on MTV's "Cheyenne"; and Jason Yeager, who made the top 25 one season on ABC's "Making the Band."

Other semi-finalists with prior record deals and/or time in the music spotlight: Kristy Lee Cook was once signed to a major Nashville label and with Britney Spears' production company; Robbie Carrico was a member of the boy/girl band Boyz N Girlz United and was reported to have dated Britney; and Michael Johns was frontman for several popular bands in his native Australia and had a record deal there.

The depth and breadth of this year's contestants' experience has led some fans to complain that "Idol," in trying to rebound from last year's Sanjaya-dominated dud of a season, is violating the spirit of the competition with all these semi-pros.

Not surprisingly, "Idol" head honcho Nigel Lythgoe insists the fans are, as they do every year -- see also controversies involving Frenchie Davis, Antonella Barba, Scott Savol, et al -- going berserk over nothing.

"Nobody said this was an amateur competition," Lythgoe insisted during a media call last week. "This is something that people are making up for themselves."

Though the show tries to sell itself as an opportunity for the guy pumping gas or the girl selling pretzels at the mall food court to become music superstars, there's never been a rule against having prior recording or touring experience. The only rule in the "Idol" bylaws regarding this is that potential contestants can't currently be signed to a record deal. (And even that seems to have less to do with promoting amateurism than it does with making sure the "Idol" production company can maximize its investment in the contestants by signing them to its own label.)

Many previous finalists, including season one winner Kelly Clarkson, had record deals at some point in their past (though none with as big a label or for as big a financial investment as Carly Smithson). Others had put out self-financed records and/or spent years fronting bands, like season five winner Taylor Hicks.

"This is something that comes up for some reason every year," argued Lythgoe. "It doesn't worry us in the slightest."

The difference this year is that there are so many semi-pros all bunched together, when in years past, someone like Bo Bice (who had spent much of his adult life playing rock clubs throughout the South) was the exception, rather than the rule.

Much of the online chatter about this season has focused on complaints about the professional backgrounds of people like Smithson and Cook. But as the ineffectiveness of VoteForTheWorst.com has shown over the years, online discussion doesn't necessarily translate to the views of the "Idol" audience at large, who generally know only what the show chooses to tell them about each contestant.

Frankly, if given the choice between hearing tone-deaf amateurs like Sanjaya and Chris Richardson or spending months listening to people who know what they're doing, like Smithson and Johns, I'll pick the latter every time. (It's why I was a fan of CBS' defunct "Rock Star," which never had any pretense of amateurism.)

The issue, to me, seems to be less about whether Smithson had a major label deal or if Archuleta already won a reality singing competition than it is about what "Idol" itself has to say about that. It's about transparency, not people's resumes.

In Smithson's copious amounts of screen time so far this season -- and she's had more of it than most of the other semi-finalists (some of whom weren't seen at all before last Wednesday's show announcing the top 24) -- the show has yet to mention her prior recording experience. Instead, they've pounded home the story of how she auditioned two seasons ago and got passed through to the Hollywood round, only to bow out over visa problems.

If the show were to go into all the details of Smithson's past (or that of the other semi-pros), it would put everyone on a more even playing field and allow the audience to decide for themselves whether they'd rather watch the best pure singers or only the best singers who haven't already had a shot or two at the brass ring. And, from a pure storytelling perspective, the story of Carly Smithson, failed pop star going for her last shot at the big time, is a lot more interesting than Carly Smithson, victim of INS bureaucracy, isn't it?

Lythgoe, getting increasingly testy about the number of questions he's been fielding on this issue, said, "We have never not shown (contestants') pasts when we can."

In previous seasons, when contestants had experience on other reality shows -- says, season two finalist Kimberly Caldwell having participated on the WB's "Pop Stars" -- it often came up during their "Idol" tenure. While the show has thus far remained mum about Smithson's and Cook's pasts, it did at least briefly mention that Carrico was in a boy band.

When asked whether the show will explicitly discuss Smithson's past in an upcoming episode, Lythgoe snapped, "We're not ignoring anything. We never do."

