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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > February > 29 > Entry
2/28: Alexandrea Lushington’s exit interview, Robbie Carrico’s hair
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Douglasville teen Alexandrea Lushington was the Queen of Poise Thursday when she was ousted in the semifinals of “American Idol.” Oddly, her friend and fellow contestant “Idol” David Archuleta was the one falling apart, tears flowing. Lushington ended up consoling him with a hug.
“I probably would have been the same way if he had left,” Lushington told me during a press conference Friday. “I’d never seen him that emotional before.” By coincidence, Lushington and Archuleta knew each other a few years ago when they competed against each other on CBS’s “Star Search.” (Archuleta outlasted her that time, too.)
They bonded as younger contestants: “We were minors so we were always in school. We ate lunch and breakfast with each other. Our dads would hang out together. We’d joke that our dads were like Laurel & Hardy.”
Lushington landed a song to sing Wednesday she had never heard before, the very mellow ’70s Chicago hit “If You Leave Me Now.” The judges were lukewarm, and the voters obviously weren’t impressed either.
“I could have done better and I’m capable of better,” she said. She took solace that judge Randy Jackson was a big supporter. “That gave me a slight piece of motivation. I don’t regret anything.”
TMZ a few days intimated that Robbie Carrico might be wearing (gasp!) extensions. This mtv.com story says it’s real. And so did Robbie today on the press conference:
“I’ve been growing this hair for a very long time,” he said. “I think it’s ridiculous they have to come up with something like that. No wigs!”
As for his Britney past, “I haven’t spoken to her in many years. It was a long time ago. We were friends on tour. That was pretty much the gist of it. It wasn’t that big of a deal. We went on a couple of dates. That was pretty much it.”
What song would have have sung next week if he had survived from the ’80s? Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell.” Could he do the snarl?
Comments
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By JTesla
February 29, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the info!
By War Eagle (from home)
February 29, 2008 6:15 PM | Link to this
Good Morning, UUUUHHHHH Evening.
As I stated the first part of the week, the company I have been with for nearly 19 years was bought out by a competitor. I was lucky to keep my job but about 45 of my co-workers weren’t so lucky. So last night we had a little good-bye “get together” and since about half of the people there didn’t have to get up this morning the “get together” turned into a throw-down.
Anyway I made it to work today but we were busy doing a complete inventory for the bank to approve the buy-out. Looks like I missed a pretty good day on the blog.
By idolbeat
February 29, 2008 6:42 PM | Link to this
Rodney, thanks for posting that. What does “landed” mean? I wonder who chose the song - what some of the other singers said was that the songs they sang were their favorites. Since she had never heard of it, it is strange. Randy said poor song choice. If the producers gave it to her and it was not on her list - that stinks.
By Deirdre
February 29, 2008 6:47 PM | Link to this
Happy to see you have survived, WE. use the weekend for recovery rather than revenge!!!
By War Eagle (from home)
February 29, 2008 6:51 PM | Link to this
Maybe Sunday D, I have to work tomorrow. But I will leave the partying to the younger folks for a few days.
By idolbeat
February 29, 2008 6:57 PM | Link to this
Maybe stinks is too harsh. It just doesn’t seem right. I thought she would have sang Rock Steady, or We are Family or Michael Jackson, not Chicago. I wonder what her choices were?
By JTesla
February 29, 2008 7:15 PM | Link to this
I’m with Idolbeat, the “heir apparent” gets to sing a song, including arrangement, that he has done before, but “Miss I’ve already forgotten who you are” gets stuck with something she never heard of? Perhaps that would be a good question the next time you get to speak to one of the producers. Why are some of those that are getting the boot forced to sing songs they never heard of… and getting ripped on song selection, but then the “chosen ones” get to sing songs they love?
By War Eagle (from home)
February 29, 2008 7:23 PM | Link to this
JT, I feel the same exact way. I just didn’t say anything because some people take offense when the chosen ones are criticized. I was very excited about this year of idol but the pimping of certain contestants has almost turned me away.
By Negativo
February 29, 2008 10:02 PM | Link to this
I think it’s remarkable that Carrico fell from top tier contender to washout in a single week. He was so impressive until that last dull performance, but in this game you can’t afford to be a dud for a single night when you are in niche rocker competition. In this case, it was either going to ne Carrico or Cook (NOT KRISTY), and Robbie came up short.
I think the phony hair rumor may have played a big roll, too. He was already being abused for his boy-band Brittany past, so any hint of BS would be potentially disastrous for him. The results certainly seemed tp play that out.
