The video for Lauren Alaina’s “Like My Mother Does” features plenty of old home videos that go all the way back to the mid-1990s featuring Lauren and her mom. Unfortunately, the song is getting modest radio airplay. Check out the video below.

-Also “The Voice” drew 4,000 people to Atlanta this past weekend compared to 8,000 in Chicago and 11,000 in New York.

Continue reading Check out Lauren Alaina’s video for ‘Like My Mother Does’ »

Remember Chris Richardson from season six?

I can’t recall the last time I’ve even mentioned him in this blog. But you to give him credit. He has his first radio hit with Tyga. It has just hit the top 15 on the rhythmic top 40 charts. Tyga does the rapping. Chris does the singing. That’s a pretty common combo nowadays. It is getting 10 spins a week on Wild 105.7 locally.

If you haven’t heard it yet, check it out here:

And Carrie Underwood’s duet with Brad Paisley “Remind Me” just entered the top 5 on the country chart. It will likely finish in the top two continuing Carrie’s radio streak to 15 songs in a row that makes the top two. Brad Paisley’s streak would hit 18!

Continue reading Remember Chris Richardson? He has a top 15 hit ‘Far Away’ with Tyga »

CREDIT: Fox

At the Television Critics Association bi-annual meetings, Fox’s “X Factor” tried to instill some enthusiasm among the press for the show, which debuts next month.

To refresh your memory, they use coaches, not judges. There’s a boot camp portion. And the winner gets $5 million guaranteed plus a spot in a Pepsi ad during the Super Bowl.

“X Factor” debuts Sept. 21 and ends December 22. The first live show on October 25 will be 2.5 hours long, forcing affiliates to push back their news program.

Simon Cowell came in via satellite while the rest of the crew sat on stage. L.A. Reid said almost nothing. One reporter thought the new host sounded smug.

Time magazine enjoyed the reunion of Simon with Paula.

“It’s nice to be back in a demented relationship,” Paula remarked on her reunion with Simon.

EW noted the signature Cowell arrogance and how lame Nicole Scherzinger really is.

Scherzinger Is More Irritating Than A Family Guy Dream Sequence Speaking in an affected whisper, …

Continue reading X Factor meets the press »

Jordin Sparks tries humor here on a spoof Russian talk show via Funny or Die. The operative word is try.

<iframe src=”http://www.funnyordie.com/embed/a17604a6de” width=”512″ height=”328″ frameborder=”0″></iframe><div style=”text-align:left;font-size:x-small;margin-top:0;width:512px;”><a href=”http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/a17604a6de/let-s-be-honest-with-jordin-sparks” title=”from Funny Or Die, Dustin Bowser, and rachelgoldenberg”>Let’s Be Honest with Jordin Sparks</a> – watch more <a href=”http://www.funnyordie.com/” title=”on Funny or Die”>funny videos</a>      <iframe src=”http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?app_id=138711277798&amp;href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.funnyordie.com%2Fvideos%2Fa17604a6de%2Flet-s-be-honest-with-jordin-sparks&amp;send=false&amp;layout=button_count&amp;width=150&amp;show_faces=false&amp;action=like&amp;height=21″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ style=”border:none; overflow:hidden; width:90px; height:21px; vertical-align:middle;” …

Continue reading Jordin Sparks – shall we call J-Train? – in spoof video »

A packed house at Gwinnett Arena July 26. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

As I noted many times, the Gwinnett Arena stop for “Idol” this season on July 26 was sold out. Here are the confirmed numbers of concerts from last week. According to MJ’s big blog, these were the most tickets sold ever in Raleigh and Nashville (which makes sense, given Lauren and Scotty.)

