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American Idol

3/6: Interviews with Anoop Desai, Megan Joy Corkrey, Jasmine Murray, Matt Giraud, Michael Jackson theme next week

4:46 pm March 6, 2009, by Rodney Ho



Good timing for Michael Jackson to announce his comeback tour in London: his songs are going to be the theme next week, Ryan Seacrest revealed on his morning show today. So much for Paula’s note a few weeks back that MJ is the “kiss of death” for singers.

We had only 15 minutes with each contestant and we didn’t get a huge amount of news. But here’s what I compiled. Have a great weekend, by the way! And I threw in a poll for kicks. I’ll be handicapping the top 13 early next week, too.

First up is Jasmine Murray. She is only 17 and wasn’t terribly interesting. I kind of tuned out after awhile. She’s scared of country the most. She did a lot of pageants. Did I get anything else? No.

Next was Anoop Desai. He was confident and friendly. I was first in line and asked him how he felt those 10 seconds when he thought he was eliminated.

“It was the pits. I’ve been telling people it was the end of all my dreams and a few seconds later, they were alive again. It was a shock, a genuine shock to me. I’m just glad I’m still here!”

I asked if Ryan apologized for doing that to him. “Kind of,” he said. As Anoop knows, this is an entertainment show first, even if it means manipulating emotions. (Think Jordin Sparks the night after Idol Gives Back!)

He’s a huge fan of Kanye, would love to collaborate with him or Luda. “If Stevie Wonder came back, I’d faint!” he said. He fashions himself to be an R&B pop singer. He graduated school with a degree in political science and American studies and was doing cultural anthropology grad studies. (No surprise he’s a smart guy, a product of parents in biochemistry and software in the Chapel Hill, N.C. area).

Why Bobby Brown again? That song in parituclar has become sort of like an anthem for me since Hollywood week. I thought it was especially appropriate for wild card week. Look-this is who I am. It’s my prerogative. II knew that I had done it in the past. But like the judges said, I did a better job of it this time. I was really happy to be able to do that song with an audience too. It’s such an audience reaction song. The small audience was key.

How did you like the wild card format?

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I like Megan. She sounds like she has virtually no experience performing, which is cool. She didn’t expound much, answer wise. She, for instance, had no theory or interesting thoughts about her quirky dancing. She did describe her rather ugly arm tattoo, which is some grandiose fairy tale with her as queen. I learned she’s divorced with a child and she’d rather be called Megan Joy rather than Megan Joy Corkrey since Corkrey is her ex hubby’s last name.

And repeat this: she loves Bjork. She said it multiple times. It would be quite awesome if she sings Bjork on the show. She admits not all Bjork songs would work on the show and lack straightforward melodies and such.

Last up: Matt Giraud. I like him, too. He was goofy and fun during the interview. Despite the screwup with Coldplay, he said he will attempt pop songs again down the road, not just R&B.

Dream mentor: Billy Joel. “That’d be ridiculous!” (Billy was on the show season three but did not do much mentoring that I could tell.)

Matt grew up listening to a bit of gospel (e.g. Kirk Franklin), country (Shania Twain) and pop (’N Sync). Now he’s listening to jazz and Motown (which makes sense since he’s from Detroit).

He was nicknamed “White Chocolate” as this gospel choir, which was mostly black. That’s how the group sing came into play.

I asked him about Coldplay and the judges’ harsh reaction: “I felt it was a little harsh. I couldn’t sleep that night. I felt like people thought I was going to do well. I felt I let everyone down. It wasn’t the right song. I put it behind me. This week, I picked the right song.”

My followup was why Jackson 5? “That song’s in my bones. I’ve been singing it for years. I’ve done it in competitions before. It went well then. I can sing this song. I didn’t even have to practice it. I didn’t know why I didn’t think of it in the first place!”

He has a girlfriend at home. He liked the rockers in years past such as Daughtry and David Cook. He liked Brooke White last year, too. In past years, he was into Carrie and Fantasia.

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36 comments Add your comment

JTesla

March 6th, 2009
5:14 pm

Thanks again for the interviews. Megan singing Bjork? That would be interesting. Oh and am I the only person on the planet that likes her tattoo?

Deirdre

March 6th, 2009
5:46 pm

I’m back!

Thanks for the interviews, Rodney…both sets!

I’m very fond of the name NegMcMuffin…..and in April you can use EasterNeg.

Soryy JT…small tattoos, nice…entire arm tattooed…creepy.

War Eagle

March 6th, 2009
5:49 pm

Rodney, feel free to put up as many pictures of Megan as you want to. She is a beautiful woman as long as she is not moving.

JT, i’m not a big fan of ladies with tats but you can’t see them with the lights off.

