Thank you for all the information you're able to find. I appreciate it.
Carrie's single "Inside Your Heaven" was #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, knocking Mariah Carey down to #2. Congratulations, Carrie!
Anyone that can knock Mariah Carey down a peg is all right with me :)
The funny thing is, Bo is not pushing "Inside Your Heaven" in his TV appearances. He's going with "Vehicle."
Bo is a class-act. He doesn't want to steal Carrie's thunder by singing the same song publicly. (And he probably hates the song anyway--I think we're all in agreement on that.)
In my opinion, in order to succeed, both Carrie and Bo have to follow the path taken by Kelly. She did not rush out her first album, and she insisted on making a high-quality second album, then literally broke away from the AI/19 Management/BMG crowd. She's also working very, very hard at her career.
I think this would apply to Bo more than Carrie. Nothing against Carrie (I'm still a fan :), but Bo is older and has a better idea of who he is and what he wants to be. Carrie, on the other hand, often seems like a leaf in the wind. She would probably benefit from the strict management of AI--at least for a while, until she's able to stand on her own.
But either way, hard work and long hours will be required from both of them.
Smothering management is more like it. The contestants signed by 19/BMG sacrifice an awful lot of their sales income and musical control in exchange for the TV exposure and a shot at a career. They even sacrifice control over their own image and name (as a brand). 19/BMG has a habit of going with cheesey songs that they think might make them a quick commercial buck. They don't give a rat's butt about the long-term careers of these AI winners and runners up.
In four seasons of AI, only one person appears to have a real, lasting career. The jury is still out on Clay and Fantasia. So the odds are against Carrie and Bo.
At 19-20 years old, Kelly was as young as, or even younger than Carrie when she won the first AI. So age, alone, shouldn't be a handicap. Carrie seems to know what she wants, which is to do country music. As I've mentioend before, the key will be finding quality songs and performing them with heart and soul.
I genuinely want to see her succeed, if for no other reason than an odd one. That is to stick it to that total AI rip-off, Nashville Star, LOL!
The obligatory AI summer tour starts in July, and both Bo and Carrie have said their albums are coming out in October. The tour runs through August, which leaves only about a month to select the songs, arrangements, musicians, back-up singers, learn, rehearse and record all 10 to 12 songs, etc. I'm worried for both Carrie and Bo that the quality of their albums will suffer because of the rush to get them out.