American Idol 2006--Live Thread (Part II)

FOX ^ | 3-25-06

[silent_jonny]

still for Tammy

[stlnative]

SORRY EVERYONE...! (I know I know this is the AI thread)

Here is a Nashville Severe Weather thread (of course the mods took it out of the side bar, sometimes I wonder why they pull the severe weather threads but leave other natural US disaster threads up on the sidebar)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611130/posts

[stlnative]

I'll freep mail you.

[trooprally]

Thanks, Just got home .
[Mrs T]

[Netizen]

Here's a tid bit.

'Idol' Insider: Simon Breaks the Code of Silence
April 7, 2006

snip

Simon and "Idol" Executive Producer Ken Warwick cut straight to the chase when Terri sat down with them in between auditions for their new NBC show, "America's Got Talent." The twosome even revealed two more secret "Idol" guest performers.

"Rod Stewart," Ken said. "Andrea Bocelli, we're trying to get. That should be interesting."

But Stewart and Bocelli will have to wait. Simon says he's just looking forward to next week when the "Idols" tackle the songs of Queen. "If you choose the right song, and you're clever with that song, it's all about having that moment," Cowell said. "There's a moment where you go, 'Oh my God.'"

And here's a little tidbit even Simon didn't know: one of the "Idols" will attempt to sing Queen's complex signature hit, "Bohemian Rhapsody."

"Well, I am dying to know who's going to sing that one," Simon said. "Because it will make you or break you."

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/v2/news/0406/07/2/text.html

[SirLinksalot]

Not to beat a dead horse to death, I know this is past tense, but I just to share this message I got from the Idol Boards with you regarding Taylor Hicks last Tuesday...

---

I received this information from a Fox affiliate. I asked them for clarification on a story I heard. This is what the reporter told me:

“…he did pick a Hank Williams, jr. song…but…Idol couldn’t or didn’t get it approved…don’t know details… . He had practiced it and was ready to perform it until the Idol producers told him it could not be cleared (the song was on their list). He had to choose another one quickly...”

This confirms why it was quite OBVIOUS to everyone why he wasn’t into the song. Even Kenny said it. He practiced this song and at the last minute, had to change it to something he was just familiar with.

Taylor ended up singing a song he really wasn’t feeling.

Kudos to Taylor for at least trying. And, he really was not that bad on Tuesday. This story has already made its way out into the news airwaves.

[A knight without armor]

Thanks for the info. Taylor is my favorite. I sure hope he does well next week. I hope this time I stay awake long enough to vote for him, too.

[SirLinksalot]

Chris Daughry and Katharine McPhee Top American Idol Odds 4/8/06

Covington next to leave American Idol according to bettors at Sportsbook.com; Daughtry and McPhee remain the frontrunners

NEW YORK, NY, April 6 /PRNewswire/ - And another one gets the axe. Mandisa Hundley's version of Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine" during Tuesday's country music-themed performance was not enough to keep her on American Idol. Sportsbook.com bettors predicted her early exit as she received weak support of only 3.4% of all bets.

Only Bucky Covington had fewer wagers on Sportsbook.com and this week's odds and betting sentiment suggest that he is the next to get the hook. At 70-1 and with only 0.9% per cent of bets the country crooner better pull off a show stopper if he wants to keep his Nashville dreams alive.

Unchanged is the rivalry between top contenders Chris Daughtry at 7-5 and challenger Katharine McPhee at 13-5. Daughtry has the bettors support too - with 21.6% of Sportsbook.com wagers. McPhee follows with 17.0% and Taylor Hicks rounds out the top three at 12.4% and odds of 3-1.

"American Idol fans are in control of this competition, not the judges. That was made clear last night with Mandisa leaving the show," said Alex Czajkowski, Marketing Director, Sportsbook.com. "Sportsbook.com bettors are enthusiastic fans, whether for basketball, baseball or reality television. The difference with American Idol is that fans have a direct impact on who will win."

American Idol Season 5 (FOX) - Who Will Win?


Odds Betting Trend

Chris Daughtry 7-5 21.6%

Katharine McPhee 13-5 17.0%

Taylor Hicks 3-1 12.4%

Kellie Pickler 6-1 8.7%

Paris Bennett 15-1 10.0%

Elliott Yamin 18-1 5.5%

Ace Young 50-1 8.4%

Bucky Covington 70-1 0.9%

Rest 15.3%


American Idol Season 5 (FOX) - Winner Will Be

Male 5-9 45.9%

Female 3-2 54.1%

SOURCE Sportsbook.com

[SirLinksalot]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/08/ap/entertainment/mainD8GRG3601.shtml

Mandisa Says She's Not a Gay 'Advocate'

(AP) Is ousted "American Idol" contestant Mandisa anti-gay? The 29-year-old soul singer and outspoken Christian, who was voted off the hit Fox show Wednesday, says she would not perform at an event held in support of the gay community.

