American Idol 8 – Top 11 [review]

Quick sprints!

Michael Sarver – The tongue-tying Norwegian! No idea what he sang, but loved his energy and his jokes. The quotes that came out of his mouth were more golden than Simon’s tonight. “If we were all perfect, we wouldn’t need this show.” WORD.

Allison Iraheta - Loved her. Loved her energy. She kept doing twos with her fingers. You know what? Dialidol.com placed her second to last tonight. Foreshadowing much? Hmmm…

Kris Allen – He shaved. Hehe! Very nice performance. Very heartwarming and sincere. Simon loved it and hinted that Kris could win this thing. He’s having a boycrush.

Lil Rounds – Painful. Painful whole way through. So awkward during judging. Poor Little. Hope you do better next time.

Adam Lambert – One expression:  0.O Ummm… What? Was is supposed to be satanic? Demotic? Hypnotic? Emo? Goth? Rock? EROTIC? Oh wait, its country week… Super weird. I could only glance at my TV screen in horror.

Scott MacIntyre – *yawn* Here comes the ballads! It was boring, but I must admit, Scott sure can crack jokes. I’m on Paula’s side, no more piano driven inspirational angel loving songs,  please. Simon vs Paula was hilarious.

Alexis Grace – I blame it on you, Ryan Seacrest. The whole way through Alexis’ performance I was thinking how much she looks like Dolly Parton. Whoa. Why “Jolene”? I didn’t really like it. Brooke White last season nailed the song though.

Danny Gokey – thinks he is an angel. *pukes* What’s up with the white overcoat with the popped up collar? He looks like a chubby polar bear with glasses. No offense, Danny. Besides dressing as an angel, he butchered Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel”. Butchered as in ruined it. I preferred his first half of his song rather than his screechy second half, to be honest. Paula doesn’t want to admit that she’s wrong about Danny.

Anoop Desai – Anoop? You’re still there? I barely noticed. I walked away to grab some food during his performance. I heard that he ressurected from the dead. Oooh. He can join Danny the angel.

Megan Corkrey - I refuse to say Megan Joy. Poor Megan was sick with the flu. She did decent though despite the bad coughing. She looked absolutely stunning, singing aside. STUNNING.

Matt Giraud – I was right about him getting the pimp spot this week. Matt did “So Small”. T’was AMAZING. Seriously. AMAZING. I cannot wait for the studio version of this. Matt got compared to Michael Buble today. Let’s see… He’s got Elliott Yamin, Taylor Hicks, Justin Timberlake and Michael Buble under his belt. Wonder what he’ll get next week. Again, Matt was AMAZING. Paula almost burst into tears. Go figure!

++++

DialIdol hates Megan, Allison and Alexis. NOOOOOO…

My Top 3: Matt, Kris, Michael.
My Bottom 3: Lil, Adam, Alexis/Scott.
Who Should Go Home: Lil,  Scott.
Who Will Go Home: Alexis/Megan.
I Want Him/Her to Go Home ASAP: Anoop.

I hate the judges’ save. Its so bias.
++++

What do you think? Who did the best? Who sucked? Leave your comments!

American Idol 8 – Top 13 – Results [review]

What a clumsy result show. Anyone else felt that? Everything was disorganized, Ryan was singing, the cameras were inattentive, the contestants were not well informed, Ryan was talking funny, and Jorge sounded horrible. Tsk. What has the show came to.

Anyways! The new twist was revealed. The judges will have one and ONLY ONE chance to save  a contestant that they think is worthy of staying for another week. Consequently, two contestants will be eliminated in the next week. The whole purpose of this is to avoid another “shocker elimination”. I think that’s just silly. Shocker goners = fun. It’s they try to twist the show so much the whole thing is now twisted. As if it wasn’t confusing enough already.

We got introduced to the new mansion that the top 13 are staying in. It looks cool and swanky, with a bowling alley and huge bathtubs and a swimming pool, but its nowhere near as great as the houses from ANTM. The contestants are of course psyched to be staying there. Who wouldn’t be?

