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  • Didi Benami’s Brokenhearted Night

    If Sonic Clashers got this one right, look for Tim Urban and Didi Benami to be swiveling in stools after Ryan Seacrest announces they’re in the bottom three.

    And look for the teary contestant (who evokes the name or memory of her freshman college roommate Rebecca Lear more than Danny mentioned his recently deceased wife last year) to go home tonight.

    The Sonic Clash Spring Singing Contest entries are in (but you still have until the results show begins airing on the East Coast tonight to enter this week’s contest).

    Every vote put Didi Benami in the bottom two.   More than half of the voters selected her to go home tonight.   Benami butchered Jimmy Ruffin’s What Becomes of the Brokenhearted last night and may have saved moptopped Tim Urban.   The boy who has nine lives was called out as tonight’s loser on all of the ballots that did not select Benami.

    This week’s biggest surprise?    As the competition tightens, the buzz around marginal contests is beginning to evaporate.   Aaron Kelly and Siobhan Magnus both received “bottom two” votes.  Magnus has all fallen from favor as the winning singer after front-runner Crystal Bowersox played against type last night by dressing up, playing the piano and singing Midnight Train to Georgia.

    Mamasox now has been selected as the contest winner by 50% of Sonic Clash voters.

  • Bieber-Mania Is Running Wild

    Just Bieber - My World 2.0
    Just Bieber – My World 2.0
    It isn’t terribly big news that Justin Bieber’s 2.0 version of his first album went number one this week on the album charts. It was pretty much expected that the youngster would reign supreme this week. What’s newsworthy is that the original version My World, which was released six months ago, shot up the charts as well and sits at number five.

    According to Rolling Stone’s online website, My World is now at its highest point ever on the album charts.

    In fact, Bieber was on such a roll, sales of My World are up 50 percent from the previous week as either hardcore fans or misinformed parents bought the two albums together. My World finished the week at Number Five, its highest point in 19 weeks on the charts, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

    Has this ever happened before? Has an artist who has released an updated version of an album which charted in the top ten, also had the original album chart in the top 10 at the same time? I don’t remember this happening before, but I could be wrong.

    It’s not like releasing second versions of an album happens often either. What about Lady Gaga? If anyone knows, shoot me a comment.

  • Erykah Badu Naked In Dallas

    Did anyone else miss Erykah Badu?

    The Dallas native has been singing heavy thoughts for a long time, and New Amerykah Part 2 is no exception.   The album dropped this week, but single Window Time is causing a stir because Erykah strolls through Dallas and sheds her clothes on the street where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

    Window Time’s lyrics are as apolitical as possible.  I adore her spoken outro after the song.  Of all things, though, the video distracts from the song for obvious reasons as you wonder who is in the crew and why aren’t more people looking at this naked celebrity.  News reports focus on how Erykah could have gone to jail (as if) or been arrested (more plausible).   The same reports dwell on how the video was shot was at the landmark in one take without a filming permit.

    You can catch the Window Time video on Erykah’s site.   She has wisely blurred out any actual nudity so it’s probably not the thing to watch in a conference room at work, but it’s as tame as anything on broadcast television.

    I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole album, but even if the concept album premise from her last release is still working, today’s is a different world with individual track purchases and video streaming sites.  I can tell you the lyrics are strong, and there has never been any doubt about the power and control in Erykah Badu’s voice.