I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend. Especially the week after the “Idol” finale, I know only you true loyalists are hanging around today. I am back from New York and a four-hour flight delay that got me home at 3:40 a.m. I am feeling punchy!

Anyway, Clay Aiken (remember him?) is coming out with a new album. Sadly, it’s another cover album. The man seems allergic to singing new music.

And he called the album “Tried and True,” a signal that yes, he is treading old ground. Sadly, he and Ruben are NOT coming to Atlanta on the summer tour.

He was on “Good Morning America” today, where you can see the Claymates:

-David Archuleta’s book “Chords of Strength: A Memoir of Soul, Song, and the Power of Perseverance” is out today. Yes, his publisher had the temerity to call it a memoir. We debated that term earlier but it does seem like the most pretentious book title ever, eh?

Here’s Diana DeGarmo singing “Easy to Be Hard” on the Early Show on CBS last Friday. She was …

Continue reading Clay Aiken’s new album coming out; David Archuleta ‘memoir’ out, too; Diana DeGarmo is ‘Easy to Be Hard’ »

Sorry. I’m on vacation today so I’m skipping the press conferences with Lee and Crystal for today. I’ve seen press interviews in which Crystal said she expected Lee to win but didn’t seem all that upset about it.

Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox both signed recording deals with 19 Recording. Lee is with RCA, Crystal, with Jive. What that means exactly, I’m not sure. I always thought Jive was more pop oriented. Most likely, both albums will be out in the fourth quarter.

-Melinda Doolittle, promoting a book “Beyond Me,” is coming to Borders in Lithonia June 5 at 2 p.m., a Saturday. The address is 8000 Mall Parkway in Lithonia. I’m seeking an interview with her next week.

- Kris Allen is opening for Maroon 5 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre August 21. Presale starts 10 a.m. on June 1.

- The AT&T ad with Brooke White, former Atlantan Michael Johns, Kristy Lee Cook and Blake Lewis on group messaging. This is 1:54 long so I presume it’s online only? Or there’s a shorter one for …

Continue reading Lee and Crystal get recording deals; Kris Allen opening for Maroon 5 Aug. 21 at Verizon Wireless; Melinda Doolittle book signing in Lithonia June 5 »

I misheard Ryan Seacrest last night. I thought he said there was a “two percent” separation between Lee and Crystal in votes from Tuesday. So I wrote it was 51% to 49%.

The truth, according to “Idol Chatter,” is that he said: “Coming into the vote last night, less than two percent separated the finalists.”

So he said nothing about the vote Tuesday night. He didn’t say how many votes were tallied, probably for the first time, which means it was far less than the 100 million from last year. And we have no clue how many votes separated Lee and Crystal.

Continue reading The ‘two percent’ issue »

- Not surprisingly, the ratings for this finale at 24.2 million was the lowest ever among spring shows. (The first season aired over the summer and drew 22.8 million.) The peak was season 5 with more than 36 million viewers for the finale.

- In the first couple of years, “Idol” was immersed in controversy over phones getting clogged with busy signals and efforts to “game” the system.

But the past few years, clearly, texting has taken over. I recently saw a study that showed teens generally prefer texting over dialing a number. And that is influencing the votes. It’s a fair supposition that teen girls are now skewing the votes, forcing out more female contestants and making it easier for folks like David Cook, Kris Allen and now Lee DeWyze to win the show. There’s a certain sameness to those three (though you can argue the merits of each individually.)

As this story noted, could Carrie Underwood or Kelly Clarkson win over Bo Bice and Justin Guarini if texting were big back …

Continue reading Lowest ‘Idol’ spring finale ratings ever, texting teens influencing past three winners? »

I’ve done this every season since Carrie won: a thank you note to you, the readers and contributors to this blog.
I can’t believe I’ve done this for six years. It’s been quite a ride. Sure, this year was tough to get through. Ratings were down. The competitors weren’t all that inspiring and the producers struggled to get the shows done on time. And now we say goodbye to Simon. But you haven’t gotten rid of me yet! I’ll be blogging as usual off season. Feel free to check in every day or on occasion.

We’ll be tracking the past alums (there are now more than 100), Simon’s replacement gossip and all things “Idol.”

Despite it all, traffic is up significantly this year on this blog while most other “Idol” blogs saw sharp drops. That’s all thanks to you contributors (and Larry Platt, too.) Cover It Live helped make live shows palatable, too.

And I will now thank many of people who make this blog what it is, especially Deirdre, who helped sub for me the week of my honeymoon in …

Continue reading My annual thank you note to the blog readers »

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Lee DeWyze’s more mainstream rocker sound trumped the more eclectic, self-assured Crystal Bowersox. The vote was 51% to 49%, host Ryan Seacrest said.

Lee’s been gaining momentum the last few weeks. Crystal had been the frontrunner for weeks. She arguably performed better on Tuesday night but that didn’t matter. Lee’s likely younger supporters were simply more nimble with the texting.

The two-plus hour finale had one too many Simon Cowell tributes (including a semi-coherent Paula Abdul), an amusingly messy bit with Atlanta’s Larry Platt and William Hung singing “Pants on the Ground” and a few great duets including Alanis Morrissette with Crystal and Joe Cocker with Crystal and Lee. Chicago with Lee? Not so good. Most surprisingly good combo was Siobhan Magnus and Aaron Kelly with the Bee Gees.

And for those with sharp eyes, the Brittinum twins from Atlanta popped by, as …

Continue reading Who won ‘American Idol’? »

‘American Idol’ season finale live blogging

Continue reading ‘American Idol’ live blogging season finale »

My colleague Rosalind Bentley wrote this in today’s print edition:

“General” Larry Platt jumped from his chair, dashed off the porch of the tiny house in Reynoldstown and scooted into the driver’s seat of a car in the driveway.

John Bazemore, AP Larry Platt performs his rap “Pants on the Ground” outside his home in Atlanta.

“I got it right here,” he said, fiddling with the car stereo.

In seconds, bass throbbed from the speakers and careened off the graffitied walls of the boarded-up house across the street.

“Pants on the ground! Pants on the ground! You looking like a fool with your pants on the ground!”

The tidy yard filled with pots of cabbage and tomato plants was Platt’s stage as he danced in the grass and sang along. “Gold in your mouth, hat turned sideways …”  Seated on the porch, his manager Earl Little, “friend” Sally Harley and a visitor looked on. The “general” did not stop singing until the last note of the song he made famous in …

Continue reading Who owns ‘Pants on the Ground’? »

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The season nine finale dispensed with the fluff. With only six songs to fit in one hour, the producers let the final two sing longer versions, and the judges didn’t talk as long. A recap video with Will Young singing filled the final couple of minutes.

More notably, this was the final night for Simon Cowell to critique anything.

Crystal Bowersox forced Simon to end the night saying something nice after her powerful “Up To the Mountain.” While the momentum was shifting to Lee DeWyze as the finale neared, Crystal put up a strong fight. She even thanked Simon before his last critique, which may have been calculated for votes but probably heartfelt.

I am rooting for Crystal, who I have always liked more from the start. However, Dial Idol, currently, has Lee far far ahead of Crystal and since that is only based on calls, I doubt she’ll be able to close the gap with texts.

Bottom line: Like Kris Allen last …

Continue reading ‘American Idol’ top 2 performance show recap, polls »

‘American Idol’ live blogging top 2 performance show

Continue reading ‘American Idol’ live blogging top 2 performance show »