Deirdre

March 6th, 2009
5:55 pm

Something interesting from VFTW:

One of our always reliable sources tells us that three of the theme weeks currently being planned are Michael Jackson week, Motown week, and Grand Ole Opry week. The Grand Ole Opry week includes only artists that are a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Want to know who those artists are? Well we have the initial list of songs that the Idols were given today to pick from. In case you didn’t know, most weeks the Idols are given a list of songs to choose from. The list is expected to expand slightly in the future, but never before have you been able to see the songs the contestants are chosing from… until now. Click “read more” for the entire list the contestants were given today for the future Grand Ole Opry week. We are recommending that the contestants pick “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” for maximum VFTW support. Maybe this will mess up Idol’s plans a little and make them scramble to switch things up. Ya shoulda put Tatiana in, people. When will you learn?

Deirdre

March 6th, 2009
5:56 pm

I can get the list if you want or you can just go over there and look.

JTesla

March 6th, 2009
6:11 pm

They obviously have run out of good theme week ideas.

Deirdre

March 6th, 2009
6:13 pm

I love Motown so I’m pleased with that one.

kool$kat

March 6th, 2009
6:26 pm

two hottie blondes!!! yeah! and is it just me or does allison remind you of kelly clarkson?? I really think Gokey is the winner tho.

Deirdre

March 6th, 2009
6:28 pm

kool&kat…yes, Allison has a Kelly Clarkson feel about her which is why I think she might be the dark horse in this race.

Harm

March 6th, 2009
7:15 pm

I missed blogging today due to outside circumstances! I couldn’t stay inside today, the weather was too nice! At last the real competion begins, we get to see who can handle all the different genres and who will crack under the pressure.

Harm

March 6th, 2009
7:18 pm

Grand Ole Opry week could be very interesting !

Negshift

March 6th, 2009
10:52 pm

I agree with the hint O’Kelly in Allison…but only a hint. Kelly was the perfect All-American girl, while Allison has much more bad girl edge…Also, Kelly has a much bigger voice.

Woodpappy

March 6th, 2009
10:53 pm

Simon will be grumpy the entire week for the Opry ! LOL

Deirdre

March 7th, 2009
7:39 am

Morning!

Interesting stuff from mj’s:

So, apparently the Top 13 “twist” wasn’t THE twist Mike Darnell was talking about back in January. Idol producer Ken Warwick tells USA Today that “Thursday’s shocker was not the surprise he has been promising for the final round that starts Tuesday.”

Warwick also told E! Online, “There is a big surprise coming. You’ll never guess what it is, but it’s something that rears its head every season and it’s huge.”

Also, Warwick tells USA Today, it’s likely that two finalists will be eliminated in one week. (Chart maven, Kirsten, suggests a Final 3 for the final week. That would definitely mix things up, and solve the scheduling problem.)

Also, Paula wanted Felicia Barton in the wildcard group…Simon said no. And, Simon fought and lost to move Jesse to top 13 rather than Jasmine.

Deirdre

March 7th, 2009
8:55 am

This quote from Ken Warwick: There is a big surprise coming. You’ll never guess what it is, but it’s something that rears its head every season and it’s huge.” has me thinking. Do you suppose that the judges will be allowed to negate an early and undeserving vote-off?

Deirdre

March 7th, 2009
8:56 am

Yes…I know it’s Saturday…I didn’t get to chat yesterday so I’m making up for it. :-)

JTesla

March 7th, 2009
10:11 am

Interesting about Simon wanting Jesse over Jasmine, and his not wanting Felicia in the final group.

“that rears its head every season and it’s huge” that is the part of the quote that puzzles me.

JTesla

March 7th, 2009
10:13 am

Oh and I hope that the extra person doesn’t mean that we have to wait an extra week for them to start shortening the show down from 2 hours. An hour is perfect thank you, let’s get there as soon as we can.

harriett

March 7th, 2009
10:20 am

Hi, D and JT! I stopped in to my office for something and couldn’t resist stopping in to say hello. I am at a conference most of today, so it is like I am at work anyway. D, that idea of yours is intriguing–the negating of a previous vote-off.

Hope your day is good. Maybe I can stop back later.

KPH

March 7th, 2009
11:55 am

Megan, Custe girl decent vocals UUUUUGGGGGLLLLLYYYY TAT!

