Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Idols on the Charts!


The Supreme Miss American Idol, Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood leads the pack of 6 albums on in the upper portion of the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart this week. Her release Blown Away is holding at #3 for a 2nd week after spending its first two weeks at #1. 

The newly crowned Season 11 Miss American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips' "Journey to the Finale" album debuts at #11 with 24,000 units sold. The set is exclusively sold via the iTunes Store. 


The Season 8 Miss American Idol 1st Runner Up, Adam Lambert is at #12 with his album Trespassing.
 
The Season 10 Miss American Idol 2nd Runner Up, Haley Reinhart starts out at #17 with her debut album Listen Up! with 1st week sales of 20,000 copies.

With 18,000 copies sold, the "American Idol Season 11 - Top 2 Season Finale" EP starts out at #21.  This is a collection of songs by both Phillip Phillips and the Season 11 Miss American Idol 1st Runner Up, Jessica Sanchez.

Further down the list at #26 is the debut of the 2nd album the Season 8 Miss American Idol winner, Kris Allen. His collection called Thank You Camellia sold 17,000 copies in its first week. Allen's self-titled debut started at #11 with 80,000 copies sold in 2009.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

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.

  

Adam Lambert is #1

The Season 8 Miss American Idol 1st runner up, Adam Lambert makes a strong debut at the #1 position on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart with his second release, Trespassing. He had first week sales of 77,000 copies sold.

This is a very significant moment in Miss American Idol history as it is the first time that one "American Idol" replaces another at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. His arrival bumps last week's leader, The Supreme Miss American Idol, Season 4 winner, Carrie Underwood's "Blown Away," down to #3.

In addition, with a Miss American Idol ruling the chart for three weeks in a row, it's the longest that "Idol" has monopolized the #1 slot. There have been two-week runs atop the list, but always from a singular album -- like Carrie Underwood just did these past two weeks with "Blown Away."

This is Adam Lambert's first #1 album and is his second major label studio set. It follows 2009's "For Your Entertainment," which debuted and peaked at No. 3 with 198,000 sold in its first week.

Adam Lambert is the seventh Miss American Idol finalist to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart following Season 1 winner, Kelly Clarkson, Season 2 winner, Ruben Studdard, Season 2 1st runner up, Clay Aiken, Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood, Season 5 3rd runner up, Chris Daughtry, and Season 10 winner, Scotty McCreery.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Jessica VS. Phillip

We have reached the Season 11 Miss American Idol final face-off between Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips.

Jessica went first and started with a performance of Whitney Houston's #4 hit from 1993, I Have Nothing. Her voice is perfect for this type of ballad that requires a singer with an impressive vocal range like hers. She looked very classy as she delivered a wonderful rendition. For the next round Jessica tackled another song from an accomplished diva. This time it was The Prayer by Celine Dion. Once again, this young 16 year old finalist proved that she can easily rise to the vocal challenge. It was simply beautiful. Her final song was an original composition called Change Nothing. This mid-tempo pop selection allowed Jessica to connect her outstanding voice to some new material and genuinely make it her own. She belted out some amazing power notes that clearly proclaimed that she is the best singer left in the competition.

Phillip took on the classic Ben E. King song Stand By Me that originally hit #4 in 1961. As usual, Phillip lacks the vocal range, skill and talent to actually sing the song well. The lyrics were merely spoken with no melodic inflection at all. He then decided to musically mutilate the Billy Joel song, Moving Out as he had done earlier in the season as if once wasn't enough. The saving grace of his performances was the last one as he stood center stage for an original song called Home. And stand center stage is all that he needed to do as the band played loudly and the background singers did all the work to drown out his minimal voice. He was also upstaged by a marching band that thankfully pulled focus away from his clumsy awkwardness.   

As showcased tonight, Jessica Sanchez should easily win the Season 11 Miss American Idol Crown. She has the looks, style, stage presence and most importantly, the outstanding and impressive vocal range to take her time from this competition and translate it into a long career in the music industry.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Idols dominate the 2012 Billboard Music Awards

The Supreme Miss American Idol, Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood is sitting comfortably at the #1 position on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart for the second week in a row with her album Blown Away. Her performance of the title track from the album was without a doubt the highlight of the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. Her vocals had all the power and drama necessary to bring the story of abuse and revenge to life for the crowd of cheering fans. It was combined with wind from giant fans, bursts of smoke, glitter falling to the ground and Carrie looking amazing is a flowing red gown.

In addition to Carrie, the Season 6 Miss American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks was also there to participate in a tribute to the late Whitney Houston. Jordin performed a stellar rendition of I Will Always Love You with wonderful vocal perfection and heartfelt emotion. Jordin will soon be co-starring with Whitney in the remake of Sparkle that will be in theaters later this summer. A new duet with Jordin and Whitney was just released from the Sparkle soundtrack today called Celebrate. It's a fun and upbeat dance groove that has potential to be huge hit.

