American Idol’s react to The King Of Pop’s untimely death

American Idol’s react to The King Of Pop’s untimely death

Kris Allen - This is one of those moments in time you will never forget

Adam Lambert - RIP MJ

Kelly Clarkson - Someone pinch me! RIP Michael. My thoughts and wishes go out to his family. We’ll always love you Michael! <3

Jordin Sparks - Omg I’m bawling right now. Michael…. My heart hurts.

Chris Daughtry - Holy crap!!! Michael Jackson is dead…2 icons in one day. Very sad for his family

David Archuleta - Ah, I can’t get over MJ. I know everyone’s talking about it but he deserves the respect. I hope people will appreciate what he’s done.

Blake Lewis - I don’t think I have ever cried this much. I just played P.Y.T on repeat for about 30mins. I can’t believe this. So sad. MJ’s music will live on through all of us! We are all blessed to have been and be apart of it.

Danny Noriega - RIP KING OF POP MUSIC<3 MICHAEL JACKSON =(  Life is something people take for granted.. realize.. u are lucky to be alive..

Anoop Desai - Michael Jackson was one of my first musical influences, and I am reeling from his loss. The man epitomized pop music

Chikezie Eze - Tender love and care… MJ, the vultures did NOT win, you will live on. R.I.P.

Kimberly Caldwell - I’m in an airport right now and it’s so sad to see everybody that loved mj gathered around the tv. This is devastating. Say prayers

Chris Richardson - Timeless music doesn’t come around often. When it does you remember…Fan or Not. RIP MJ

Michael Sarver - This is like a bad dream. The news of Michael Jackson has sucked the life out of the idol rehearsals. I am shocked and stunned. What a sad day in the world of music. MJ was a huge influence in my musical life as he was for many others. Unbelievabe. RIP MJ.

Brandon Rogers - Totally devastated. RIP Michael Jackson. The best performer the world has ever seen. One of my musical idols. He’ll be missed. I can plot the musical journey of my life to his career. I’m still having a difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that he is gone

Carly Smithson - Ive never felt this way about a celebrity death . I feel like ive lost someone i knew . His talent was a part of all our lives . Wow

LaKisha Jones - my prayers and sympathy go out to the entire Jackson family. We have lost a true ledgend! God bless

Melinda Doolittle - I don’t even have words right now…what in the world?!?!

Chris Sligh - Wow Michael Jackson is dead. Pray for his family, as cheesy as that sounds. Someone so famous for so long.

Matt Giraud - I’m sending out my prayers and thoughts to my biggest musical influence, Michael Jackson. A true inspiration

Scott MacIntyre - My thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Jackson family. Words cannot express.

Syesha Mercado - Still at UCLA Medical Center.hundreds gathered singing, dancing, holding signs & lighting candles.

Danny Gokey - Please pray for Michael Jackson!!!!

Ramiele Malubay - I still don’t really believe mjs dead. One of my major idols you will be missed MJ

Mandisa - happens in 3’s: Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson. Prayng 4 their famlies…& 4 God 2 use this 2 show us our time here is short.

Adam Lambert Responds To Clay Aiken’s Blogs: ‘If He Wants To Ride My Coattails, Good For Him’

Adam Lambert Responds To Clay Aiken’s Blogs: ‘If He Wants To Ride My Coattails, Good For Him’

Adam Lambert has no hard feelings after “American Idol” Season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken bashed him then apologized over a series of blog posts late last week.

“I don’t know Clay,” Adam told Access Hollywood on Thursday morning after performing on the “Today Show.” “I’m glad he’s getting headlines now though, because he wasn’t before.”

Last week, Clay hit his official blog, and slammed Adam, this season’s runner-up. Clay revealed he only watched one episode of the FOX reality series all season, and it was the one where Adam Lambert took on Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

“At that moment, [I] thought my ears would bleed. Contrived, awful, and slightly frightening,” Clay wrote.

A day later, Clay hit his blog again, to apologize for his comments.

“I do apologize to Adam for my colorful (and negative) choice of words. I hope he can forgive me,” Clay wrote. “I imagine he doesn’t give a damn! God knows he shouldn’t.”

And it appears Adam didn’t actually mind.

“If he wants to ride my coattails about it, good for him,” Adam told Access, giving Clay the thumbs up sign.

Adam also told Access he wasn’t unnerved by the news that AT&T employees handed out cell phones at two pro-Kris Allen “American Idol” parties in Arkansas during the final round of the competition show, and showed people how to send multiple texts at once.

“There are plenty of standards and practices set up where they make sure that there’s no, foul play. And I don’t think it’s a conspiracy,” Adam told Access. “I think people are making a big deal out of nothing. A couple of employees handed out a couple of phones and showed people how to use them. I don’t think that’s a conspiracy of any kind.”

