More Favorite Songs of 2020

 I recently listed my Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2020. Just for clarification let me explain that those songs all had to meet the eligibility for that list by reaching the Top 10 on the Billboard HOT 100 during 2020. I happen to be one of those people that believes that "It's not a hit until it's a hit on Billboard". Just in case you don't know, in order to reach the top of the Billboard HOT 100, a song must get the most sales, streams and radio airplay for any given week.

There were lots of other songs that I loved in 2020 that failed to make the top 10 on the Billboard HOT 100 singles chart. Here's a list of some of my other favorites in 2020. One thing that I can say about all of these songs is that it's a shame it didn't get more sales and airplay to do better on the Billboard HOT 100 singles chart.

In the ideal world, great songs from Country, Pop, Dance and R and B would all find their way to the upper positions of the Billboard HOT 100.

I Hope You're Happy Now - Carly Pearce and Lee Brice: There's a reason why this song won the CMA for Event of the Year. Great vocals, a danceable beat and lyrics we can all relate to.      

More Hearts Than Mine - Ingrid Andress: The most amazing song paired with an impressive new singer/songwriter leads to a nomination at the Grammys for Best New Artist. She really deserves a win!      

All Night - Brothers Osborne: These guys can be counted on to give a hot song that is high energy and great for a line dance.   

After A Few - Travis Denning: There's nothing wrong with enjoying some bro-country music about drinking and dating. This is one of the best!     

Lovin On You - Luke Combs: A roller rink party is the perfect setting for this fun lovin country music by Luke Combs. He's proving himself to be a big star delivering hit after hit.    

More Than My Hometown - Morgan Wallen: With the mullett and sleaveless plaid shirts he could be just another country boy stereotype, but he's got the great songs to go along with it.   

Beer Can't Fix - Thomas Rhett and Jon Pardi: Two sexy country singers coming together to give us a good time party song that is perfect for dancing a cha cha slide, county line or stationary cha cha.   

In Between - Scotty McCreery: Scotty won American Idol years ago and he is still giving us great music to show how worthy he is of the crown.   

Gabrielle - Brett Eldredge: Brett is just so good. He has a rugged down home voice and puts some real heart into everything he sings.    

Be A Light - Thomas Rhett: Words to live by during hard times and during all times. Thomas team up with Hilary Scott and Reba for this ispirational anthem. Let's hope we can all come together and start being a part of the solution.    

And the Season 11 Miss American Idol winner is....

The Season 11 Top 12 finalists opened the show with a very fun group performance of the Bruno Mars track Runaway Baby. It was great to see Colton, Deandre, Skylar and Hollie out there showing off what they can do.

Credence Clearwater Revival accumulated 17 top 40 hits on the Billboard HOT 100 in the four short years between 1968 and 1972. They did them all with the impressive lead vocals of John Fogerty. John took the stage with Phillip Phillips to sing Have You Ever Seen The Rain and Bad Moon Rising and what stood out most is that after all these years John still a a great vocal range that makes Phillip's pale in comparison. 

The Season 11 2nd Runner Up, Joshua Ledet then performed the Elton John classic Take Me To The Pilot with the Season 3 Miss American Idol winner Fantasia. With their voices and musical styles being so similar it was hard to distinguish where Joshua ended and where Fantasia began. But then all you had to do was realize that Fantasia was the one wearing the glittery body suit that was slit up and down both legs! And she thought everyone was going to be paying attention to her glamorous, silky long hair....

Erika, Elise, Shannon, Skylar, Jessica and Hollie performed a medley of Chaka Khan favorites including Ain't Nobody and Through The Fire. It culminated with the diva herself joining them on stage to sing I'm Every Woman. It seems like she took fashion advise from Fantasia as she chose to rock a glittery body suit as well.

