We have it, America has voted! From the last two finalists, the new American Idol is Phillip Phillips! This year sees a new record number of votes - 132 million! It was a spectacular 2-hour Grand Finale show. Malaysians were able to watch this live all the way from Los Angeles on Astro Ch 711. There will be repeats tonight, so don't miss it.
It was a great two hours of music and entertainment. The show started with Phillip Phillips singing two songs with John Fogerty of CCR. Other invited artistes included Rihanna, Neil Diamond (which the guy finalists also sang a medley of his songs just ahead of him), past Idol winners, Fantasia Barrino (she looks like Wow!) and Jordin Sparks, Jennifer Lopez, Aerosmith (Walk This Way being one of the two numbers) and a host of other great artistes. The guy finalists sang a medley of Bee Gees numbers in a tribute to Robin Gibb who passed away a few days ago. Jessica Sanchez, the runner-up, belted out a number of songs including the Whitney Houston classic, I Will Always Love You. Give it a listen from a previous performance in the video below.
Disappointed with the outcome?
Oh, by the way, Ryan Seacrest announced that auditions for Season 12 will start in summer.
The time has come!
Tuesday night (US time) will see the last two finalists perform in the bid for the Winner of the American Idol Season 11. The two finalists are 16-year-old with a big voice, Jessica Sanchez, and 21-year-old singer-songwriter Phillip Phillips, the latter whom Jimmy Iovine, the show's mentor said, "He has a certain thing that some of the other (recent Idol winners) didn't have. I don't know how he was missed in the industry because he has such charisma and such a great character."
And on Wednesday (again US time, 8am Malaysia time Thursday) watch a 2-hour Finale of the crowning of the new American Idol Season 11 - all on StarWorld, Ch 11 on Astro.
If Sanchez wins, she will be youngest Idol champion and the Fox TV contest's first female winner since Jordin Sparks in 2007. The home-schooled teen was saved from elimination by the show's judges last month after coming bottom in the public vote.
Hear Jessica Sanchez perform "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith at the Top 3 performance show.
Phillip Phillips performs "We've Got Tonight" by Bob Seger at the Top 3 performance show.
Joshua Ledet performs "No More Drama" by Mary J. Blige at the Top 3 performance show. Joshua was voted out.
Adam Lambert was in town last Thursday as part of his Glam Nation tour which started in June. Over 10,000 concert tickets were quickly snapped up filling the Putra Indoor Stadium in Bukit Jalil with screaming, excited fans.
In honor of his pledge to obey local rules, he did not kiss anyone. The glam-rocker created a stir by kissing his bassist Tommy Joe Ratliff at his recent Tokyo concert.
The 28-year-old American Idol 2009 runner-up who is openly gay, kept his word of providing “lots of glitter and leather” in his feather and gothic-themed ensembles at the highly-charged show. In the 90-minute concert, Lambert thrilled his fans with hits such as For Your Entertainment, Whataya Want From Me and If I Had You.
America has chosen. Meet the new American idol, Lee DeWyze.
Gee, I missed the finals last night. Was it shown live last night here? I'll have to catch it on a repeat.
The new "American Idol", Lee DeWyze, is a paint store clerk from Illinois, who overcame his shyness and prevailed over soulful Crystal Bowersox in the ninth season of American Idol.
Now in its 9th season, "American Idol" is still America's most popular TV show, but has seen audiences slip by about 9% this year to an average 23.9 million viewers per episode.
The other winner at the finals was Simon Cowell who will be leaving the show. He will be going to X-Factor, which is along the lines of Britain's Got Talent.
American Idol will go on but whether it will be as successful without Mr Cowell is left to be seen.
How would you like Victoria Beckham replacing Paula Abdul in American Idol? What??!! Why not, eh?
No, Victoria was only stepping in to fill the vacant space left by Paula's departure for last weekend's first auditions in Denver.
They are still looking for a permanent judge as reports have it that Paula Abdul will not be coming back but instead be joining a rival show, So You Think You Can Dance.
She has not been approached to be a permanent judge but there is a high possibility of her having a recurring role as either a guest judge or a choreographer.
Kara DioGuardi wore a black dress and said she was "in mourning" for her colleague.
"She was really the heart of the show, incredibly nurturing to the contestants," she said of Paula Abdul.
From Simon, "She was like my best buddy on the show," "And you only realise how much you miss somebody when you're not there. I am sad."
Auditions are underway for the new Season (9) of American Idol but we will not be seeing Paula Abdul this time around. Paula has decided to leave American Idol after being with it for the past eight years from the very beginning. I heard her request for a higher paycheck was not met.
Do you think not having Paula Abdul on the American idol will make any difference? Perhaps three judges - Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi and Simon Cowell - are good enough? Whatever... the show is going on, though viewership has been on the decline from one year to the next.
And I am still hooked on Adam Lambert's version of Mad World. Give it a listen. You may be haunted by it too.
TV audiences around the world have been inundated (yes, inundated) with reality shows especially from the United States. It is a good thing that not all of them come to our shores as some of them are really skanky reality shows.
Several months ago while channel-surfing, I stumbled upon two that I found interesting enough to have me watch on and off over time.
One of them is about a couple of little people and their family, (the title escapes me right now), the other being Jon & Kate Plus 8. This one has an element of cuteness as it talks about a Southeastern Pennsylvania couple, Jon and Kate Gosselin, who have their hands full raising twins Cara and Madelyn, and their sextuplets, Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah and Joel. This reality series follows the Gosselins through their crowded daily routines.