And if, in fact, we get a bunch of time-killing biographical packages over the next few nights that talk about Smithson's record deal, or Johns' success Down Under, or Borgella's and Archuleta's previous reality victories, then maybe everyone can relax and go back to the usual complaints about mediocre theme nights, Ryan and Simon's lame homoerotic banter, Randy's uselessness, Paula's incoherence, etc. It wouldn't be an "Idol" season without complaining, would it?

http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2008/02/sepinwall...rican_idol.html

[Jenn! 918]

Preseason Rankings (unuffocial of course)...Let's see how they do tonight and tomorrow...

THE GALS

1. Syesha Mercado. The Miami singer pulled out a gutsy performance of “Chain of Fools” even while she was losing her voice. She was a finalist on ABC’s “Idol” rip-off “The One,” but since that show got cancelled after two episodes, she’s not as much of a ringer as others.

2. Amanda Overmeyer. The rock and roll nurse from Mulberry, Ind., has a great voice and if she figures out how to use it beyond Janis Joplinizing every song she tackles, she will go far.

3. Carly Smithson. Yeah, she’s already had an album out on MCA as Carly Hennessy. Yeah, she’s kind of a ringer and will likely get rejected because really if she didn’t connect with the American public the first time around, why would this time be any different? Nevertheless, she can still sing.

4. Ramiele Malubay. Once all the big-voice-in-such-a-small-package stuff is out of the way, maybe people will realize that the Miramar, Fla., singer really has a lot going for her. Is America ready for a Filipina “American Idol”? No, I didn’t think so either.

5. Kristy Lee Cook. She has a good voice and she’s Carrie Underwood pretty, but really how many times can she sing “Amazing Grace”?

6. Asia’h Epperson. I liked her fight and her feisty version of “How Do I Live” days after her father died in a car accident. Hopefully she can keep channeling that energy into good performances.

7. Alexandrea Lushington. Young girl who sings old style music. Man, the Grammy producers will love her.

8. Joanna Borgella. The former model has a unique voice that could be good with the right training, which she could get if her winning personality keeps her around long enough.

9. Brooke White. The nanny who doesn’t see R-rated movies has a nice personality and an OK voice – a combo that should get her a few weeks into the competition but she’s going to need a massive shift to get further than that.

10. Kady Malloy. Yeah, impersonating Britney Spears’ vocals isn’t the toughest thing in the world. She’s going to have to pick a voice quickly and stick with it.

11. Amy Davis. She’s very attractive, but her voice is only passable – a combination that has worked for many before her, but might not work for her here.

12. Alaina Whitaker. Simon told her that she wasn’t as good as she thought she was. That’s kind of an understatement.

THE GUYS

1. Michael Johns. The 29-year-old from Los Angeles had a deal with Maverick Records with the band Film, making him almost a ringer, though the album never came out. The way he blew the doors of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” though, is probably a sign his next album will do just fine.

2. David Archuleta. The 16-year-old “Star Search” winner will woo the tween vote with his non-threatening good looks and the Grandma vote with tales of his one-time vocal paralysis. He has more game than John Stevens. How’s that for damning with faint praise?

3. David Cook. He has a good voice and a cool, laid-back personality. That may make for a great guy to have a beer with, but doesn’t generally make for great television.

4. David Hernandez. He showed some initiative with a slowed-down “Love the One You’re With,” but didn’t really seem to wow anyone.

5. Danny Noriega. The 18-year-old had a couple of good auditions, especially “When I Need You,” but his personality kind of outpaces his voice.

6. Chikezie Eze. He did an OK Luther in his audition, but will need more than that to advance.

7. Robbie Carrico. Formerly of Boyz-n-Girlz United, he’s got a rocker’s voice with boy band moves. I’m not sure that’s necessarily a good thing.

8. Colton Berry. We only got to see a snippet of an audition to see why he got in and Groban-geeky Kyle Ensley didn’t. Seemed aight, as Randy would say, but hard to tell.

9. (tie) Jason Castro. Um, yeah, kind of airtime challenged so far. His YouTube videos make him sound OK.

9. (tie) Garrett Haley. He’s from Lima, Ohio. Woohoo Hasn’t had more than a second on the show, which is probably for a reason, but who knows?

9. (tie) Luke Menard. Haven’t seen him either. He’s in an a capella group, which might mean he could sing.

9. (tie) Jason Yeager. Again, dunno. He was apparently in an early incarnation of “Making the Band,” probably before Diddy took over. At least, he’ll get to sing this week and maybe “Idol” will even show it.

http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/m..._preseason.html

[keltic 1]

bumping....

its on!