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Tag: Katharine McPhee

  • American Idol Season 12: Cutting Down To 7

    Katharine McPheeWednesday night’s show was a little rough around the edges. They re-introduced the duets and group performances which can go away as far as I’m concerned. It’s a bit awkward to see them sing in groups again in such a cutthroat competition. We saw Burnell and Devin throw Lazaro under the bus as the reason for their terrible Four Tops cover. And even a halfway decent Madonna Like A Prayer cover by Janelle and Kree (Summer) was littered with Nicki comments about how badly Kree outperformed Janelle. They just need to do away with them. It’s a solo competition. This isn’t X-Factor.

    Will American spare Lazaro yet again? It’s at the point where you feel sorry for him. He has to know how out of his own league he is.

    Who rocked the stage?

    Colton the Muskrat performed and it sounded nice, but I can’t take him seriously with the shaved and spiky mullet. How can anyone?

    One Republic performed with Katharine McPhee as well. I got a lot of heat for ranking McPhee so highly on my top American Idol contests of all-time list. Some of that heat came from the guy who runs this very website. See if you can find him.

    Keith Urban performed and he has that Huey Lewis thing going on. When he speaks, he has a slight accent. But when he sings, I hear no slight accent.

    Who were in the bottom three?

    The three guys who screwed up the Four Tops – Devin, Burnell, and Lazaro. All the girls made it and all the guys are in the bottom three. That’s some American Idol justice right there (even I’m sure the voting didn’t necessarily play out that way – they just did it for the drama). I now fear for Devin and Burnell’s lives.

    Who went home?

    It wasn’t Lazaro. Devin Vasquez was the unlucky soul who had to pay the Lazaro tax. He performed a great version of Impossible and for a second, I thought they were going to save them, but they didn’t. I think they’re saving it for when one of the girls is unfairly placed in the bottom three.

    Is Lazaro the new Sanjaya?

    I think Nicki thinks he’s a newborn baby for some reason. (Thanks to YMCM Baby.)

    Nicki gif

  • Chart Chat 1/13/10: All About Ke$ha

    Susan Boyle has finally met her match.

    After a six-week run at the top, Boyle loses the #1 spot on the Billboard Albums Chart to another new female artist. Dance/pop singer Ke$ha opens at the top with her debut album “Animal”. The album scans 152,000 copies in its’ first week out-easily beating Boyle’s total of 93,000.

    As is customary for this time of the year, the chart is very quiet. The next highest debut comes all the way down at #27, where “American Idol” Katharine McPhee debuts with her latest, scanning 15,000 copies. Only a small handful of albums showed an increase over the previous weeks’ sales, with an iTunes promotion being responsible for the biggest increases-for Radiohead’s “Kid A” and Lenny Kravitz’ “Greatest Hits”. The two decade-old albums more than doubled in sales this week, and it’s not a stretch to think that Lenny’s involvement in the leaked Michael Jackson track that briefly lit up the internets last week was also a catalyst in his sales increase.

    Another increase this week occurs towards the bottom of the Top 200, where Vampire Weekend’s debut re-enters at #199, with an 11% increase in scans over the previous week. Look for VW’s sophomore release, “Contra”, to challenge for the top spot next week. However, with Ke$ha being a new artist and people just now finding out about her, she could maintain her stronghold on the top of the charts for a second week.

    Here’s this week’s Top 20:

    1) Ke$ha “Animal”
    2) Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”
    3) Lady GaGa “The Fame”
    4) Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”
    5) Mary J. Blige “Stronger with Each Tear”
    6) Soundtrack “Alvin & the Chipmunks 2-The Squeaquel”
    7) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    8) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
    9) Justin Bieber “My World”
    10) Lady GaGa “The Fame: Monster”
    11) Rihanna “Rated R”
    12) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    13) Young Money “We Are Young Money”
    14) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”
    15) Glee Cast “Glee: The Music Vol. 2”
    16) Eminem “Relapse”
    17) Lady Antebellum “Lady Antebellum”
    18) Carrie Underwood “Play On”
    19) John Mayer “Battle Studies”
    20) Glee Cast “Glee: The Music Vol. 1”

  • New Releases 1/5/10: J5, Kanye and More!!

    Welcome to January, folks. The flood of releases has slowed to a trickle, but it hasn’t totally died off. Here are a few of the releases attracting people to stores or their local DSPs this week.

    Ke$ha “Animal”-True story. I don’t recall having EVER heard Ke$ha’s “Tic Toc”, despite the fact that it’s been the #1 record in the country for the past two weeks and recently broke a record for most legal downloads in a week. So in order to not seem totally out of touch, I’m listening to the song in the background while I type this. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get through this whole thing. Granted, I come into this prejudiced: strike 1 for Ke$ha is that she sang the chorus of Flo-Rida’s obnoxious “Right Round”. Strike 2 is that she has a stupid-ass dollar sign instead of an “S” in her name.

    Sorry, I just had to turn that off-it’s terrible. Give me Robyn. Give me Lady GaGa. Hell, I’d even take Fergie over this crap!! No wonder people talk so much shit about pop music these days. Anyway, for those of you who would be interested in this (and God help you if you are), her debut album comes out today. Watch it become a huge hit.

    Katharine McPhee “Unbroken”: Show of hands-how many of you remember Katharine McPhee? She’s the chick that placed second to Taylor Hicks (and beat out Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry) on American Idol back in 2006. Of course, she wound up selling the least out of the four. This is probably because she gave off the vibe of a mature jazz/standards diva on the show and then wound up doing a complete 180 and making a Beyonce record. Still, one must admire the fact that she still has a major label contract (with legendary jazz label Verve, at that!). Her sophomore release will probably be a little more in line with what we heard from her on “Idol”.

    Kanye West “Storytellers”: Is Kanye’s career over? This CD/DVD won’t tell us the answer because it was recorded at the beginning of 2009, a good nine months before Taylor-gate. I’m not sure what the purpose is of releasing this, since there was a point in time when it came on every half-hour on VH-1 and VH-1 Soul, but for those interested in hearing Kanye’s slightly unhinged ramblings, this one’s for you. Me, I’ll just wait until the next studio album.

    (By the way-I don’t think Kanye’s career is over. You think the average Kanye West fan gives a fuck about Taylor Swift?)

    Jackson 5/Michael Jackson: Reissue Campaign: The Jackson onslaught continues. Universal has remastered and re-released every Motown-era Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson solo album, with the exception of the first two, “Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5” and “ABC”, which are still available in a two-fer package. Vinyl junkies can also rejoice, because these reissues are also available on wax. And if you know how difficult it is to find vinyl copies of some of these albums, you’ll truly appreciate the re-release. Personally, I’ll be picking up a few of these to fill a couple of holes in my collection.

    Anyway, that should be more than enough to satisfy you music junkies. Get a full list of this week’s releases here.