American Idol Blog

5/15: Syesha Mercado interview: "I want to do everything"

Thu, 15 May 2008 18:25:34 GMT

Film! Broadway! An album! Books! An organic restaurant! Start a lupus charity foundation!

“I’m real goal oriented,” said Syesha Mercado. who is all about optimism. “I write them down and keep looking at them.” And as she noted, “I want to do everything!”

I noted to her that Paula Abdul twice Tuesday said she sang songs that didn’t define who she is. So I asked— who is she really as an artist? “I’m a mix of a lot of things. I think that’s why people say, ‘She’s Broadway!’ I’m like a black Christina Aguilera or Alicia Keys. I definitely see myself putting together a Christina Aguilera album like the one she recently did [which had Broadway elements in it.] I could do a ‘Diary of Alicia Keys.’ I like pop and I like R&B and I like old-school musicals. I’m growing into an artist and developing. I’m glad I did ‘American Idol.’ You were able to see the transition I went through. I’m still learning about myself every day… People will know who I am.” [As you can see, even she can’t define herself in 25 words or less, the way we can the two Davids or Brooke or Jason—her strength and weakness.]

For my folllowup question, I asked her to clarify her comments equating her own experience to the Civil Rights movement in relation to the Sam Cooke song “A Change is Gonna Come.” I wasn’t sure she was aware that it was a rather uneven comparison and thought she could give us some clarity. My interpetation: she says the song meant something different to her in terms of her own life vs. what the song meant to an entire generation, not that there should even be a comparison per se: “It’s a signature song for the Civil Rights movement. For me, it meant something different. It took on a completely different meaning. It came during a transitional time in history. This is a transitional time for me. For me, a change is gonna come.”

5/14: Top 3 results show

Thu, 15 May 2008 02:17:10 GMT

Here’s the holding spot for the results show. Sorry-thought I had posted this early but forgot to press “save” before leaving work.

5/13: Idol top 3 performance show

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:19:39 GMT

Here’s the holding spot for tonight’s “Idol” featuring the three contestants singing their own song, a producers’ pick and a judge’s pick.

Will Archuleta stumble without daddy whispering in his ear? Will Cook find enlightenment via Collective Soul? Will Syesha keep digging deep and prove us all wrong?

In the TV Guide interview, Archuleta defended his dad before Jeff’s banishment: “I’ve heard the weird things that people have been saying, and it’s kind of a bummer. My dad’s been great. He understands more than anyone what I want.” (Would you expect anything else from the Arch?)

5/13: Top 3 strengths & weaknesses

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:50:19 GMT

While everyone is anticipating the long-awaited David vs. David finale, let’s give Syesha some due and weight each person’s strengths and weaknesses as we enter the home stretch of season seven:

David Cook

Four-word description: Daughtry, with more soul

Strengths: He brings growly sincerity and manly confidence to all his work. He can take a seemingly shallow pop song and shape it in a way that gives it a real depth. He’s comfortable on stage. And he doesn’t seem arrogant in an offputting way, like Daughtry did at times season five. Vocally, he seldom misses a note. He could be packaged quite successful in the rock-pop realm.

Weaknesses: He’s not the best-looking dude on earth and when he tried to pull off a Simon LeBon-like sexiness last week, it didn’t really work. And his fallback position is to ape that grunge-lite Nickelback sound, which can be a bit repetitive and tiresome in large doses.

Odds of winning: 3-2

David Archuleta

Three-word description: Donny Osmond redux

Strengths: He has a pliable, comforting voice that can warm the soul when properly engaged. He’s got puppy-dog good looks, appealing to 13 year olds and their moms. He can take on a ballad with surprising depth, especially if it has some sort of social message. He possesses a real heart. And he could do quite well in a Josh Grobin sort of way.

Weaknesses: He is only 17 and seems like he’s 13. His lack of maturity means it’s hard to predict where he’ll land in 10 or 20 years. He seems uncomfortable with anything with an edge and doesn’t seem to know how to apply himself on stage when it comes to moving more than two or three inches to his left or right. (Jordin Sparks had the same movement problem last year.) Guys don’t generally seem to find him all that interesting, but they aren’t the primary voters either.

Odds of winning 5-4

Syesha Mercado

Two-word description: Broadway bound

Strengths: She clearly has great acting ability, able to take on different genres with verve and a take-no-prisoners raison d’etre. Her vocals are always solid, if not distinctive or spectacular. She’s pretty, though not in an intimidating way.

Weaknesses: She always seems like she’s acting. If she has a “real” core to her, it’s sometimes hard to see. She is not a pure pop singer, lacking a top 40 sensibility.

Odds of winning: 20-1

I have to meet some friends for dinner but will add some extra “Idol” news later.

In the meantime, here’s MJ’s video of Jason Castro performing “Daydream” on “Ellen DeGeneres”:

5/12: Hometown visits, Archuleta's dad banned?

Sat, 10 May 2008 16:43:21 GMT

I remember when Fox did this for Diana DeGarmo four years ago in Snellville. It’s a highly orchestrated hometown visit for the final three. Here’s a summary of their trips.

