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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > March > 31
Monday, March 31, 2008
4/1: Diana DeGarmo at Braves opener
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Season three runnerup Diana DeGarmo spoke with on and off for about 20 minutes in section 107 at Turner Field near the Braves dugout before the hometown opening day game tonight as she prepped to do the National Anthem. Here are some photos I took:
ABOVE: Diana confers with her onsite “handler” Austin Rhodes
Sarah Averill, 9, poses with Diana after she sings.
ABOVE: Diana sings near the pitching mound.
ABOVE: A closeup from the monstrous Turner field screen.
Diana is a veteran of singing the National Anthem at sporting events. She has sung for Georgia Tech, the Falcons, the Hawks and the Braves to name a few. Her first time for the Braves was 12 years ago as a third grader. “I was so nervous, my knees were shaking,” she said, dressed in a red shirt, white jacket and blue jeans. “I did it every year for the Braves until I was 18.” Prior to doing the opening day, her biggest National Anthem for the Braves was July 4th after Idol in 2004. At the time, she even got an official DeGarmo Braves jersey. Last year was the first year she went to opening day just for fun and recalled that it was “freezing.”
She says she always wears some sort of red, white and blue get up for the National Anthem. “I’ve just toned down the rhinestones and sparklies,” she said.
Although she doesn’t need to do anthems anymore, she likes to do it to get to go to a game for free as a Braves fan.
Tonight, she did a robust but very straightforward National Anthem. She holds the word “free” extra long and gets huge applause. “It’s a really important song for everybody including me so I don’t mess with it,” she said.
Diana said she’s never had a chance to meet any of the big stars like Chipper Jones and John Smoltz. She becomes quite self-deprecating. “I’m not at that level of coolness,” she said. “One day maybe when I’m a multiplatinum star.”
And she’ll help pout in a pinch. Last year, Georgia Tech’s national anthem singer had gotten sick at the last second and they called her three hours before the game. She was at the mall at the time so she ran home to change, then got stuck in traffic. Fortunately, she had a friend with her who stayed in her car while she parked illegally and ran to the game, just in time to do the anthem.
She moved to Nashville in January just before CMT’s “Gone Country” debuted to pursue a country career. She’s now renting a home outside of Nashville and working with songwriters to put together a country album. (“I live in the boonies with the wildlife,” she said. “It was the best deal for the money and I can sing at the top of my lungs, something I couldn’t do if I had gotten a condo.”)
John Rich has committed to producing it. She hopes to have an album out by the end of the year. She thinks she can bring a blend of Faith Hill and Wynonna Judd into her singing. With blondes such as Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert hot in the country world, she said “a brunette needs to mix it up.” (She did note she was blonde for a bit but went back to darker hair as lead of “Brooklyn” in 2006. It’s not quite that dark now.)
She tried to explain why John Rich picked Julio Iglesias Jr. over her on “Gone Country.” “I think he was thinking bigger picture. He was thinking of bringing in the Spanish speaking market into country, bring the borders together.” Diana has nothing to complain about because she ultimately got a production deal with Rich anyway. She’s still seeking a label and distribution deal but she’s confident she’ll get one.
Diana said the women were okay with Iglesias winning but Dee Snider, Bobby Brown and Sisqo weren’t so thrilled. “They all thought they were going to win!” she said. Most of the people, she said, are planning to record and release the songs they wrote and performed on the show.
Her favorite to win it all is David Cook. She thinks the Daughtry-type fans won’t let what happened to him happen to Cook. She is mildly annoyed that Michael Johns is not American but thinks he’s a good singer. She also expects Brooke White to go furthest among the women. Her take on Ramiele: “She’s a little out of her range.” And of the folks she keeps in touch with from her year, she mentioned Amy Adams and Matt Rogers.
You’ll get more of her “Idol” thoughts later this week on Us magazine’s Web site. She’s supposed to do a blog on this week’s performance show.
Over four years, Diana has been cautious around me the times we’ve met in person and tonight was no exception. (She was more relaxed and gabby when we did an interview by phone prior to “Gone Country.”). Though polite, she didn’t look remotely happy to see me. She brought along a few musician friends from Nashville but didn’t introduce them to me. She wasn’t conversational. She didn’t even say goodbye. I know a lot of her fans still resent me for not jumping completely on the Diana bandwagon in 2004 so it’s possible that affected Diana’s perception of me. Still, since then, I’ve gone out of my way to chronicle her career in the fairest fashion I could. Seriously — I don’t expect her to embrace me. I am a journalist, not her friend. But her coolness, considering her normal bubbly approach toward everybody else around her, is perplexing.