Since 2006 pop princess Rhianna has been cranking out #1 hits on the Billboard HOT 100 with We Found Love, Only Girl in the World and S&M being the three most recent. With tonight's explosive performance of Where Have You Been it's quite likely that she could be adding another one to the collection.

Skylar Laine then had the opportunity to strut her country girl stuff for a duet with legendary superstar Reba. They performed her recent hit, Turn On The Radio and they were both in their element looking and sounding great.

Early in the season, Jessica Sanchez set herself apart as the clear front-runner with her exceptional rendition of the Whitney Houston smash #1 hit from 1992, I Will Always Love You. Tonight she recreated the moment with flawless vocal perfection.

Colton, Heejun, Jeremy, Deandre and Joshua took over the stage to sing the Neil Diamond anthems America, Cracklin' Rosie and I'm a Believer. The grand finale came when the man himself joined in for Sweet Caroline. It was quite the fun karaoke party on that stage!

Jennifer Lopez took advantage of the chance to perform in front of this huge audience. She served up some more of her signature dance, latin, pop music.

The Season 3 Miss American Idol 1st Runner Up Diana DeGarmo and Season 5 Miss American Idol finalist Ace Young have been maintaining their music careers on the Broadway stage where they had a chance to meet and get to know each other better. In a romantic surprise Ace took advantage of being back on the American Idol stage to ask Diana to marry him and she immediately accepted.

Hollie Cavanagh showed off her amazing voice on You'll Never Walk Alone and demonstrated what a fierce competition it would have been if she had been in the finals going head to head with Jessica Sanchez. Hollie welcomed the Season 6 Miss American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks on stage with her and this turned into a lovely duet with two beautiful young women. Colton, Heejun, Jeremy, Deandre and Joshua then got together one more time to perform a Bee Gees medley in tribute to Robin Gibb

Jessica Sanchez continued to be the front-runner throughout the season when she performed the dramatic ballad from DreamGirls, And I Am telling You I'm Not Going. Tonight she had the privilege of singing it with the original artist who set the standard that all other have tried to live up to, the amazing Jennifer Holliday. It was truly electrifying to see them together and actually keep pace with each other.

Since Jennifer had her turn to perform, it was only fair that Steven Tyler and Aerosmith also got a chance to perform a medley of their hits.

Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes spent three weeks at #1 in 1982 with Up Where We Belong. It was a classic combination of the soft paired with the scruffy as Jessica and Phillip did one last duet together. They then both went center stage to have the final results revealed. The Season 11 Miss American Idol winner is.... PHILLIP PHILLIPS!

He took his guitar, he sang his debut single Home, and the glitter fell around him as he held back tears.

  

The Top 12 girls take their first shot...

Tonight we get to know what these top 12 girls can really do - they can pick any song they want to present themselves to America for the first time:

Rihanna took Only Girl in the World to #1 in 2010. Ta-Tynisa Wilson used this Grammy winner for Best Dance Recording to strut her stuff in high heels and belt out some big notes. She did a pretty good job showing off her potential to be a radio friendly hit-maker.

The Season 3 Miss American Idol winner, Fantasia, performed Summertime and to this day set the standard for best Idol performance ever. Naima Adedapo did her best to mix things up with a more bouncy and light jazz arrangement to make the song her own. She was actually quite successful showing off a great vocal range and professional performance style.

Christina Aguilera included Impossible on her 2002 album Stripped. Kendra Chantelle has a nice voice and is quite pretty, but she didn't add anything special or exceptional to her performance of this very hot album track.

Fiona Apple took Criminal to #21 in 1997. Rachel Zevita served up an almost unrecognizable burlesque version of the song that was partially entertaining, but sort of awkward as well. It's clear she has ambitions to be an all around entertainer, but this performance did not showcase her voice at it's best.

Mariah Carey took Hero to #1 for four weeks in 1994. Karen Rodriguez stepped up to the challenge and and hit it out of the park with her wonderful Spanglish interpretation of this popular favorite. She exuded stage presence, confidence and class.