-Murray, Utah. greeted David Archuleta at his high school and at a mall, where 2,000 showed up. The governor named it “David Archuleta Day.” He sang the National Anthem at the NBA playoff game though ESPN wasn’t allowed to air it because of some sort of exclusivity deal with Fox. He apparently drew far more people to his mall A&T event than comparable events for Syesha or David Cook, which isn’t a surprise.

-Syesha Mercado hung out in Bradenton, Fla., doing a concert at the riverfront where she sang “Proud Mary,” visiting her elementary and high school (which is in Sarasota) and singing the anthem at a Rays game. This Tampa blogger captured the scene quite nicely.. She also attended Florida International University. This Miami Herald piece claims she’s the first Floridian to make the top 3, which I’m sure makes Vonzell Solomon (top 3, season four) feel great! The story noted that Randy Jackson wants her to sing Alicia Keys’ “I Ain’t Got You”on Tuesday as the judge’s choice. And yes, Manatee County proclaimed it “Syesha Mercado Day.”

-In Kansas City, David Cook sang “Living on a Prayer” and “Always Be My Baby” and later did the anthem for the Royals.

-And how about this for juicy gossip? TMZ is claiming David Archuleta’s dad Jeff was booted from the show for being a pain in the patootie. Apparently, he had insisted Archuleta add a line from Sean Kingston’s song “Beautiful Girls” into “Stand By Me,” which producers nixed. Archuleta did it anyway. It caused problems with the song’s publisher and cost “Idol” money, TMZ claims. Jeff has been nixed from the backstage although technically Archuleta is a minor and needs a guardian. I wonder how the legalities of this will play out and will Archuleta be better without his dad breathing down his neck while he rehearses with the band and vocal coach?

5/9: Should "Idol" skew younger?

Fri, 09 May 2008 20:16:35 GMT

Simon Cowell generally hates precocious young teen singers, though he has been fairly kind to David Archuleta. But he told Extra that going younger may be the way to go, especially on a show that is losing younger viewers.

“All these shows, including Idol, in the future are going to have to go younger. We’re going to have to drop the age from 16 to 14 soon.”

Do you agree? I’m not too psyched about the idea. Younger kids don’t tend to know who they are yet and that can be a handicap.

Remember “American Juniors”?

In other “Idol” news:

-Some “Idol” reject from season three who compared himself to Clay Aiken was arrested for soliciting sex with 10 year olds,. I think I blocked this dude out of my brain.

-Carmen Rasmussen from season two thinks that David Archuleta is still the fav to win it all.

-Today is the day each of the top 3 is getting the hometown treatment. I’ll post some of what happened over the weekend.

-Some fans of Jason Castro didn’t believe he said he wanted to go home to Entertainment Weekly. Well, he admit he said it to her in a follow up interview. and he was just frustrated at the time.

-Sacre bleu! A hometown writer in Salt Lake City dares to critique the hometown teen contestant in the form of David Archuleta!. Been there, done that!

5/8: Jason Castro exit interview: "I'm a chronic yawner."

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:18:09 GMT

In today’s press conference, Jason Castro proved he could say full sentences and denied he was tanking on purpose.

He also said the yawning he did on camera was not an indication of ennui toward the show, that people who noticed thought it was funny. “I am a chronic yawner,” he said.

I asked him specifically if he said “Don’t vote” Tuesday night.

“I was trying to emphasize ‘Vote,’ ” by saying it twice, he said. “Nobody heard me. I sat down and was thinking about it. It had the same syllable. [Don’t and vote.] [The second time,] I consciously went and said ‘vote’ once.”

On Simon saying he forgot his words on purpose. “I did not do that on purpose. I can’t believe I forgot such a popular line [during ‘Mr. Tambourine Man.’] THat’s writtong on your soul. It somehow slipped my mind.”

Insisting he wanted to win: “I still wanted to win. I think it came down to my inexperience. Once we doubled on songs, I couldn’t focus. My mind was just split. I couldn’t deliver either [song.]” Later he added. “I was doing my best.” He said when he said he wanted out to “Entertainment Weekly” a couple weeks ago, “A lot was going on that morning. I don’t know. That kind of came across wrong. People were kind of thinking I didn’t want to be there. That was never my mindset.”

How much experience does he have: “I started playing guitar freshman year and singing soon after. I’d learn songs but never all the way through. So trying to do two was tough.” [Longest set he’s ever done: 30 minutes.]

Songs he couldn’t get cleared: As we know, he said “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley didn’t get aired because Danger Mouse nixed clearance after he had already performed it. He also almost got “Santeria” by Sublime cleared, then it wasn’t.

Why so mellow? “I’m grounded. Nothing comes as a surprise to me, but, um, I don’t know. I am like that. I’m not always so calm. I am kind of goofy. Some don’t see my hyperness. I still have fun. I am pretty relaxed about everything.”

Doing two songs: “I was losing that power. I couldn’t connect with the songs in the given time. I wasn’t committed to either one. I couldn’t fall in love with them.”

