New URL for the American Idol buzz blog!
Please go to the new American Idol Buzz blog at http://blogs.ajc.com/american-idol-blog/
Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2006 > November > 30
Thursday, November 30, 2006
12/1: Fantasia video
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fantasia’s “Hood Boy” video debuted this week on BET. Here’s a youtube link or via yahoo.com.
if you haven’t heard it yet, here it is in streaming audio from aol.com
What do you think? I’m neither disappointed nor excited.
11/29: Kat’s album delayed & other bits
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The release date for Kat McPhee’s new CD has been pushd back tol late January 2007 from Dec. 19, missing the Christmas rush. We’ve heard virtually nothing about the CD. There’s not even a title yet. “She’s finished but they’re touching it up,” said RCA spokesman Roger Widynowski. Clearly, they fell way behind recording it. That could hurt sales since that’s a pretty dead time to release a CD but at least she won’t be competing as directly with Fantasia, Chris, Taylor and the others.
Here’s Kat’s explanation on mtv.com. These are the first details about the CD in the press. She said no “Over the Rainbow.” Here are some excerpts from the story.
“The most important thing is making it the record that is really me,” McPhee said. “I think people didn’t know what I was going to be. Was I going to be the Celine Dion, the Barbra [Streisand] or the Pussycat Dolls?”
McPhee insisted she’s the same “classy Katharine” she was on “Idol,” but called the new tunes a sort of combination of the three. “With everything I had to deal with [during the tour] with my voice being down, a broken foot and all of that stuff, it was nice to take time to really think about what I wanted to do,” she said. “I was getting submitted a lot of songs that just weren’t right and I didn’t think I could make them mine, so it’s been taking a little bit more time. So now we’ve been building the songs like how you would if you were making a record if you weren’t on ‘Idol’ and you would take five months. It’s been a cool creative experience for me. I’m really a songwriter and I’m learning from the best people in the business.”
Those people include Babyface and songwriter Kara DioGuardi (Kelly Clarkson, Hilary Duff), as well as less predictable names like Chad Hugo of the Neptunes and Timbaland’s production partner, Nate “Danjahandz” Hills, who worked on Justin Timberlake’s “My Love” and Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous.”
She said it will be a little more edgy, more current, than many might anticipate. Her Web site gives off a sign she is sexing it up. The photo of her is in fact virtually unrecognizable. Is there enough raccoon-like makeup around her eyes?
Hmmm… so it’s pretty clear we have no real idea what Kat is going to exactly show us, a problem I think she has had from the beginning of the show. What market is she really going to target? What are people expecting? It’s all a muddle and no matter what is on the CD, it’s going to be a tough sell. Your thoughts?
And here are some other Idol bits:
This Australian paper’s story reveals who the stalker is that tried to extort money out of Diana DeGarmo by stealing her identity and demanding cash to go away. It doesn’t really offer any new info but it’s still intriguing.
Chris Daughtry’s sales opened at an impressive 304,000, according to SoundScan through Billboard. (Hitsdailydouble’s estimates were very close.) That was No. 2 behind Jay-Z and ahead of NOW 23 at 289K. The Beatles Love came in at 272K.
Carrie Underwood’s “Some Hearts” CD, which is more than a year old, ranked No. 19, with total sales of 3.9 milliion copies after selling another 102K this past week. She’s riding on the success of the third single “Before He Cheats.” She’s also up for a bunch of Billboard Music Award country artist awards, too. Kellie Pickler’s “Small Town Girl” CD is down to 57 with total sales of 169,000, placing her ahead of both Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo. Clay dropped from 147 to 155, with total sales of 416,000. Despite a No. 1 R&B AC single, Ruben is struggling mightily, with CD sales of just 8,000 last week as his ranking dropped to 169, with total sales of just 141K.
I credit those sales numbers to Ken Barnes at his USA Today Idol Chatter.
And Taylor told Relix magazine that he has used “Idol” to jumpstart his career and doesn’t plan to watch the show again, according to this story. In reality, I doubt he watched the show before this season to any degree anyway.
“‘American Idol’ for me is fizzling out,” he tells the latest edition of Relix magazine, a publication formerly devoted to following the Grateful Dead. “I want to take that opportunity and exposure: you either come see me, buy my album or you don’t. I’m not trying to meet expectations. If you can say you’re a working musician, then you’re doing something good.”
