The best audition from last night’s American Idol Hollywood Week show was from a guy named Andrew Garcia. He brilliantly flipped an old, ahem, Paula Abdul song and was the highlight of the night.
Unfortunately for him, he had to sing it to new host Ellen DeGeneres rather than Paula herself. Paula might’ve cried large tears if she saw it live.
Here’s Andrew Garcia’s rendition of Paula Abdul’s over 20 year old song, Straight Up:
You don’t have to watch the hour long live stream. God knows I kept fast-forwarding. But as he gets ready for sentencing on last year’s gun charges, Wayne took an hour of his dwindling freedom to light up, talk to his fans and rotate in whoever was wandering by.
There’s no denying Wayne’s appeal or credibility. President Obama name checks him, Billboard is suggesting that Rebirth might sell more than 100,000 units in its debut week and he’s already sitting on 4 Grammys. But last year’s multiple arrests on weapons and drug charges means Wayne is likely going to prison for a time. Even multimillionaire musicians can’t like prison. Maybe they like it less.
But a little dental surgery bought him an extra month on the outside. Apparently prison dentists aren’t as good as the ones in Miami so the dude who smoked a Grammy stage earlier this month has until March before being sentenced. Which gives President Obama one more time to namecheck him. Maybe about dental hygiene.
Here is the full hour on Ustream for completists.
We’ve told you about the Haiti charity singles that are soon to be released such as the Simon Cowell All-Star version of Everybody Hurts and the 25th Anniversary 2010 version of We Are The World. I wanted to give props to another song that was put together for the same reason.
While we haven’t heard the final update to the We Are The World remake, I’m going to guess that it won’t be able to match the perfect combination of Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Bono on Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour).
I didn’t watch the Hope For Haiti special live. But I did go on iTunes and download both the album and concert broadcast. I thought all of the songs performed by Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and others came straight from the heart. The performances were subdued and the artists let their voices shine as to not overshadow the goal of the evening, which was to raise money for Haiti.
Save for Shakira’s I’ll Stand By You, which I simply couldn’t get into because of her wailing, I enjoyed everything. It was a perfect evening, not only for the money that was raised for Haiti, but also for how the music community showed that once again it can come together when needed.
The best thing I heard that night, and maybe the best thing I’ve heard in a long time was Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour). From Jay-Z’s whispery delivery, “When the sky falls and the earth quakes, we gon’ put this back together, we won’t break,” to Rihanna and Bono complimenting each other on the chorus, it’s a song that I hope becomes timeless.
If you haven’t heard it or seen the performance, it’s definitely worth checking out.