By Rodney Ho
February 29, 2008 10:52 PM | Link to this
Negativo—the judges harping on his lack of authenticity killed Robbie’s chances, with David Cook a more viable “rocker” type. And Robbie didn’t have that theatrical eye that kept Constantine around season four even though it was clear he was no more a “rocker” than, say, Carrie Underwood, that Bo Bice was the real thing, ahem. I’m not sure the fake hair allegations hurt him but simply solidified the “faker” feel people had about him. And yes, the whole issue of song choice and when contestants can “request” a song outside the “cleared” list is very fuzzy to me. I have to wonder if these younger singers who don’t know enough songs from the 60s and 70s (like Garrett and Alexandria) are simply assigned songs when they can’t get what they want.
By Deirdre
March 1, 2008 7:51 AM | Link to this
You know, guys…the ‘chosen ones’ are the ‘chosen ones’ for pretty good reasons.
David A’s voice is richer than most of the others’. He lets the song soar along with his voice. His charisma is another factor.
Carly pretty clearly has the most consistently good voice of the girls. It’s strong while being nuanced. You don’t have to like her but, her voice IS better than most of the other girls’
There’s a big difference between liking someone as a singer and liking him/her as a person. Vote for whatever reasons you want, but don’t blame the judges for pushing the most viable voices.
By Deirdre
March 1, 2008 8:41 AM | Link to this
I mean, seriously, isn’t that why they’re called ‘judges’ rather than ‘panel of people who say something nice about everybody’. Why wouldn’t they pick their favorites? Actually…shouldn’t they? Keeping in mind what the word ‘judge’ means?
I’ll vote for whoever I like the best, not who the judges tell me to vote for…but I honestly DON’T understand why y’all get so upset when they pick the ones they like. It’s their job!!!!
And if you were one of them, wouldn’t you be pushing for your favorite to win?
By War Eagle
March 1, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
D, we were just saying that some contestants get to sing songs that they are familiar with and some are stuck with songs they have never heard of before. Just for example Carly got to sing (according to her) her favorite song of all time while Alex had to sing something completely new to her. I don’t remember anyone saying anything about the judges. It is not the judges that are picking the list of songs. It is the people that have the most interest in who wins.
By Deirdre
March 1, 2008 10:58 AM | Link to this
I was talking about the ‘judges pimping’ comments from earlier posts added to what you guys said about the producers pimping contestants.
But we have no idea how the songs are chosen. I’m assuming they come from a list….some people will have favorites on that list and some people won’t. Seems to me the more experienced the singer is, the more songs they’ll know. And the older they are, the more songs they’ll know.
Songs from the 60’s and 70’s are bound to put some people at a disadvantage, particularly the younger ones.
Same thing happens during country week…people with no experience with country aren’t going to know as many songs.
To assume that favoritism was shown to Carly by ‘allowing’ her to pick one of her favorite songs is going too far in my opinion. It is entirely possible that Alex just wasn’t familiar with any of the available songs.
Alaina picked a song she loved and look where that got her.
I think JT had a good list of questions for Rodney to ask someone in the know. Adding to it, I’d ask where the songs for the top 24 came from. Were they on a predetermined list of available songs or did the top 24 contestants have free reign to pick songs?
By JTesla
March 1, 2008 11:31 AM | Link to this
To be clear I don’t have a problem with the “chosen ones,” without them I would stop watching the show, I also don’t have a problem with the judges. However, why does it seem that some contestants are denied their first few choices, as was stated after last weeks elimination, and then have a song picked by the producers? It isn’t the fault of other contestants or the judges, but the fault of the producers.
For me it also throws into doubt the concept of a list. If there is a list contestants wouldn’t have choices denied, your choice is on the list – just like you have a limited list for any theme week.
I’ll be the first to admit that this is first and foremost a realty show designed to make money. However, after last years bore-fest I am surprised that there still seems to be some behind the scenes push for a few contestants. If AlexAndrea had access to a better song that suited her more would she be able to make the top 10? It’s not like she had a bad voice, bad attitude sure, but there is no telling what kind of votes she could have gotten had she been given the opportunity to have an “Imagine” moment.
By Deirdre
March 1, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this
I think it’s been pretty well established by other contestants over the years that your first, second or even third song pick may not get a release from the song’s owners. I remember Maroon 5 appeared for the first time last year because Blake begged them to release the song he wanted to sing and I believe they did with the provision that they could sing their newest release during the show.
That being said, I find it hard to believe that the producers wouldn’t already have a list of released songs from which to choose during the top 24. Trying to establish releases for any song each contestant came up with would be nearly impossible. It’s hard enough with 12 contestants but 24???!!!
We can’t know unless somebody from the show, either a contestant or the powers that be, tell us.
By Rodney Ho
March 2, 2008 11:57 AM | Link to this
They have a set list of songs they have already cleared. I get the impression if a contestant makes a request early enough, they can get Idol to try to clear it but they better have a backup ready to go if they can’t do so.