July 26, 2011: Duluth, Ga. : Gwinnett Center : 10,026 of 10,026 (SOLD-OUT): $533,870
July 27, 2011: Raleigh, N.C.: RBC Center : 13,533 of 13,533 (SOLD-OUT): $696,605
July 28, 2011: Charlotte, N.C. : Time Warner Cable Arena : 9,239 of 9,239 (SOLD-OUT) : $493,115
July 30, 2011: Nashville, Tenn. : Bridgestone Arena : 13,192 of 13,192 (SOLD-OUT) : $676,020
July 31, 2011: St. Louis, Mo. : Scottrade Center : 8,580 of 8,580 (SOLD-OUT): $459,800

- And E! is wondering if Jerry Lewis’ departure as the Muscular Dystrophy Association national chairman so soon after his anti-”Idol’ rant was a coincidence or a cause and effect. …

Continue reading ‘Idols Live’ tour gets five more sell-outs; did Jerry Lewis’ anti-Idol rant erase him from the MDA telethon? »

Television personality Nigel Lythgoe arrives at the "9th Annual BAFTA/LA TV Tea Party" in Los Angeles on Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)

Nigel Lythgoe told Zap2it.com that he’s considered more limited voting on “Idol.” Right now, the only limits are on online voting to 50 per email adddress.

For next season, Lythgoe’s mulling over the voting process. “I am going to be interested in listening to one device, one vote, each week,” he says. “Voting will be discussed. It is unique to ‘Idol,’ the way we have it now.”

If it did change, “we would never be able to boast again 72 million votes in a night.”

But does anyone really care about those huge numbers of votes? Limiting votes will reduce the influence of obsessives and will help out certain types of singers who may not get that level of fervent following. It’s how “Dancing With the Stars” and most other live shows handle home voting and it hasn’t hurt them. In fact, can you imagine if  “Idol” judges scored the …

Continue reading Nigel Lythgoe mulls voting changes again »

As a fellow Type 1 diabetic, I was thrilled to see season 9 runner-up Crystal Bowersox get an endorsement deal with OneTouch, which manufactures blood test strips. She is in a series of ads with fellow diabetic and blues master B.B. King. I happened upon one of the commercials during Sunday night’s “Glee Project” on Oxygen. Bowersox must have been thrilled to work with such a legend.

Continue reading Crystal Bowersox does OneTouch diabetes ads with B.B. King »

AP photo of Jerry Lewis

Old people can say virtually anything and get away with it, even if it barely makes any sense.

Take 85-year-old Jerry Lewis. At a Television Critics Association session last week, he channeled his best Walter Matthau about reality television. targeting “American Idol.” Has he even seen an episode of the show? Who knows?

“They’re all McDonald’s wipe-outs. They’ve all been dumped.  They’ve worked there and now they’re doing that. And of course they all play a guitar, which takes the place of music,” the 85-year-old comedian told reporters at a luncheon Friday to discuss an upcoming Encore documentary, “The Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis.”

Guitars aren’t music? McDonald’s wipe-outs? All been dumped? Really?

- Idol drew a modest 6,000 people to Denver auditions last Friday. That’s on the low end and the worst yet this season. So far, after six cities, the show has drawn about 53,000 contestants, based on media estimates from each city. The final …

Continue reading Jerry Lewis unloads on ‘American Idol,’ calls them ‘McDonald’s wipe-outs.’ »

Fantasia. AP

Fantasia told an audience Sunday that she’s pregnant. She didn’t say who the father is but she has been with Antwaun Cook. This would be her second child. There has been no word that VH1 is bringing back her show. I’m not even sure she wants the show or not.

A video was posted but the person who did so was so taken aback by the nasty comments, she took it down.

Celebtv.com posted some news here and took a segment of the video that was taken down:

Continue reading Fantasia announces she’s pregnant »

Paul McDonald at Gwinnett Arena. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Compared to his fellow season 10 “Idol” contestants, Paul McDonald is very much the journeyman, similar to older contestants from previous seasons such as Taylor Hicks, Bucky Covington and Bo Bice.

Nobody else on this tour has the experience or perspective he possesses. He has been touring for years. As an Alabama native and Nashville resident, he has spent plenty of time working the small clubs in Atlanta such as Smith’s Olde Bar and Vinyl. He did 99X’s Unplugged In the Park at Park Tavern and the Virginia Highland Summerfest.  He spent his day off in Atlanta last Monday with his “Twilight” actress fiance Nikki Reed in Little Five Points and lunched at the Vortex. When he’s not on stage (and he spends less time on stage than anybody else on the “Idol” tour), he goes back to the tour bus and works on his original music.

He did “Idol” as a lark, had no thought he’d ever make it to the top 10. He’s just enjoying the …

Continue reading Paul McDonald recalls good times in Atlanta »