HIs speaking skills: “I’m an awkward conversationalist. I’m trying my best now! What you see is what you get. I didn’t change at all coming here.”

HIs singing and performance skills: “I’m as raw as it gets.”

On Paula’s snafu last week: “That was kind of funny. I was confused… I don’t think it affected my performance [of his second song.]”

Was he relieved by his departure: “It was my natural reaction. I felt relieved. The pressure was off. I loved my time on there. I would have liked to have gone farther.”

Watching “Idol” in past years: He vaguely remembers watching it one season in college.

On Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” doing so well after he sang it: “I realized the power of ‘American Idol.’ It was such an honor. Cool. People hadn’t heard it. Now they have.”

What he wanted to sing next week: “Blue Eyes” by the Carey Brothers, from the “Garden State” soundtrack. (see below)

In other “Idol” news:

-DJSlim has what is a song by Jennifer Hudson called “All Dressed Up In Love.” I really like it but it sounds very ’60s, very old school, not modern at all. I have no clue where he got it from or whether it will be on her upcoming album.

-Reports are that Jordin Sparks is back to work, her voice recovered.

-Jon Peter Lewis from season three is going to be on “Good Day Atlanta” on WAGA-TV next Thursday, May 15. I can’t say he was going to be a star, but he seemed like a nice pen salesman. I’m not sure if he’s selling pens right now but that was Simon’s prediction for him.

-Q100 had Randy Jackson, Kat McPhee and Elliott Yamin on the phone this morning at the same time. McPhee said she was thinking of throwing in the towel earliy on and both said the show was extremely stressful. She felt she got worse as she went along. McPhee had Kellie Pickler at her wedding. Randy placed Kat and Elliott on his album. The trio are promoting the song “Real Love.”

-Phil Stacey’s self-titled new album opened at No. 43 with 13,000 copies sold, which is about what I would have expected. That’s comparable to Josh Gracin’s second CD, which opened a few weeks ago at 18,000. Stacey’s single “If You Didn’t Love Me” is at No. 28 on the country charts in its 15th week while Gracin’s “We Weren’t Crazy” is at No. 22 in its 29th week, according to Radio & Records. Last year, Bucky sold 61K in his first week.

-Jordin Sparks passed Taylor Hicks with 19K more sold and has 717K total. She’s now the fifth highest selling “Idol” winner, only behind Taylor. She’s now selling far more downloads—more than 3 million. Daughtry is at 4.02 million with 17K more sold. Carrie’s latest is at 2.06 mil with 14K sold while “Some Hearts” moves another 9K and is at 6.4 mil. These numbers all courtesy of Idol Chatter.

-For Clay Aiken’s “On My Way Here,” first-week sales, as projected by Hits Daily Double,, based on first-day sales is 80,000 to 85,000. That’s down from 205,000 for his last release “A Thousand Different Ways” in 2006, 270,000 for his Christmas CD in 2004 and 612,000 copies of his very first CD right after he came in second to Ruben Studdard in 2003.

And according to Georgia Claymate prez, Jenna McBride, this is what I missed Monday night at Manuel’s while I was trying to find my camera (to no avail):

*We had about 25 or so there last night. Most of the Georgia Claymates were in NYC for Clay’s last performance in Spamalot and some stayed over to attend the NYC CD Release Party and some stayed over for the CD signing today at Virgin Megastore in NYC. We had two girls who had literally just flown in for the party last night and came straight from the airport. It was an awesome party. And we especially enjoyed having my friend Jason there who came and played and sang. I think that Jason said that he knows you. His name is Jason Bowen. He is a singer/song writer for Sony/AVT or ATV (one or the other). Sony has changed so many names recently with so many different departments it’s hard to keep up.

Jason has been writing songs for Sony for about 12 years and he just happens to be friends also with Ryan Tedder, the guy who wrote the lead song on Clay’s new CD, “On My Way Here”. Of course Jason sang it for us last night and did a magnificent job. He and Ryan have co-written songs before and he sang one of them last night also. It was awesome too. And another song that he sang last night was one that he wrote that Sony has sent to Kelly Clarkson for consideration. Jason also sang a couple of other songs that Clay has recorded. Hopefully Jason will be able to write some for Clay some day and since their voices and style are somewhat similar, I would love it if he could sing backup for Clay also. Jason has toured with Barry Manilow as a backup singer.

Here are a couple of reviews for the new Clay Aiken CD:

The Daily News gave him one star.

The music Aiken’s writers matched to such hoary bromides continues the singer’s established love for the kind of power ballads that died in the mid-’80s. In this world, the band Mr. Mister still rules; Rick Springfield remains a pop player.

At least such warm-milk pop suits Aiken’s creamy tone. More than ever, he sounds like Boy George, only not so butch.

Here’s the Baltimore Sun, somewhat kinder:

As much as his record company would want him to be, Aiken isn’t a crossover pop star. He’s a male Celine Dion, a nerdier Michael Bublé, a new-millennium Barry Manilow, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The sooner he embraces that, the better his albums will sound. With “On the Way Here,” he’s not quite there.