The Season 1 Miss American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, was also at the Billboard Awards to perform the third single from her album Stronger. This week Kelly is returning to TV on a new show called Duets where hopefuls will compete for the chance to sing and record a song with her.

Finally, the winner of this season's Celebrity Apprentice was named and unfortunately it was not the Season 2 Miss American Idol 1st runner up, Clay Aiken. For some reason, Donald Trump decided to give the honor to Arsenio Hall instead. Once again, Clay has found himself in the 1st runner up position.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Results - Top 3

Jessica, Phillip and Joshua opened the show with a group performance of a song that Earth Wind and Fire took to #9 in 1978, Got To Get You Into My Life. As the only one who can really sing, Jessica really shined while the boys were simply her back-up singers.

While waiting to find out which of the three finalists are going to be competing in the finals next week, we were treated to some interesting entertainment. Lisa Marie Presley made her very first appearance on the American Idol stage to perform her new single. It was pretty hard to describe. There were some elements of retro classic rock in there along with some mystical, hippie vibes. Hopefully this high profile opportunity will result in the career boost that she's looking for.

The highlight of the night came from a dynamic and explosive performance from the Season 8 Miss American Idol 1st runner up, Adam Lambert. He sported his signature shiny look along with some neon yellow as he delivered his amazing vocals on the single Never Close Our Eyes. With this performance, he is likely to see the album, Trespassing, make a very big debut on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart next week.

It was then revealed that Jessica Sanchez would be going head to head with Phillip Phillips next week in the Season 11 Miss American Idol finals. Joshua Ledet was the lowest vote getter of the week, so he must be eliminated from the competition.

I am very happy that I got my prediction wrong this week and that Jessica has made it to the finals. She is a world class, top-notch vocalist and I am very excited to see how she completely blows Phillip off the stage next week.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Top 3 Perform

The top 3 finalists will each sing three songs tonight: 

Randy Jackson selected an a bluesy Etta James song, I Would Rather Go Blind, as the judge's choice for Joshua Ledet to sing. It was more of the retro-same usual for him. He delivered the same over the top gospel tinged classic R&B vocals that he always does.

Jennifer Lopez selected a song that became Mariah Carey's 13th #1 hit song on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998, My All, for Jessica Sanchez to sing. This tender ballad allowed Jessica to show off even more of her outstanding and impressive vocal range. In addition to sounding wonderful, she showed off her incredible breath control as she tackled this very difficult musical composition.

Steven Tyler selected a song called Beggin for Phillip Phillips to sing. He is who he is and that's all that he is. Same clothes he always wears. Same guitar. Same painful, strained attempt at singing.

For his own personal song choice, Joshua Ledet decided to sing the classic and inspirational John Lennon anthem, Imagine, that hit #3 in 1971. It started out better than it finished. He showed some classy vocal restraint on the first verse that illustrated how less can be more sometimes. He completely lacks subtlety in every vocal interpretation that he provides as he ended up taking it over the top when it was unnecessary.

For her own personal song choice, Jessica Sanchez decided to sing the Aerosmith song that spent four weeks at #1 in 1998, I Don't Want To Miss A Thing. Without a doubt she sang it better than Steven Tyler ever could have no matter how hard he tried. In her hands it was an entirely new song elevated to a higher plane of enlightenment.

For his own personal song choice, Phillip decided to sing a watered down and bland version of Disease by Matchbox 20. Same clothes he always wears. Same guitar. Same painful, strained attempt at singing.

Mary J. Blige took No More Drama to #15 in 2002. This is the most current thing that Joshua Ledet has attempted in a long time and it's an example of what he might sound like on the radio someday. What he lacks in versatility he makes up for with his energy. So unlike the song title, he brings more drama with an extra serving of drama on the side.

Mariah Carey took I'll Be There to #1 in 1992 (her 6th #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100). This is a song selection that is supposed to combine the maturity of Jessica's amazing voice with her actual youthful age of only 16. Once again, she sounded incredible and totally ageless. She simply has a rare vocal gift that is exemplified by her ability to do such a great job on Mariah Carey classics.

We've Got Tonight hit #6 in 1983 by Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton and it is one of the most romantic and beautiful love songs ever written. Phillip Phillips was a complete mess trying to sing it. He looked like a deer in the headlights nervously forgetting the lyrics and failing to hit any of the notes accurately. It was a sad, flat and lifeless attempt.

There's no point in making predictions anymore. Phillip doesn't get any better and yet he is still around, so he's clearly on a path to winning the Season 11 Miss American Idol crown next week. The judges have gushed with praise for Joshua all season long. Jessica is the most talented vocalist the competition has seen in a few years so she is probably the one who is leaving the competition tomorrow to make room for a Joshua/Phillip face off in the finals.