The “bottom four” (Ryan didn’t really say who were at the bottom) were Anoop Desai, Megan Corkrey, Jasmine Murray and Jorge Nunez. No surprises, the four of them did the worst. I’m glad the results were justified. Jasmine and Jorge were sent packing. Goodbye Jsquared. We wont miss you. Seriously. Jasmine is a fine girl, but she just doesn’t connect with the audience, and her performances are so… off. Jorge on the other hand had a horrible night. He was atrocious. With his ridiculously accented “NO, NO, NO” at the ending of his song, it was painful. Judges didn’t even bother to save them. I would’ve sent Anoop home though, his performance was second to last worst. Alas, he’s got a huge fanbase…

Contestant blunders! Ryan’s on crack tonight. Wassup with the last names, Seacrest? He made the contestants all jumpy and nervous. First, Matt Giraud was heading to the centre of the stage already before he was stopped by Allison Iraheta and Michael Sarver. Next, Kris Allen volunteered to walk to the centre of the stage as well, before realizing Megan was the one who should be taking the walk. It was definitely funny to watch them mess up. Best part of the whole one hour show, in my opinion.

Kelly Clarkson performed! Love her. It’s like Idol is trying their best to keep refreshing our minds (as if we need it) every single week that they own Kelly and that she is ‘the original Idol’. Fail. Kanye West performed. Whatever. He was jumping all over.

New goodbye song! It’s Carrie Underwood’s “Home Sweet Home”. I would prefer David Cook’s “A Daily AntheM” though.

We say goodbye to Jasmine and Jorge. Now the real competition begins!

GO MATT G!

What do you think? Satisfied with the results? Who did the best? Who was the worst?

I miss Season 7.

[Pics from Yahoo!]

American Idol 8 – Top 36 – Group 3 – Top 3 + Wildcards [review]

So! Who else was feeling super duper hyper-actively ecstatic after today’s results show? I DID!!!

Lil Rounds was, expectantly, the top female of the bunch. Her happy-go-lucky attitude plus her powerhouse (and creative) singing won her the top spot. Hooray for Lil!

Scott MacIntyre was too, expectantly, the top male of Group 3. All it takes is a little blindness and some passion to put you through to the next round. I’m not really convinced about Scott, I think he just got it there because of his sob story.

Jorge Nunez received the third highest number of votes with his Latino flavour, Spanish blubbering and tears. Honestly, if he didn’t broke down at the end of his performance, I doubt he’ll even sail through.

Okay, so whatever about the top 3 from Group 3. The real fun part was when Ryan announced that there will be 8 Wildcards chosen by the judges performing tomorrow. All the contestants that didn’t made it via votes had another chance of rounding up the top 12. This was where all the adrenalin began. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat clutching a pillow and shouting “MATT GIRAUD!!!!” to my TV screen.

Lo and behold, Kara announced that Matt Giraud was getting another chance. I seriously cheered so loud I’m surprised anyone within a one mile radius didn’t hear me. Hehe. Maybe not that far, but you get the idea. I could almost kiss Kara for announcing it, though I will not take back all the bad stuff I said about her. Oops.

Who else was in the Wildcard Eight? Almost all my favourites, to sum it up. Jasmine Murray, Megan Corkrey and  Ricky Braddy were among my favourites.  I jumped in joy when they made it. And of course, the one that I cheered for the most (besides Matt) was Tatiana Del Toro. I was super excited that Tatiana was chosen to be in the Elite Eight. Tatiana seriously rocks.

I don’t really care much for Von Smith, Jesse Langseth and Anoop Desai at this point. I don’t understand why the judges chose Von, he has zero chance of making it to the top 12. And IF he really makes it, I’ll promise not to curse Kara again. As for Anoop, I think he’s really overrated.

Who SHOULD have been in the Elite Eight? Felicia Barton, in my opinion. I thought she did great yesterday. They definitely should’ve picked her over Von.

SO! Tomorrow the Eight will battle it out for the last three spots! I really hope it’s a two-guy-one-girl thing again. That way the top 12 will be comprised of 8 males and 4 females. The males really own the females this year.

GO MATT G!
GO TATIANA!

What do you think? Ecstatic or just plain bummed? Leave comments!

[Pics from Yahoo!]

American Idol 8 – Top 36 – Group 2 – Top 3 [review]

Anyone else feels that having four judges is so… packed? It’s so claustrophobic over at the judges’ table. I used to like Kara, but now I see her as a useless extra to the panel. I cringe every time she gives a comment, its like she’s trying too hard to fit in. Kara, go back to producing music please. Leave the judging to the real judges.

So, group 2 is over! What a frustrating an interesting pile up of contestants. I mean, it’s so obvious that the producers want a select few to make it through that they had to compile almost all the best singers in one group to battle it out for what, 3 spots? Insanity! I really hate the new format. You cut 9 people off and let 3 people through. How fair is that? I really miss the old format where the lowest 2 contestants get eliminated and the rest can breathe for another week. Besides, it’s the only way you can watch each performer grow and monitor his or her progression. Duh.

