Jun

4

Don’t fret about American Idol being over for this season because the American Idols Live tour is just around the corner. The tour starts on July 6th and at the present time is scheduled for 56 dates with other dates possibly added depending on popularity. You can grab tickets for American Idols Live over at eBay.

The shows will feature the top 10 Idols from Season 6 and will include:

Jordin Sparks
Blake Lewis
Melinda Doolittle
Lakisha Jones
Chris Richardson
Phil Stacey
Sanjaya Malakar
Haley Scarnato
Gina Glocksen
Chris Sligh

The 56 concert dates and cities will include:

Friday July 6 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center

Saturday July 7 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum

Sunday July 8 Jacksonville, FL Jacksonville Vet. Mem. Arena

Tuesday July 10 Greenville, SC BiLo Center

Wednesday July 11 Nashville, TN Nashville Arena

Thursday July 12 Birmingham, AL BJCC Arena

Friday July 13 N. Little Rock, AR ALLTEL Arena

Sunday July 15 Houston, TX Toyota Center

Monday July 16 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center

Wednesday July 18 Glendale, AZ Jobing.com Arena

Tursday July 19 San Diego, CA San Diego Sports Arena

Friday July 20 Fresno, CA SaveMart Center

Sunday July 22 Anaheim, CA Honda Cente

Monday July 23 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center

Tuesday July 24 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion at San Jose

Wednesday July 25 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena

Friday July 27 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome

Saturday July 28 Portland, OR Rose Garden

Monday July 30 Nampa, ID The Idaho Center

Tuesday July 31 Salt Lake City, UT Energy Solutions Arena

Friday August 3 Omaha, NE Qwest Center

Saturday August 4 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center

Sunday August 5 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center

Tuesday August 7 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena

Wednesday August 8 Moline, IL MARK of the Quad Cities

Thursday August 9 St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center

Saturday August 11 Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center

Sunday August 12 Auburn Hills, MI Palace at Auburn Hills

Monday August 13 Cleveland, OH Wolstein Center

Tuesday August 14 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre

Thursday August 16 Indianapolis, IN Indiana State Fair

Friday August 17 Louisville, KY Kentucky State Fair

Saturday August 18 Sedalia, MO Missouri State Fair

Sunday August 19 Des Moines, IA Iowa State Fair

Wednesday August 22 Pittsburgh, PA Mellon Arena

Thursday August 23 Rochester, NY BlueCross Arena

Friday August 24 Long Island, NY Nassau Coliseum

Monday August 27 Hartford, CT Hartford Civic Center

Tuesday August 28 E. Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena

Thursday August 30 Albany, NY Times Union Center

Saturday September 1 Allentown, PA Allentown Fair

Sunday September 2 Syracuse, NY New York State Fair

Tuesday September 4 Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center

Wednesday September 5 Worcester, MA DCU Center

Friday September 7 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center

Saturday September 8 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall

Sunday September 9 Washington, DC Verizon Center

Tuesday September 11 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum

Wednesday September 12 Duluth, GA The Arena at Gwinnett Center

Thursday September 13 Memphis, TN FedExForum

Saturday September 15 Huntington, WV Big Sandy Superstore Arena

Sunday September 16 Charlottesville, VA John Paul Jones Arena

Tuesday September 18 Hampton, VA Hampton Coliseum

Wednesday September 19 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena

Thursday September 20 Bridgeport, CT Arena at Harbor Yard

Saturday September 22 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena

If any of these dates work for you but they are sold out, you can buy your tickets over at eBay. you have to register for eBay first.

Alan

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May

22

I’ve purposely not voted at all this season on American Idol so as to remain objective about writing this blog. Tonight I cast my first and only vote this season and it went to Jordin Sparks.

Jordin absolutely blew away Blake Lewis this evening. It wasn’t even close, especially on the last song, This Is My Now. Jordin Sparks will win American Idol tomorrow evening.

Here’s how Blake and Jordin worked it out tonight:

Blake Lewis - Blake opened up with his Beatboxing version of Bon Jovi’s You Give Love A Bad Name and he did a great job. Blake is great entertainment, no doubt about it.

Blake’s second song was Maroon 5’s She Will Be Loved and it was a little pitchy. (there’s that word again) Although it wasn’t that bad, I expected much better for THE FINALS!

This Is My Now was the third song for Blake and when I first heard it, I didn’t really like it because he didn’t do that good of a job at it. Then Jordin sang it and that changed my mind. It didn’t go that well for Blake as he was off pitch through most of the song.

I like Blake, he’s very entertaining, but his performances tonight showed why Melinda Doolittle should have been on the stage instead of him.

Jordin Sparks - Jordin opened with a new song that she hasn’t sung on American Idol and it was great. Christina Aguilera’s Fighter was he choice and, as the judges put it, it was stellar.