The twins were born in 2000 and sextuplets born in 2004, after Kate Gosselin underwent fertility treatments. Gosselin is also a registered nurse and has authored books on her experiences with motherhood. She became well known to audiences when she began co-starring with her husband, Jon Gosselin.
Jon Gosselin became a famous face when he became the co-star of a reality show about his family in 2005. Gosselin also co-authored books with his wife about their parenting experiences.
Last season, Jon and Kate went to Hawaii and renewed their wedding vows. The entire family was present. How sweet!
Raising eight children and in front of the cameras must have taken its toll on Jon and Kate and their relationship. In Monday's episode, Jon and Kate announced their separation. How devastating. I feel sad for them, especially for the kids. The show will still go on, however. Some viewers feel that they are exploiting the kids for fame and money but then again, without this show, the kids may not be living the way they are living right now - in this wonderful big house which is central to the show. Both parents will take turns to be here with the kids for the show. Some arrangement, but, that's life.
Have you watched Jon & Kate Plus 8? What do you think of it?
Meanwhile, the 10 finalists of the American Idol Season 8 are prepping up getting ready to go on tour nationwide (US), starting off at Oregon on July 5.
And the "Idol" winner is (interminable Ryan Seacrest pause here) ... Kris Allen.
The charmingly humble and cute 23-year-old from Conway, Ark., walked off with the Season 8 crown Wed night at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. The surprising results were announced at 10:04pm Eastern time.
Are you disappointed?
Clearly, Adam Lambert is a better singer though Kris gave a few good performances and improved each week. Do you think Adam Lambert lost because of his sexual orientation?
Below are a few of my favourite numbers/performances..
Kris Allen singing Apologize and Heartless
Adam Lambert - Mad World. I prefer the live version but no longer available on YouTube
Allen's win must have been a disappointment to Simon Cowell as he (Simon) was clearly rooting for Lambert and have even urged viewers to vote for rocker Lambert, a blatant and unprecedented display of favoritism.
Did anyone of you catch this week's American Idol? I just watched the results episode this morning and saw the bowing out of the contestant I rooted for. Awshucks!! He is none other than Anoop Desai. Truth be told, it isn't surprising, having to compete with the more talented (and zestfully gothic) Adam Lambert and (sweet) Kris Allen.
I actually thought Kris is the dark-horse. Gosh! he plays musical instruments too. He looked meek (and weak) in the earlier days but has grown into quite a force to be reckoned with these past few weeks.
I think this competition will boil down to between him and Adam Lambert. Btw, did you like Adam's rendition of Born to be Wild? Though Adam's cover is a refreshing difference sort of, I much prefer the original version from Steppenwolf. Here, let me share with you one of my favourite rock songs... interesting video too. (I hope the video is still available by the time you view it.)
A little bit more about American Idol before I move on to something else. Together with Anoop Desai, Lil Roundsgot voted out too, so there are now five contestants left - four guys and a doll. It's getting more exciting.
On a positive note, woke up to great news on the football front. I can only salute Manchester United for almost, almost repeating history when they beat Spurs (Tottenham Hotspurs) by 5 to 2. The last time, they came back with a scoreline of 5 to 3. So, yay!!
Last night's game was played too late so I managed to stay up for only the first half with Man United down by two goals to nil. The last thought on my mind before I was transported to slumberland was, would history repeat itself.. Close. Wonderful! Is it too early to celebrate, do you think? *Singing* We are the champions, my friends. And we'll keep on fighting - till the end. We are the champions, we are the champions... Better stop singing lest the other club supporters get offended. Peace.
Some headlines and news from The Star today..
- On the backpage, it says Great escape - Amazing comeback - Red Devils go top after handing Spurs a second-half thrashing - Tevez will stay: Fergie - Kaka may join the Red Devils - A chip of English tradition - Vidic says he will celebrate with a plate of fish and chips if United win title
and I am happy..
You all have a wonderful, wonderful Sunday. I'm off to buy some books and sit in a cafe sipping coffee watching people watching people go by. Ahh....life is sweet.
When American Idol first started, it was a high-profile show and everyone was following it and talking about it. But after a few seasons, the interest level sort of petered off. I gave up after two seasons and watched whenever it happened to be on but I sure am glad to have caught the last season, albeit just the last remaining rounds. And the contestant I rooted for became the American Idol. Yay! David Cook rocks!!
As I missed the earlier rounds, naturally I was interested to see how he did, so I went through almost all the videos on YouTube last night and picked out some of his better performances and loaded them here. IMO, he deserves the win. He won by a margin of 12 million votes! He is more versatile, more daring and creative and simply has what it take to be an Idol.
I love his version of Billy Jean - so radically different from MJ's. Caught me off-guard that this number could be done so differently and yet come up so beautiful, soothing even. He did a great job too on Hello, Eleanor Rigby, Day Tripper, Free's All Right Now. He could take on anything and everything, and give it a new rock twist, a new life. Imagine DC singing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. Awesome rendition. Serene and romantic.
Certain numbers sound better in the studio, others better on stage. I wonder if they'd be compiling the whole lot into an album.
Give the list below a listen and see if you agree that David Cook deserves the win. Enjoy!
David Cook - American Idol Season 7 Audition (Livin' On A Prayer)