Mandisa, a native of Antioch, Tenn., tells Advocate magazine, "Based on what I believe, I'm not an advocate for (being gay), so it's nothing I would take part in."

Still, she says in an interview in the magazine's Web site, she's "really upset" by speculation she endorses the ex-gay movement _ a collection of Christian groups that seek to alter sexual orientation. The speculation stemmed from comments she made on the "American Idol" Web site praising author and speaker Beth Moore, of Living Proof Ministries. Moore's Web site has links to groups such as Exodus International that discourage homosexuality.

"It broke my heart," Mandisa says. "I live my life by the value system that you treat others the way you want to be treated. I let love be my guide. I absolutely hate no one."

Long a favorite of "Idol" judges, she says her views "could have contributed" to her surprising elimination. "Idol" contestants are trimmed weekly based on fan voting.

"Honestly, I'm not sure," she says. "I've heard a lot of different theories about what could have happened, and all of 'em sound pretty decent to me."

[Netizen]

“…he did pick a Hank Williams, jr. song…but…Idol couldn’t or didn’t get it approved…don’t know details… . He had practiced it and was ready to perform it until the Idol producers told him it could not be cleared (the song was on their list). He had to choose another one quickly...”

They shouldn't put songs on the list unless they are cleared. They could realy mess contestants up that way.

[Collier]

Where and when can I hear his show?

I'm in NY.

TIA

[SirLinksalot]

Looking further ahead than Queen Night. There is I hear going to be the GREAT AMERICAN STANDARDS theme night. And who else will be the guest but none other than the guy who recorded 4 hit albums : ROD STEWART.

Here are the songs in the albums :

I've Got a Crush on You
I Wish You Love
You Send Me
Long Ago and Far Away
Makin' Whoopee
My One and Only Love
Taking a Chance on Love
My Funny Valentine
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
Nevertheless
Blue Skies
Let's Fall in Love
Thanks for the Memory Listen


Embraceable You
For Sentimental Reasons
Blue Moon
What A Wonderful World
Stardust
Manhattan
S'Wonderful
Isn't It Romantic
I Can't Get Started
But Not For Me
Kiss To Build A Dream On
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Night And Day
A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square

You Go To My Head
They Can't Take That Away From Me
The Way You Look Tonight
It Had to Be You
That Old Feeling
These Foolish Things
The Very Thought of You
Moonglow
I'll Be Seeing You
Everytime We Say Goodbye
The Nearness of You
For All We Know
We'll Be Together Again
That's All


Time After Time (not the one by Cyndi Lauper) LOL
I’m In The Mood For Love
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered
'Till There Was You
Until The Real Thing Comes Along
Where Or When
Smile
My Heart Stood Still
Someone To Watch Over Me
As Time Goes By
I Only Have Eyes For You
Crazy She Calls Me

[Senator Goldwater]

"You Send Me"

If this competition ever gets back around to someone like Sam Cooke, Taylor should be the immediate beneficiary.

[StrictTime]

What a beautiful view you have, even with those nasty clouds for a backdrop! I bet I would spend all my money on plants if I had hills like that to landscape design with.

[StrictTime]

Do you really think there is any sweet and innocent contestants? Or will they all do whatever it takes?

This gives me a perfect opening for my theory on Kellie P. I'll call it the "Heather Locklear Theory". Who was everyone's favorite on "Melrose Place"? Amanda. She was the bad girl who was willing to do anything to get to the top, to get what she wanted. I think these girls who are voting for Pickler KNOW that she's a phony but DON'T CARE and actually ADMIRE her for manipulating the audience. I'm not familiar with "The OC", but I imagine that there's a character on that show who is just like Amanda on MP and the girls LOVE her. Pickler is the only outright devious one of the bunch and thus is high drama. They want her to stay to keep things interesting (and because they would like to see themselves as being that kind of woman).

[Senator Goldwater]

I think Kellie's appeal is based on her original first impressions to the viewing audience. Her audition showed an emotional humble girl who fell to the floow and cried genuine tears at being selected. It showed up again at the sit down for the final 24.