Martina McBride’s A Broken Wing was Jordin’s second choice and Randy Jackson said it was, “Better than the original” and Simon said, “Now that was good.” Is there any reason to think that Jordin doesn’t deserve to win the American Idol crown tomorrow?

Then Jordin sand the Idol Songwriter’s winning song This Is My Now and she solidified her place in American Idol history and will become the youngest Idol ever, at the tender age of 17.

So that wraps it up for American Idol season 6 tonight for the singers. It’s now in the hands of you America. I strongly urge you to vote for the most talented singer tonight and, that would be Jordin Sparks.

One of Jordin’s numbers is 1-866-436-5706. Call it and vote now.

Alan

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May

22

Yes, that’s my prediction. Although I thought Melinda Doolittle was going to win American Idol I can’t pick her, because she got the boot last week. I’ve been more wrong than right this season, but I do think that Jordin Sparks will take home the title tomorrow evening.

Why Jordin? Well, honestly I’m surprised that Blake Lewis made it to the finals. Don’t get it wrong, Blake is one talented singer, but he has had more bad nights than Jordin has. In fact, I think Jordin has had only a single bad night since the contestants were whittled down to the top 24. Plus Jordin has a very likeable personality to go with her talent, good looks and more main stream appeal.

This is coming from me being the person who couldn’t stand main stream music when I was a kid and into my early adult life. Disco was an aberration to me and top 40 music was never played on my radio. And to be as real as I can be, I would probably buy Blake’s CD before I would buy one from Jordin, but this isn’t about what I like, It’s about what 40 to 50 million votes want. Notice I didn’t say voters.

It’s pretty simple, Jordin will get more votes because the Beatboxing thing, no matter how cool it is, doesn’t resonate with as many people as a down-to-earth, smiling, attractive female singer who can sing in a variety of styles and make it work.

Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to see the finals tomorrow night because I will be out of town so I might not write another blog after this evening’s assessment until Sunday May 27th.

Tune in tonight and see if you can figure out who will win American Idol tomorrow evening.

Alan

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May

16

I didn’t like disco, I’ve never listened to top 40 music and I don’t agree with America on this one. Melinda Doolittle was supposed to win American Idol. She had the talent, she had the chops, she had the interpretation and it was her contest to win.

I’m sure many people are stunned at this point and wondering how such a thing could have happened. Well, I guess it happened because not enough people voted for Melinda Doolittle. Melinda has probably been the most talented and most consistent singer American Idol has ever had on the show.

Both Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks had major gaffs on a couple of songs where they just didn’t work right and have been severely rebuked by the judges. That was never the case with Melinda. While she received a couple of less than enthusiastic comments from Simon, we all knew Melinda was first class talent all the way. Besides, Simon even admitted he was just dying to say something bad about her.

I’d have to agree with Paula in that hey, it’s time for Melinda to leave the show and get started a week earlier on her than Blake and Jordin. There is nothing but bright shining stars for Melinda Doolittle in her future. You go girl!

One another note, it sure was great to see our man Elliott Yamin again on the American Idol stage singing Wait For You. This year’s Idol did not have a voice that came close to matching Elliott’s.

So there it is, a Blake and Jordin final. I never would have guessed that would happen. I don’t know, maybe there is something to that rumor about Jordin being picked to win American Idol, ya think?

Alan

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May

15

Wow! Now that’s what American Idol is all about. After last week’s Bee Gees songs I tend to think everyone was a bit disappointed in the Idol’s performances, but this week they have redeemed themselves in a big way.

Each contestant sang three songs tonight and they were all very good, so it’s going to be a very close vote this week. Usually it is easy to pick out someone that doesn’t do as well as the rest of the contestants, but I think all three gave it their best shot this evening.

Here’s how the night unfolded:

Jordin Sparks - Jordin was incredible tonight as she started out the show with Wishing On A Star. I haven’t heard the song before, but she did a great job and just continues to show more style and improvement every week.

Jordin’s second song was the Donna Summer’s hit She Works Hard For The Money that looked a little less enthusiastic than the first song, but the judges were completely enthused and they tend to give the contestants a boost when they are positive.

Her third song was her choice and it was I Who Have Nothing which she sang on a previous show. The song is pretty depressing, but she knocked it out and it was her best performance of the night.

Blake Lewis - Blake started out with Roxanne by the Police and it was absolutely the perfect song for Blake. I’ve been trying to figure out who Blake sounds like when he just sings and lays off the Beatboxing thing and I think it’s Sting. It was fantastic.

Blake’s second song was from one of my favorite groups, Maroon 5, and it was cool to listen to. This Love was the song choice by the producers of Idol and it fit him well. It was a slightly different arrangement than what everyone is used to, but Blake sounded great.