Kris! Adam! Simon! Randy! David! Ryan! Kara! American Idol’s Morning-After Roundtable

Kris! Adam! Simon! Randy! David! Ryan! Kara! American Idol’s Morning-After Roundtable

No boundaries? Not for newly crowned American Idol Kris Allen. Or even Adam Lambert, despite (or, depending on who you ask, because of) his second-place finish in last night’s finale.

While neither winner nor runner-up seemed as thrilled or outraged as their respective fan bases over America’s choice of a new Idol, the emotional floodgates inched open this morning. The final two, along with judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi and last year’s winner David Cook, opened up about the show’s outcome, the ever-sappy winner’s single and, yes, the Danny Factor to Ryan Seacrest—who let loose with what’s sure to be a controversial opinion of his own.

“I was numb, I was totally numb, I had no idea what to feel,” Allen told Seacrest on his radio show this morning. “Adam deserves this as much as I do. It was crazy, I never thought this would happen.”

It seems the winner’s incredulity didn’t stop when the cameras did. Neither did the mutual lovefest between Allen and his one-time Idol roommate.

“I told him, I was like, ‘You deserve this,’ and he was like, ‘No, you deserve this.’ We love each other, man. We’ve been friends ever since the Top 36, we were in group two together, and we both made it. I’m really proud of him, and I know that he’s really proud of me as well.”

And while Allen said he wants “definitely to do the pop singer-songwriter thing” with his career, it will take some time for his reality coronation to sink in. He said he has “not at all” processed his win.

Failing to process right along with him is the angry Adam faction—of which, it should be noted, Lambert himself is not one.

“I couldn’t be happier for Kris,” the glam rocker said. “I really, really mean that. He’s one of the most open-minded, embracing of all types of people person…He’s just an old soul.

“I really was prepared for anything to happen. I knew it was such a tight race between the three of us—Danny [Gokey], him and I—and I just kinda was prepared, you know.”

Plus, as Paula Abdul would and no doubt has said, Lambert is already a winner.

“You know, the whole thing for me in this competition is that it wasn’t a competition. It was like a platform every week, an opportunity for me to get up and do my thing for everybody. It was fun, and it wasn’t about, Oh, I’m gonna beat this guy or beat that girl, it was about, Oh, I get to stay on another week to do another thing.”

As for whether his outsize image or refusal to address rumors of his sexuality played a part in his losing, Lambert said he was “a little worried about it” before his audition, but said he was fortunate that fans were quick to embrace him.

“I think there’s always other things in the works, you know. It’s about music, but it’s also the personality of the artist, about how the artist looks, how the artist dresses, it’s about all of it, it’s a package deal.”

As for how the Idol journey has changed Lambert, he says one small tweak has taken place.

“My dad thinks I’m cooler than I was beforehand.”

Meanwhile, the question on everyone’s mind and blog this morning is whether or not the best man won. For the PC-savvy Idol minds, the answer was yes.

Or rather, “yes, but…”

“I have to say I wasn’t surprised, and I don’t mean that with any disrespect to Adam,” relinquished Idol titleholder Cook said. “I don’t know that either one of them would have surprised me. I don’t think it’s the end for either one.”

That covers best man. But what about best singer?

“I don’t know. Singing is an aesthetic thing for me, it kind of depends on what you like. They’re both great performers.”

Count on Cowell to give a more straightforward answer.

“[Kris was] probably the right win in terms of being a nice guy. Was he the best singer in the competition? No.

“If you allow America to vote, you live with the vote. I wouldn’t have said he was the best singer in the competition, though. I think he was like a little puppy dog.”

He didn’t have quite as kind words about the winner’s single, however, which happened to be cowritten by fellow judge DioGuardi.

“By the way, how awful was that song, though?” he said of “No Boundaries.”

“‘Mountains, hurricanes, rivers, oceans…it’s probably the most clichéd song I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Fellow judge Randy Jackson agreed.

“Let’s not talk about the song, Ryan. My mom said if you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything.”

For the defense…

“It’s a song about dreams and attaining the impossible and what these kids go through to get this far is extraordinary,” DioGuardi said, turning the conversation back to the boys.

“I think that they both won. For me, this was a very interesting year, because you had such different artists. You had the soft side of rock and the hard side of rock, and it really wasn’t about winning, it’s about, what’s your preference?”

Still, she does think there was a deciding factor to the competition and it had nothing to do with Allen or Lambert.

“I think that the Danny vote probably swung the competition,” she said. “If you were a Danny fan, you probably aligned more with Kris’ music.”

Jackson agreed.

“Listen, I wasn’t shocked, because I was also thinking Danny and Kris were kind of close in who their voters were. I think that’s really what happened.”