Deirdre

March 7th, 2009
12:10 pm

At some point, either this week or next, there will be a double elimination….so we’re not going an extra week. This has been confirmed by both Ryan and Paula although they can’t seem to agree on when it will happen.

linny ,,,=^..^=,,,

March 7th, 2009
2:40 pm

i like the idea of the double elimination coming later rather than earlier. like harriett, i am working for a brief period today, and couldn’t resist stopping by! back to it…

JTesla

March 7th, 2009
2:59 pm

All I hope is that they don’t surprise us with the double elimination. Make the announcement on Tuesdays show regarding the elimination. The best week would be the week after next, cut from 12 to 10 so we can know quickly who will be going on tour. A tour that I will never see, but I like to know these things.

Harm

March 7th, 2009
4:11 pm

I wonder how much time I will waste trying to figure out the big surprise?

Mike S

March 7th, 2009
8:15 pm

I am sticking with my prediction from Earlier this week — they are going to institute a So You Think You Can Dance type vote off where America votes, then the Bottom 2 “Sing for thier lives” and the judges decide which one leaves.

This would still still keep America voting for the winner, but would prevent a Tamayra gray, Chris Daughtry early vote off disaster.

anne24

March 7th, 2009
11:01 pm

Hey Idol fans. Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Ive watched the semi rounds about 5 times. Just the performances not the stupid judges. Iam so psyched for Tuesday. This is when the real contest begins! See ya Tuesday!

flbravesgirl

March 7th, 2009
11:17 pm

Mike, I kind of like that idea. The voters have dropped the ball a few times, after all.

JTesla

March 8th, 2009
12:15 am

I don’t know, I think a sing for their life format would be the point where Idol jumps the shark. The judges have shown too much bias, the 4 man format used in the auditions gives a super power vote to Simon, and each week Paula… well don’t get me started there.

Deirdre

March 8th, 2009
8:08 am

I actually like the idea…not so much the ’sing for your life” (which SYTYCD has been doing since the beginning) but the chance to rescue someone from elimination. Tamyra Grey would have stayed over Nikki McKibbon, Brooke White would have left instead of Michael Johns. It may not always work in our favor, however. These are the judges who picked Norman, Nate and Tatiana over much better singers.

mook

March 8th, 2009
9:42 am

The judges are too biased towards r and b for a singoff to be fair. Plus they could choose commercial appeal over talent.

JTesla

March 8th, 2009
11:03 am

Commercial appeal is often a better choice than talent. Melinda Doolittle is a perfect example, tons of talent but little commercial appeal.

Deirdre: Although I do like Michael Johns, week after week he was a let down, it wasn’t until the end (for him) that he finally began to live up to what we expected of him. By then it was too late. Building a solid voting base by being consistent is a good thing, but I feel that undermining that by allowing Simon to crown the winner would be very detrimental.

Of course, I’d really like to wait and see if this is the big surprise that they planned on springing on us. First and foremost I want them to be upfront about the surprise, don’t wait until Tuesday to say “oh by the way…”

Deirdre

March 8th, 2009
1:25 pm

JT…completely agree that commercial appeal tends to trump talent…just look at who’s making money in the industry right now.

Re Michael Johns, I agree again that he got off to a really slow start. I also think his commercial appeal was head and shoulders above Brooke White’s which leads me to conclude that the judges, if given the opportunity, would have invited him to stay over Brooke.

That being said, while the “dance for your life” format works well on SYTYCD, we Idol voters are spoiled by our power. Some of us even got huffy about the judges picking wild cards without voter input.

Another suggestion for the “big” surprise was the possibility that we would be allowed to hear voting percentages, or totals for each singer. This would go a long way toward easing the conspiracy theories, although those who think the show is rigged are going to assume that the show is lying about the totals anyway.

JTesla

March 8th, 2009
1:46 pm

“spoiled by our power”, true and what is really sad is that the few votes that those of us here cast has no power when compared to the tweens and other mass voters.

Idol Headlines for 03/07/09 | MostInteresting.info

March 8th, 2009
3:00 pm

[...] AJC.com [...]

Neg McMuffin

March 8th, 2009
6:57 pm

Whoever made beautiful Meghan believe that having a wallpaper tatoo on her arm was a good move should be shot in the head.

Deirdre

March 8th, 2009
8:29 pm

OK this(from a guy named Jim who runs an Idol prediction site) is hilarious:

One thing I noticed this weekend while I was testing and I am wondering if anyone had heard anything about – phone numbers!

We all know the phone numbers to vote : 1-866-436-5701 through 5712.

Usually if you call these numbers outside a voting window they are busy and that is the case today.

However… This year there are 13 contestants. It appears that American Idol does not own 1-866-436-5713 (or 1-866-436-5700 for that matter). I’d advise you not to call either number as the content is not rated G.

This raises the question – what the heck are they going to do for the 13th contestant? Has anything heard anything? New numbers? New voting system entirely? A lone non-contiguous number? Are they frantically trying to buy the number? Am I just dialing wrong?