On to his third song, Blake sang Get You Alone and it was his classic style. He threw in some Beatboxing and it sounded great because it was appropriate and not overdone. Good going Blake.

Melinda Doolittle - Melinda opened round one with the winning song from Whitney, I Believe In You And Me that showed why Melinda will be this year’s American Idol. Melinda can’t miss because she is so incredibly talented and at complete ease being on the stage.

Melinda’s second song Nut Bush City Limits by Ike & Tina Turner was hot, hot, hot. Melinda will win, not because Jordin and Blake don’t have great talent, but because Melinda is on such a higher plane of talent that there is no comparison. Melinda has so much talent she could win American Idol twice.

Melinda Closed the show with I’m A Woman and it was another knock out performance. It was pure, classic Melinda, the one that we have grown up with, well at least for the last 12 weeks.

Dare I make another prediction? Yes, of course, that’s why I write this blog. This is a tough one because they all did really well tonight, but someone must go and I think it will be Blake. Blake is good, Blake will get a record contract, but out of the three that are left, Blake has been the least consistent by only the slightest margin. Sorry Blake, I might buy your album though.

Tune in for a big results show tomorrow at 9:00 pm.

Alan

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May

15

Tonight is the night all American Idol fans and watchers get to vote for their favorite contestant to move on to the finals.

I was a bit wrong in remembering how the show format is for the semi finals. Each Idol contestant gets to sing 3 songs, not just two songs as I had thought. The contestants each get to pick one song, the judges pick one song and record mogul Clive Davis gets to pick a song.

It should be a really interesting show tonight because with this format there aren’t any excuses for doing poorly. Each song will be picked to suit the specific Idol hopeful strong points and play down their weak points. Let’s hope the contestants themselves understand the purpose of this as well.

I’m sure we can expect Blake Lewis to do some sort of Beatboxing rap type song, Melinda Doolittle to do some sort of soulful Aretha song and Jordin Sparks to do a, well, I don’t know what style I would put Jordin in, I guess we will find out tonight. I have to admit I don’t listen to popular music that much so I don’t know where Jordin really fits in. She does have an incredible voice though.

I think we’re at the point if anyone falters at all tonight, they will be doomed. And honestly, I’m not expecting to see Blake make a mistake or pick a bad song, but I just can’t imagine him being around for the finals. Jordin or Melinda would have to trip and fall off the stage for something such as that to happen.

You don’t want to miss the show tonight.

Alan

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May

14

Thanks goes out to Andie who alerted me that American Idol News is featured today at AOL Television. The story is features 10 bloggers making their predictions as to who will win this year’s American Idol.

After quickly looking at each blog in the story it looks like things are pretty evenly split between Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks with only one or two picking Blake Lewis to take the whole enchilada.

I just hope that the last three Idols get a better pick of songs than what they had last week. Yes, the Bee Gee’s were giants in the music industry, but as I read on someone else’s blog, getting black girls to sing in a white guy’s falsetto wasn’t the smartest thing in the world for the producers to do. Can you imagine Aretha singing a Bee Gee’s tune? Or can you imagine the reverse, small voices singing big voice songs?

I think the results might have been much different if the contestants would have had to sing Bon Jovi last week instead of Bee Gee’s. Everyone sand Bon Jovi well, no one really stood out on the Bee Gee’s tunes.

Come to think of it, I believe this week the contestants get to pick any song they want to sing and then record producer Clive Davis picks the other song, a song that should fit them well according to Mr Davis.

Tune in tomorrow to see what happens.

Alan

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May

12

So here we are at the end of another American Idol season with only 3 contestants and 2 weeks left till the end of the show.

So how are the last 3 Idols going to finish and who do you think will win? After this week’s performance by Blake Lewis I think a lot of Idol fans are more than a bit surprised to see him in the semi finals. At the beginning of the top 24 I predicted that we would see an all girl semi final which included Lakisha Jones. Unfortunately that won’t happen.

But here’s how the final three American Idols will finish:

Melinda Doolittle - Everybody knows Melinda will win, I know it, you know it, okay everyone knew it 12 weeks ago. Melinda was a total professional from the word go and although she has received a bit of criticism from the ever negative Simon and Randy in the last few shows, she’s about as close to a perfectly talented Idol as you can get. The only trouble with Melinda during this whole season is that she is so incredibly talented, she really didn’t have any place to go. How can you improve on near perfection?

Jordin Sparks - Jordin will come in second. Jordin has really blossomed on Idol this season. And this is what American Idol is all about. We were all worried about 10 to 12 weeks ago wondering how this group of people actually got here, but thankfully it turned out that the most talented people made it to the top and Jordin is certainly deserving of making it this far.