Lauren Turner took the stage and presented herself as a sort of female version of Season 5 Miss American Idol winner Taylor Hicks. She was singing some bluesy number and she was running around all over the stage.

Monica released Love All Over Me from her under appreciated 2010 release Still Standing. Like Monica, Ashthon Jones definitely has all the necessary qualities to be chart-topping hit-making DIVA herself. She looks beautiful and her voice can powerfully belt out the big notes with passion and emotion.

The Season 1 Miss American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, took Breakaway to #6 in 2004. Julie Zorrilla should unfortunately not expect to have any success after her very weak rendition of the song.

Alicia Keys took Fallin to #1 in 2001. Alicia went on to become a Grammy favorite winning Best New Artist, but Haley Reinhart should not expect the same results at all after this forgettable and clumsy performance.

Irene Cara took Out Here On My Own to #19 in 1980 from the Fame Soundtrack. Thia Megia stood center stage in a spotlight with almost no musical accompaniment and showed all of the other finalists, both the boys and the girls, what it's like to have a truly pure and exceptional vocal instrument. Thia is exactly the kind of talent that American Idol was made for. If America has any sense at all, this extremely talented 15 year old is on the track to reaching her very own success story to FAME!

Country music superstar, Reba, is having current success with her latest single Turn On The Radio. Lauren Alaina infused this fun anthem with some youthful energy and did a great job showing off her nice voice and fun personality.

The Pretenders took I'll Stand By You to #16 in 1994. Pia Toscano did not hold back at all in her genuine efforts to show off that she is the whole package - voice, confidence, beautiful good looks, and stage presence.

Now it's up to America to vote so you can go online to support your favorites at http://www.americanidol.com/. My top 5 will be: Thia Megia, Pia Toscano, Karen Rodriguez, Ashthon Jones and Naima Adedapo.

Thia Megia is the clear front-runner by a wide margin. :)

2010 CMA Viewing Party!

As the 2010 Country Music Association Awards was approaching I was filled with anticipation. Of course, I was looking forward to seeing the Supreme Miss American Idol, Season 4 winner, Carrie Underwood perform live on stage, but there was even more to be excited about.

A wonderful friend decided to host a 2010 CMA's Viewing Party in the Movie Theater at his condo. How awesome is that!!!! Watching on a big screen TV, eating pizza, cookies and cupcakes with your favorite friends!!!

The night turned out to be a super fun blast even though I am sad to report that Carrie ended up not winning either of the awards she was nominated for. But even though she didn't take home an award, she was still quite the star of the evening as she hosted the show once again with Brad Paisley. Carrie looked stunning as usual pleasing the crowd with 7 different costume changes.

She opened the show with a performance of her high energy jam Songs Like This.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az4_6wHhuzE

Later in the show she came back to sing her latest single whose video just hit the #1 position on the CMT Top 20 Countdown, Mama's Song. For this lovely song she stood center stage in a beautiful long lilac gown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbbxfS2AR1I

In addition to hosting the show and having two performances, Carrie was spotted in not just one, but two commercials that were airing during the show. Carrie is the radiantly beautiful and flawless face of the new Olay ad campaign and the new commercial for the Chronicles of Narnia film features a new song written and sung by Carrie. It's called There's a Place For Us and the film opens in theaters on December 10th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE3KeVmLl1g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ2Vzw33v6w

Season Five Miss American Idol finalist Kellie Pickler made an appearance on the show as a presenter exuding her usual bubbly personality in a fabulous gold sparkly number. The Season One Miss American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson is also getting back in touch with the Country audience after her successful duet with Reba a few years back. This time Kelly performed a duet on stage with Jason Aldean. She truly provided one of the best vocal performances of the night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyUZQodw_wY

All award shows should be viewed this way because even though none of the awards went to any of our favorite Miss American Idols, a great time was had by all and we all felt like winners! Thanks Andrew!