And the highest male getter was…

Matt Giraud!

… I wish. Matt was my pre-show and current favourite to win it. He’s an awesome singer and performer no doubt, no one can deny that. But it came down to bad song choice. *facepalm* I didn’t think his rendition of Viva La Vida was that bad to be honest. However harsh the judges were, they still know that deep down, Matt is the one to beat. His Hollywood week performance, “Georgia” was hands down the best performance that day. I hope the judges has the brains to put him through to the WildCard round, and hopefully Matt will have the brains too to  choose the right song and blow Kara out of her seat and hopefully so far away that she’ll never return.

Obviously, the highest male getter was Adam Lambert. Duh. He’s like, the second most pimped contestant after Danny Gokey. Though I really think that Adam deserved this spot, he worked, or rather, sang hard (and high) to get into the top 12. I have nothing personal against Adam, but it was weird watching him perform with all the self touching and drag-ness. Nevertheless, congrats Adam, you deserved it! Those high notes are impossible. It’s interesting to see how well he’ll do in the future.

Allison Iraheta got the spot for the top female in the bunch. It was well deserved too, her performance of Alone was original and full of passion and confidence. I like Allison, she’s incredibly unique. Although the Kelly Clarkson comment is inevitable, sadly. She does resemble Kelly, if you look hard enough… Whatever. Allison rocks. Literally.

And the person who was lucky enough to sail through was… Kris Allen. I’m starting to think that America casted their votes based on looks, rather than vocals. Hehe. If you asked me about Kris Allen before this group performed, I’ll tell you I have no idea. If you asked me what song he performed after the show, I’ll tell you I have no idea. Weird, how is it that this forgettable guy got a spot in the top 12? Hmmm. Kris refreshed my memory with his encore performance of Man In The Mirror (which I thought he’d be dead with, cause Michael Jackson songs are always a no-no). But, if you ask me who Kris Allen is now, I’d definitely tell you he’s the guy who deserved the top 12 spot.

So who should’ve went through as well? MATT GIRAUD. He needs the WildCard round to save him now, and I’m pretty confident he’ll get another chance. Mishavonna Henson. She’s a cute one. I really really like her. Megan Cockrey. I’d love to see how far she can go with her soul, Brooke White-ish vibe.

Speaking of Brooke White, she was stunning tonight. Loved her new single.

There’s number 4, 5 and 6 of your top 12! Happy with the results?  What do you think? Leave your comments!

*still pissed with the producers* Get them, Normund.

[Pics from Yahoo!]

-MDOC-’s Wordle!

Wordle has became somewhat of an overnight sensation during the past  few months. It’s basically a creative website that puts together a jumble of words from your blog, your website or any rubbish that you type in and creates them into a piece of art. It’s really colourful and fun.

Here’s the Wordle for - MDOC - !

Bigger version here. Glad Wordle decided to feature Cook in the spotlight.

American Idol Season 8 – Top 36 – Group 1 – Top 3 [review]

I’m a bit slow on the AI8 updates, been really busy lately. So, as everyone saw on the Wednesday results show (or Thursday if you live ahead of the US time zone), the top 3 from Group 1 are: Alexis Grace, Danny Gokey and Michael Sarver. Duh. How obvious.

First rounds of votings are always the most crucial, since first impression often burn into someone’s mind forever. So even if you improve ever so slightly in the next few weeks but did horribly on the first week, you’d still be categorized in the ‘bad’ title.

So, Alexis Grace emerged as the top female out of the females present in Group 1. Hallelujah. Alexis was amazing. She was soulful, confident and most importantly, sexy. I really hate the ‘Kelly Clarkson’ title dubbed by Simon almost every season, its getting old, but it’s good that Simon sees something in her that reminds him of his favourite winner ever. But, being called the dark horse, that is something. David Cook was given the dark horse title last year, and he won over original frontrunner David Archuleta. Simon always speaks the truth.

The top male was of course, obviously, Danny Gokey. DUH. Anyone who doesn’t realize this ever since Hollywood week is wrong in the head. Danny has been pimped by the producers every single week. Some (most) fall for his charm, looks, voice and his sad story. Others dislike his charm, looks and sad story. Unfortunately, I fall into the latter category. Danny seems rather… fake, over the top and overly confident. That’s just my opinion, of course I have no idea how he’s like. I don’t like the vibe I’m getting from him. Of course, with all the hype generating around Danny, my opinion doesn’t really matter. Danny will be in the finals. DUH. It’s David Archuleta all over again (but at least I liked David).