Asked where she sees the second-place artist fitting into the music scene, DioGuardi believes he has potential to follow in the successful footsteps of another Idol also-ran.

“You know, when I watched him with KISS, I almost thought, this guy could front a ridiculous rock band à la Daughtry—when you know it’s Daughtry, but it’s a band. He’s such an incredible frontman. This is his thing, to be able to reach thousands and thousands of people in an arena-like setting. He has the voice for that. He’s also learned how to pull it back and come from his heart.”

Jackson, too, sees nothing but big things coming for Lambert, describing him as “Robert Pattinson from Twilight meets My Chemical Romance meets Guns ‘N Roses.”

“I actually think it’s better for him that he came in second.”

Oh, and about Seacrest’s controversial weigh-in…put on the spot by Cowell (who else?) as to where he would rank Allen in the annals of American Idol winners, the host didn’t exactly place him near the top.

“Probably in the middle,” Seacrest said.

Falling below him? “Justin, Kelly,” he presumably joked, before clarifying, “That year, that year. Who’s won the show? I can’t remember.”

Also falling prey to Seacrest’s discerning ear: “Ruben. Taylor Hicks.”

Ouch.

American Idols Inundate Hot 100, But ‘Glee’ Gloats With Top Debut

American Idols Inundate Hot 100, But ‘Glee’ Gloats With Top Debut

Nine combined tracks from “American Idol” winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert enter this week’s Hot 100 tally, but each track lags behind “Don’t Stop Believin’” by the cast of the Fox series “Glee,” which is the chart’s Hot Shot Debut at No. 4. The remake of Journey’s classic top 10 hit, which shifts 177,000 downloads, surpasses the original version’s 1981 No. 9 peak. Journey’s rendition moves 42,000 downloads, up 48% for the week.

Allen’s victory single “No Boundaries,” one of five songs the newly crowned champ places on the Hot 100, opens at No. 11 with 134,000 downloads. “Boundaries” rank and digital sum fall short of the No. 3 entry and 236,000 downloads shifted by 2008 winner David Cook’s triumphant tune “The Time of My Life” a year ago this week.

In addition, Allen’s five charting songs, which also include “Heartless” (No. 16), “Ain’t  No Sunshine” (No. 37), “Apologize” (No. 66) and “Falling Slowly” (No. 94), fall well short of the 11 tracks Cook tallied in the ‘08 post-show week. Part of this discrepancy can be attributed to the other purchasing options offered to Allen’s fans that were not available a year ago for Cook’s followers, including the iTunes Pass and the digital “Season 8 Favorite Performances” album which opens at No. 50 on the Billboard 200 with 10,000 units.

Runner-up Adam Lambert debuts on the Hot 100 with four tracks, with his take of Tears For Fears’ “Mad World” leading the charge at No. 19 with 115,000 downloads. Lambert’s chart showing bests the three songs placed by 2008 runner-up David Archuleta on the list a year ago, while his sum for “Mad World” is significantly better than the weekly downloads moved by Archuleta’s top track “Imagine” (71,000). Lambert, interestingly, outpaces Allen on The Billboard 200 as his “Season 8 Favorite Performances” debuts at No. 33 with 16,000 units.

Among the beneficiaries of the “Idol” finale afterglow is season seven winner Cook who performed his new single “Permanent” which debuts on the Hot 100 at No. 24 (103,000 downloads). Keith Urban claims his best-ever Hot 100 rank (51-20) and best single-week download total (72,000) with “Kiss A Girl” and season four queen Carrie Underwood re-enters at No. 79 with this year’s farewell anthem “Home Sweet Home.”

American Idol winner Kris Allen is ready for tour and album

American Idol winner Kris Allen is ready for tour and album

A year ago, Kris Allen was planning on finishing college and getting a “regular job.”

The “American Idol” winner didn’t even plan on auditioning for the Fox network singing competition.

Now he’s looking forward to the “Idol” summer tour — and to recording an album that’s like the music he performed on the show — but kicked up a notch.

Says Allen: “I want to put out music that’s gonna be completely different than what’s going on right now in the music world.”

AT&T: Overeager employees helped American Idol fans text

AT&T: Overeager employees helped American Idol fans text

“American Idol” sponsor AT&T says a few overeager company employees helped Arkansas fans vote by text at viewing parties — but didn’t influence the final results.

Kris Allen of Conway, Ark., ended up winning the “Idol” title last week over Adam Lambert, who’d been cast as the frontrunner by the show’s judges.

AT&T said that in the future the company will ensure employees understand that its sponsorship “celebrates the competition, not individual contestants.”

In a separate statement, Fox and the show’s producers said they are certain the results are “fair, accurate and verified” and that the integrity of the voting process was protected against unfair influence.