Blake Lewis - Blake will have to make a complete transformation, morphing himself into a rock star, hair band, lead singer out of the 80’s or some such weird thing to make it any further. Yes, Blake is good, and the Beatboxing thing is cool, for a season, but he just can’t compete with the two ladies left and he will get he boot next week. But hey, there isn’t anything wrong with third place on Idol, I mean look at the success Elliott Yamin has received from his third place finish.

On that Elliott note I just have to say, we really didn’t have any male singer that approached the voice quality of Elliott Yamin this year. Chris Sligh came close, but his talent wasn’t as diverse as Elliott’s and he had a real hard time with his tempo, something that just came natural for Elliott.

I’m going to be very surprised if the results turn out other than Melinda first, Jordin second and Blake third.

Tune in next week for the fun.

Alan

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May

10

Lakisha Jones was the unfortunate Idol contestant that came up short on the show this evening. We are going to miss Kiki and her soulful strutting around the stage and singing like she knew what she was doing.

At this point in the competition it’s really anybody’s guess as to who will be the eventual winner, but after last night’s performances I thought it would have been Blake Lewis who got the boot tonight. Blake just didn’t rise to the occasion yesterday evening, but apparently he has enough of a fan base that that didn’t seem to matter.

The Bee Gee’s songs were a bit hard for the Idol contestants to duplicate as was evidence last night and again tonight as they sang a Bee Gee’s medley that was awful. I appeared that there was a problem with the mikes during that song, but it still sounded really bad. None of the show’s producers had the foresight to see that only a few people can sing like the Bee Gee’s did. Maybe no one can sing like they did.

It looks like my track record on American Idol predictions is picking up a bit as I picked Lakisha to go home tonight in my final four pick a couple of posts back. I didn’t want it to end up that way the votes came in.

I’m sure there is a record producer out there that already has a deal in the works for Lakisha though. There isn’t any other venue in the world that makes stars out of unknowns like American Idol does.

We only have 2 more weeks of American Idol left, can you believe it? Jordin Sparks, Melinda Doolittle and Blake Lewis face off next week for the semi-finals.

Alan

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May

8

Tonight was a strange American Idol. At this level of the competition there can’t be any mistakes from the contestants yet, there were plenty. Poor song choices, tired voices and unenthusiastic performances were the rule instead of the exception this evening. Of course singing Barry Gibb Bee Gee’s tunes isn’t the easiest thing in the world either. Not everyone can sing falsetto throughout an entire song.

Each contestant sang two songs and as the show started out, I think everyone was hoping the second songs were better than the first. With the exception of Jordin Sparks, the rest of the contestants had a somewhat of a hard time stepping up for their performances. Jordin however, showed us that she just might be able to win the Idol crown.

I expected much better on tonight’s show, but here’s what we got:

Melinda Doolittle - Melinda’s first song wasn’t all that bad, but Simon didn’t think it had the wow factor. Even though Melinda is in a different league we’ve some to expect that from her full tilt, every time she gets on the stage. It was good, but it wasn’t full tilt. I felt the same way about her second song, How Do You Mend A Broken Heart. That used to be my favorite Bee Gee’s song so I was really looking for a knockout performance from Melinda, but it didn’t happen.

Blake Lewis - You Should Be Dancin was Blake’s first choice for a song and it didn’t go over that well. Blake’s falsetto wasn’t that good and Simon thought it was corny. What a difference a week makes. You Give Love A Bad Name was incredible last week and this week Blake gave himself a bad name. This Is Where I came In was Blake’s second song and for me, it had no life in it. It didn’t feel like the Blake we love. Unfortunately I think Blake will be heading home tomorrow. You just can’t sing two songs like he did with only 4 contestants left and expect to stick around. Beside the beatboxing thing is wearing a little thin.

Lakisha Jones - Stayin Alive was Kiki’s first tune and I though it was pretty good and she sang it like she meant business however, the judges thought it was just okay. Run To Me was Lakisha’s second song and this used to be my second favorite Bee Gee’s song and again it was a bit of a let down for me.

Jordin Sparks - Jordin belted out To Love Somebody for her first tune and it was the hit of the evening for sure and I think Jordin could actually win American Idol. Her second effort was the Babs tune Woman In Love and even though it was a bit screamy at the end, Jordin put on the best show on Idol today. At this point that counts for everything.

All in all it was an interesting evening on American Idol. I think tonight was proof that some artists songs are quite a bit more difficult than others. Look at the difference in the performances between this week and last week. Bon Jovi tunes made the Idol contestants look good, Bee Gee’s tunes made most of them look bad.

So, what’s my American Idol prediction for this week? I already stated it above. I think that Blake’s performances did him in and he will be going home tomorrow. Blake has a bright future though because he is hot with his own style of music.

Tune in tomorrow evening to see who the final 3 will be.

Alan

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