Whatever nonsense she had said to Seacrest or the judges since then is overridden in the public's mind of their original impression of Kellie Pickler, and it seems to be carrying her along.

[Netizen]

I think these girls who are voting for Pickler KNOW that she's a phony but DON'T CARE and actually ADMIRE her for manipulating the audience.

If so, then I hope those with the contracts are paying close attention, because if she will manipulate her fans, she'l manipulate ANYONE. (and probably already has, all her life) jmo

[SirLinksalot]

Here is an interesting background on the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury ( 1946-1991 ). Since these guys are going to sing his hits, we might as well find out about the man's background and music -- THE GENIUS BEHIND THE MAN, so to speak.

I got this from the online encyclopedia -- WIKIPEDIA

---

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar to Indian Parsi parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara (see [1]). As Parsis, his parents practiced the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. His family had emigrated to Zanzibar in order for Bomi to continue his job as a middle-ranking cashier at the British Colonial Office. Mercury also had one sister, Kashmira. He was educated at St. Peter's boarding school in Panchgani (Satara) near Bombay (now Mumbai) in India, where he gave his first onstage performances in a five-member school band called The Hectics. It was also at St. Peter's where he was given the name Freddie. He completed his education in India at St. Mary's High School in Mazagon, Mumbai and was 17 when he and his family fled to England as a result of a 1964 revolution in Zanzibar. In England, he pursued a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College, following in the footsteps of Pete Townshend. He later used these skills in order to design the famous Queen crest.

Freddie Mercury possessed a very distinctive and yet very versatile voice. Although his speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he also maintained excellent tone in the tenor range. His recorded vocal range spanned nearly four octaves (falsetto included), with his lowest recorded note being the F2 and his highest recorded note being the D6, according to the standard C scale. His highest recorded head voice note was the F5. On the other hand, perhaps the most incredible aspect of his voice was not his vocal range, but the exceptional tone that he maintained over a three octave range as well as his forceful, powerful delivery. However, due in part to the fact that he suffered from vocal nodules (for which he declined surgery), he would often lower the highest notes during many concerts.

With his vocal versatility Freddie Mercury was one of the most technically accomplished singers to work in the pop idiom. In a list of the greatest English language singers of the 20th century complied by BBC Radio, Mercury was ranked #10 . He also came in second in MTV's list of the 22 greatest singers of the past 25 years, having been beaten by Mariah Carey for the top spot.

Freddie Mercury's performance at Live Aid has recently been voted by various artists, journalists and music industry executives as the greatest live performance of all time in rock music . The results of the poll were televised on a Channel 4 television programme in the UK called "The World's Greatest Gigs". Of all the artists present at the Live Aid concert, Queen was widely regarded as having stolen the show, largely as a result of Mercury's incredible talent and charisma.

One of Mercury's trademarks throughout the years involved the use of a microphone and stand minus the bottom section. In his early years of singing he made the decision to pick up his microphone, still attached to the stand. At one particular event, the bottom fell off by accident and, from that point on, he decided to use a bottomless microphone stand. When asked why, he replied, "Everyone has to have a gimmick, dear."

Mercury composed ten of the songs on the original "Queen's Greatest Hits" album, including many of the band's most creative pieces, such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "We Are the Champions", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Somebody to Love". He ultimately wrote or co-wrote nine international #1 hits [7].

Although all four members of the band Queen were songwriters, producer Gary Langhan, who worked in the studio with Queen on many of their early albums, notes in the book Freddie Mercury: The Real Life that "Freddie was always intensely supportive of other people's songwriting and would give as much attention to one of the other's as he would to his own. It was so unlike other bands I've worked with where there is an acknowledged songwriter and anyone else who writes one really has to hassle to get it anywhere".

Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of Mercury's songwriting was the number of long (typically five and a half minutes or longer) songs he wrote that utilized several different styles of music. Examples include My Fairy King, Liar, The Millionaire Waltz, The March Of The Black Queen, Innuendo, and, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Personal life

Although he had a very close girlfriend named Mary Austin, Freddie Mercury was also fairly open about his homosexual tendencies. In a March 12, 1974 interview for New Musical Express he told the interviewer: "I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear!" Although his relationship with Mary Austin eventually ended, the two remained close friends, with Austin often fronting as his girlfriend for the press. While Mercury had previously been promiscuous, his last boyfriend, Jim Hutton, lived with him for the last eight years of his life, cared for him when he was ill and was present with him at his bedside when he died (see [10]). Mercury and Hutton were also part of the Munich scene where at one point Mercury began another casual relationship with the Austrian actress Barbara Valentin.