Now the third lucky contestant with the third high number of votes was Michael Sarver. I think I can say this: everyone fell in love with Michael ever since he was shown in his auditions. Even Simon can’t deny his charm. In fact, I think its his charm alone that brought him into the top 12. For sure. I don’t have much to say about Michael, but if he sings consistently and ooze his charm every week, there is no doubt he’ll advance easily.

So who did I think should’ve been in the the top 12 as well? Ricky Braddy. Ricky reminded me a lot of Elliott Yamin with his rendition of A Song To You. It was soothing. Unfortunately, Elliott > Ricky by a mile, so. Brent Keith. Brent’s chances were badly hurt by lack of screentime, I though he did project who he was as an artist, so he should’ve advance as well. Tatiana Del Toro. YES. TATIANA. I love Tatiana. She was awesome, even better than most of the contestants!! I think Tatiana deserves another chance. Plus, she makes good TV. I hope she makes it past the Wildcard round.

So who sucked? REAL BAD? Stevie Wright. Casey Carlson. Stephen Fowler. Urgh I cant stand Fowler. He is sooooo annoyingly abysmal. He sucks, in other words. At least Stevie and Casey tried.

Support Alexis!
Go Tatiana!

What do you think? Leave comments!

[Pics from Yahoo!]

American Idol 8 – Phoenix, Arizona Auditions – Favs – Emily Wynne-Hughes

American Idol Season 8 is back! Who’s not excited? The producers promised a show that will showcase less blunders and more talent, and surprisingly, they did. Watching the flashbacks of past winners and the newest American Idol, all hail David Cook, was really satisfying. Especially Cook’s video, that gave me the goosebumps. Playing “A Daily AntheM” in the video was really appropriate.

The first audition stop in Phoenix, Arizona was quite promising.

I’ll be updating the site with my favourites in each city. Arizona presented someone that particularly caught my attention: Emily Wynne Hughes.

Emily, 21, hails from Los Angeles. She’s the lead singer of a band called Go Betty Go, and apparantly she ditched her bandmates to audition. Hehe.

Emily sang “Barracuda” (love that song) by Heart. It was really enjoyable. I think she’s really gorgeous, she’s good looking pass all those tattoos and piercings. Her voice somewhat resembles Fergie’s and her tattoos of course reminds everyone of Carly Smithson (in an incredibly good way). And it’s great to know that she’s bad at sports and maths and school. Hehe. Watch her audition here.

I hope she goes far in the Hollywood round! She’s my absolute fav from Arizona.

In other news, Kara DioGuardi as a fourth judge was interesting to watch. She really knows her stuff, and I’m glad to see that there’s someone tough in the judging panel other than Simon. Hehe. I’d like to see them battle it out.  Kara already bared her teeth to the bikini girl (what’s her name? Don’t really care, although it was a good laugh), who knows what else she can do.

Also, David Cook’s single “Light On” has officially passed the 500,000 mark, making it achieving gold status. Hopefully it’ll hit platinum soon. The album is almost there.

Go Emily Wynne-Hughes!
Go Cook!

What do you think? Leave comments!

[Photo Credit: MjsBigBlog]

David Cook Vlogs: Meet Dublin!

Mr David Cook has vlogged!! (finally.) It’s been what, around three months since his last vlog. And it really was worth the wait.

Cook wishes everyone a very happy new year while vlogging in front of his huge, new, shiny, framed platinum cover for The Time Of My Life. It looks really good hanging there. Here’s hoping he’ll get more of those when Light On and his self titled album achieves platinum status.

He introduces us to a new member of the Cook family, a super adorable puppy named Dublin. Plus, he also named a few tour dates, which oddly, doesn’t involve the much-hyped-about Philippines tour which is supposed to happen sometime this month. I don’t think that’ll happen anymore.

Meanwhile, Cook looks really exhausted. Probably tired from his breakup with Kimberly Caldwell, but for all we know, we hope that he’s okay and get well soon!

Support David Cook!

What do you think? Leave comments!

David Cook Slams Charts At #3

Idol winner David Cook’s eponymous debut album has proved itself worthy, landing at #3 on the Billboard charts for its debut week of release. The self titled album sold 280,000 copies, behind Beyonce’s and Nickelback’s albums, which were both released on the same day.