Tori Amos: Why I Can’t Watch American Idol

Tori Amos: Why I Can’t Watch American Idol

Don’t look for Tori Amos to be popping up next season on American Idol—or any season, for that matter.

“I have a hard time with the demeaning comments to the artists,” Amos told me the other day at L.A.’s Sunset Marquis hotel, where she was promoting her new album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, and an upcoming tour.

“I don’t find it funny,” she said.

In fact, the couple of times she has watched it, she’s gotten a little too emotional…

“My husband [recording engineer Mark Hawley] said, ‘You’re getting far too involved. You have got to stop mothering the world. You can’t just make it all better and send Louboutins to everyone,’ ” Amos remembered.

Their daughter, 8-year-old Natashya (”Tash”), however, does watch AI.

“Tasha watches all of that,” Amos said. “She wants to watch Gossip Girl, but I’m not letting her do that right now.”

House, like Idol, is allowed. “Her aunt, who she adores, is a doctor, so she’s fascinated with that,” Amos said. “She’s obsessed with House.”

That doesn’t mean the little one wants to be a doctor when she grows up—even if that’s what Amos is hoping for. Tash wants to go into show business.

“I can’t become like those parents and say, You need to become a doctor or a lawyer,” Amos says. “But I feel like I’m one of those mothers who’s like, ‘Don’t you want to be a lawyer or a doctor?’ She’s like, ‘No, I don’t.’ ”

Amos can’t be too surprised: Tash is about to go on her fifth world tour with mom. There’s always a space backstage to call her own.

“Last year, it was Tashatopia,” Amos says. “This year it’s TashaChanel. She’s become obsessed with Coco Chanel. She talks in the French accent!”

AT&T May Have Swayed Idol Outcome to Favor Kris Allen

AT&T May Have Swayed Idol Outcome to Favor Kris Allen

The New York Times is reporting that American Idol’s Kris Allen may have had a little help from AT&T, one of the Fox show’s biggest corporate sponsors, in winning this year.

According to the Times, AT&T provided phones for free text-messaging services at two Allen parties in Arkansas on the night of the finals. Citing sources, The Times reports that AT&T reps showed party-goers how to “power text” — cast 10 votes at the touch of a button — which violates show rules.

Power texts, according to the Times, “have an exponentially greater effect on voting than do single text messages or calls to the shows toll-free phone lines.”

No similar efforts appear to have been made to provide free texting services to Adam Lambert fans.

Angry Lambert supporters are now claiming in online chat boards that the competition’s voting was rigged.

While Fox has yet to comment, AT&T issued the following statement: “In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported on the possible skewed voting last week.

American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson is a Susan Boyle fan

American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson is a Susan Boyle fan

From one talent show contestant to another: well done.

Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the debut season of “American Idol” in 2002, says she’s a fan of surprise British singing star Susan Boyle, adding to a growing number of celebrity admirers that already include Oprah Winfrey and Demi Moore

Boyle, the 47-year-old church volunteer with a powerful voice, overcame a dowdy image to become an Internet sensation after her performance on the talent show “Britain’s Got Talent” was posted on YouTube.

“I think it’s awesome. I’m bawling whenever I hear her sing,” Clarkson told The Associated Press in Hong Kong, saying Boyle’s rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables” sounded beautiful.

Clarkson was in Hong Kong promoting her new album, “All I Ever Wanted.”

The 27-year-old singer said she still tries to catch “American Idol” when she can and defended the show against criticism that it has welcomed candidates with previous record deals or experience in other talent contests. “Idol” rules only require that contestants not be under a record or management contract when they audition.

“I personally think if someone has been affiliated with the industry, who cares? That just means they’ve been working hard and trying to get in the door,” Clarkson said. “Regardless, you’re going to be an amateur talent. It’s not like you’ve had a huge record deal and toured the world. It’s not like they’re going to be some huge threat.”

But she said the show’ success has put more pressure on contestants.

During the taping of the first season, “No one knew what to expect. No one knew if it was going to be successful,” Clarkson said. “But now people know the stakes.”

Danny Gokey says he’s willing to try Dancing With The Stars

Danny Gokey says he’s willing to try Dancing With The Stars

Danny Gokey isn’t going to let a few put-downs keep him from dancing.

The 29-year-old former church music director and “American Idol” finalist says he’d like to try “Dancing With The Stars,” in part because the “Idol” judges regularly criticized his moves.

Gokey was back in Milwaukee for a free event Tuesday night. He wanted to thank his hometown for its support and raise awareness and money for his charity — Sophia’s Heart Foundation.

He says his first priorities are the foundation and making his album, for which he’s already started writing songs. But he says he would consider doing reality TV if it gives the foundation more exposure.

The charity, named for his late wife, will provide music and arts programs for kids.

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