In other “Idol” news:
- MTV.com has a very cool deal where four troops in Iraq at the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg review “Idol.”. From last week’s show, they liked Michael Johns, couldn’t stand David Archuleta. They also enjoyed Syesha.
Major label reject, Kristy Lee Cook, has been teetering on the brink of elimination all season long, though she hit a high note this week performing Lee Greenwood’s red-state-rousing “God Bless the USA.” Randy, Paula and Simon lauded the “smart” song choice, with Cowell calling it Cook’s “best performance by a mile.” But how did the patriotic anthem play with our judges in uniform? The song resonated with the troops but Kristy’s rendition did not. “We did not really buy it… We were more motivated by [Michael Johns’] “We Are the Champions,” 19-year-old Nathan wrote. “I think after hearing that song we were all ready to go fight.”And they came gunning for early “Idol” favorite David Archuleta, whose confusing song choice left the military men at a loss, though they had little trouble finding some strong words in their curt condemnation - “hate” being the one that stands out the most.
David Archuleta, “You’re the Voice” by John Farnham Nathan: “I had no clue what the song was.” Steve: “This song sucks!
- Frenchie Davis will undergo surgery to remove a vocal cord polyp, according to AP..
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3/31: Whatever happened to… season four
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I am planning to meet with Diana DeGarmo later today. She’s performing the National Anthem tonight at the Braves home opener. Hopefully we’ll hear how her country work is coming along in Nashville.
And here is USA Today special section’s season four update, in no particular order:
Anthony Fedorov (fourth) - He performed on the “Simply Ballroom” tour with Vonzell Solomon. They sing while the dancers dance. He also joined the Sarcoma Foundation of America board after his brother died of cancer in 2006. No album yet.
Vonzell Solomon (third) - She was a postal carrier, pre-Idol, and now is a national spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service. After Idol, she did a 50-city tour of postal facilities and is now doing that Simply Ballroom tour. No album yet.
Lindsey Cardinale (12th) - She’s studying radiology at Southeastern Louisiana University and goes to Nashville to work on her country debut. Release date not yet set.
Mikalah Gordon (11th) - No update since she got bumped for Gina and Constantine on “Idol Extra” on Fox Reality Channel.
Constantine Maroulis (6th) - Just spoke with him a couple of weekends ago. He has that “Idol Extra” gig and his album has sold about 26K, according to SoundScan.
Anwar Robinson (7th) - He plays Tom Collins on the national tour of “Rent.”
Scott Savol (5th) - He got married in 2006 and now lives in Nashville, working on an album with Lil’G of Silk fame.
Jessica Sierra (10th) - She’s in a rehab facility in California after relapsing, post “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew.” A porn tape is floating around the Web, too.
Nikko Smith (9th) - Not much going on for the St. Louis man.
Nadia Turner (8th) - She did some straight-to-DVD comedy called “Lord Help Us.” Otherwise, USA Today didn’t have much. Bummer. (She is doing guest commentary for Entertainment Weekly on “Idol.”)
Bo Bice (runner up)- His second album “See The Light” has sold more than 40K copies exclusively at Wal-Mart, which is a fraction of what his first album did. But at least it was in the style he wanted it to be as an indie act.
Carrie Underwood (winner) - We know about her. Two albums, 8.3 million copies sold, five no. 1 country hits, five Grammy awards. Sure, she’s not the most exciting or interesting personality but she knows how to pick good songs and perform them well.
In other “Idol” news:
“Entertainment Weekly” does power ratings, based on fan votes and David Cook is now ahead of former presumptive front runner David Archuleta. Michael Johns has edged up to third, his best performance in a month. Brooke is still the top gal, with Carly in fifth. Jason Castro has slipped to his lowest ranking yet at sixth with the lowest three way way behind: Kristy is seventh, Ramiele is eighth and Syesha is rock bottom in ninth. She’s going to need to pull off a Chikezie type of breakthrough performance to save herself.
And here’s that dreaded chest bump from the group sing last Wednesday. (DJ Slim posted it from the American Idol Web site.). Memo to David Cook and Michael Johns: Never… do… this… again!
DJSlim’s fans attempted to caption this photo.. I’m sure you all can come up with funnier ones!
- This blog attempts to quell rumors that stage dad Jason Archuleta is hurting his son David by picking bad songs like “Your the Voice.”. This publication supports David’s public claims that he chose that ill-begotten song all by his lonesome. The New York Post fuels the fire by quoting an anonymous high-level executive at “Star Search” confirming what a pain in the arse David’s dad was then to the point they had to restrict access to the set.
“Some parents were happy to be there and happy that their kid was on national TV,” says the official. “But Jeff is a stage dad. He insinuated himself into the process and had to be removed… We got some complaints that he was trying to subtly psyche out the other kids.”