However, in the case of digital sales, the album landed at the #1 spot.

While Cook came in third to Beyonce’s debut at No. 1 with “I Am…Sasha Fierce” (Music World/Columbia) and Nickelback’s “Dark Horse” (Roadrunner), his album debuts at No. 1 on Top Digital Albums, giving the “American Idol” its 210th No. 1 on a Billboard chart.

Cook’s album sold more than Idol winners Jordin Sparks and Fantasia Barrino in its first week, but is behind other winners, namely Ruben Studdard, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks and Kelly Clarkson who are first, second, third and fourth respectively.

Here are the debut week sales of all Idol winners:

1. Ruben – “Soulful” (Dec 9, 2003) – 416,569 (# 1)
2. Carrie – “Some Hearts” (November 15, 2005) – 314,549 (# 2)
3. Taylor – “Taylor Hicks” (Dec 12, 2006) – 298,199 (# 2)
4. Kelly – “Thankful” (April 15, 2003) – 297,000 (# 1)
5. David – “David Cook” (Nov 18, 2008) – 280,000 (#3)
6. Fantasia – “Free Yourself” (November 23, 2004) – 239,389 (#8)
7. Jordin – “Jordin Sparks” (November 20, 2007) – 119,119 (#10)

Cook’s first single, “The Time Of My Life” also mirrors the albums position on the charts, for it also debuted at #3, and is still going strong. Besides hitting the platinum status, the song has also smashed another record:

David Cook’s reign on the Adult Contemporary chart with “The Time of My Life” (19/RCA) has gone into double digits, making him one of 15 solo male artists to rule this survey for 10 weeks or more since the chart began in 1961. Cook is the only male artist to have a song advance to No. 1 on the AC chart in 2008.

Meanwhile, runner up David Archuleta’s new single will be “A Little Too Not Over You”, not “Touch My Hand” as planned. Bummer.

Let’s hope Cook’s album will continue to do well in the long run, and here’s hoping that they choose a great second single to propel the album sales!

What do you think? Leave comments!

[News Source: Billboard]
[News Source: FansOfDavid]
[News Source: MjsBigBlog]
[Photo Credit: David-Cook.com]

Time Of My Life Hits Platinum!

David Cook’s power single “Time Of My Life” has finally smashed into the platinum mark from sales. The coronation song has been selling steadily since it was released when Cook won American Idol Season 7 back in May. Despite low air play, it’s been featured in many shows such as Dancing With The Stars and The Olympics. Since then it has still been going strong in sales, and finally reached it’s platinum status. TOML debuted on the Billboard charts at #3, one of the strongest first week sales since Season 2.

The Time of My Life slips 125-127 but is up 14% to 11,000, and achieves the milestone of 1 million sales!

TOML is now the highest selling coronation single in Idol history, beating Clay Aiken’s “This Is The Night” and Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This”, which are second and third respectively.

Meanwhile, Cook’s first post-Idol single, “Light On” is managing fairly well although not as successful as TOML.

David C.’s Light On is down slightly on the chart, 67-71, but climbs 17% in sales to 21,000 for a total of 247,000.

As for his self titled debut album, sales are expected to be good. The album is expected to fight with Nickelback’s “Dark Horse” for the second place spot. First place is predicted to fall to Beyonce with her new album “I Am… Sasha Fierce”. Taylor Swift might even go strong in her second week with her sophomore album “Fearless” and rob the #2 spot away.

A double dose of Beyonce and her alter ego will grab the top spot on the HITS Album Sales chart next week, as her two-CD Music World/Columbia set, I Am… Sasha Fierce, will debut at #1 with 500-550k in sales, according to those hardy retailers who still have their doors open. The real tussle will be right below that for #2, as a debuting RCA/RMG’s David Cook and Roadrunner’s Nickelback go head-to-head with this week’s chart-topper, Big Machine’s Taylor Swift, in her second week. All look to be in the 300k range, mas o menos.

Let’s hope Cook’s album will exceed expectations and bow at number one on the charts, even beating Beyonce! Hopefully “Light On” will do better when it gains airplay, and kudos to “Time Of My Life” for hitting platinum!

David Cook’s got a great year ahead of him. GET YOUR COPY OF THE ALBUM, IN STORES NOW!

What do you think? Leave comments!

[News source: IdolChatter]
[News source: MJ'sBigBlog]
[Photo credit: DavidCookWeb]