Mercury was well known for his extravagance. As a penniless student, friends recall the aspiring musician as having exclaimed at one point, "I'm not just going to be a star, I'm going to be a legend!" When asked how he would live without fame or money, he replied, "I'll always walk around like a Persian popinjay and no one's going to stop me." On the other hand, he was also known for his kindness and generosity, showering friends and casual lovers with expensive gifts, apparently including cars and jewellery. While he was charming and outgoing at his own parties, he often appeared to be shy at other events.
[edit]

Death from AIDS

According to the book Mercury and Me by lover Jim Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in the spring of 1987. Despite the fact that he claimed to have tested negative for HIV in a 1987 interview, the British press nonetheless stalked the singer during the final years of his life. Although rumours about his health were rampant, he continued to deny that he had AIDS. From the 1991 video "These Are the Days of Our Lives," which represents Mercury's last appearance on film, it is clear that he was suffering from severe wasting. On November 22, 1991 Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home to discuss a public statement. Only those closest to him knew how close to the end he really was. On November 23, the announcement was made that Mercury had AIDS. The next day, on November 24, at the age of 45, he died at home in the presence of close friends.

Recent polls

* Several recent polls show Freddie Mercury remains popular in Britain. For instance, in the 1999 Millennium Poll, in which 600,000 Britons participated, he was voted at the #14 and #15 spots, respectively, as a popular musician and songwriter [11].

* Freddie Mercury appears at the #58 spot in the 2002 List of "100 Greatest Britons", sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public.

* Two of Mercury's compositions, "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions" have each been claimed, in separate polls, as the world's favourite song. Most recently, an Ericsson poll of 600,000 people in 66 different countries found "We Are the Champions" to be the world's most popular tune [12]. This contradicts another major poll by Guinness World, which had previously found "Bohemian Rhapsody" to be the world's most popular song from the past 50 years [13].

The world's first Indian origin rock star

Because Freddie Mercury was of full Indian Parsi descent and did not move to the UK until he was 17, he was arguably the world's first great Indian rock star. He was also the first person of British Asian ethnicity to achieve major international popularity.

Trivia

* Freddie's famous overbite was apparently caused by the presence of four extra teeth, which pushed his incisors out. He commented early in his career that he wished to have work done, but regretted that he did not have time to do it. He also expressed fears that such an operation might damage his voice. While smiling in interviews, Freddie would often cover his mouth with his hand in an attempt to hide the overbite.

* Freddie was a huge fan of Liza Minnelli.

* Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson were apparently quite good friends for some period of time. With Jackson, he collaborated on some tracks which were never officially released, including There Must Be More To Life Than This and State Of Shock.[15] The latter song, released on the 1984 Victory album, was ultimately performed by Mick Jagger and The Jacksons.

* Freddie Mercury was the one rock star mentioned in singer Kurt Cobain's suicide note[16] :

"I havent felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things. For example, when we're backstage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowds begins, it doesn't affect me the way in which it did for Freddy [sic] Mercury who seemed to love, relish in the love and adoration from the crowd, which is something I totally admire and envy."

* Malcolm Hardee, the 'father of British alternative comedy' recounts in his 1996 autobiography "I Stole Freddie Mercury's Birthday Cake" how he committed his most famous crime at the singer's 40th birthday party.

* In 2004, Mercury was ranked #18 in a Forbes magazine list of the highest earning dead celebrities [17].

* A species of East African isopod, Cirolana mercuryi N. Bruce, was named after Freddie in 2004.

* A Royal Mail stamp called The Millennium Stamp commemorated the life of Freddie Mercury.

* A housewife named Mary Howes claims that she can communicate with the spirit of Freddie Mercury. She wrote a book about this called "The Mister Mercury" [18].

* Freddie died on the same day as KISS drummer and vocalist, Eric Carr, causing Eric's death to be somewhat overshadowed.

* Ormus Cama, the Indian Parsi rock and roll star who is the hero of Salman Rushdie's novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet, was loosely based on Freddie Mercury.

Because Queen was very popular in Japan, various tributes to Mercury can be found in Japanese anime and popular music:

* Freddie Mercury appears as a recurring character in the Japanese manga and anime series Sakigake!! Cromartie High! Known to the main characters only as "Freddie," and normally introduced by a harmonious guitar riff, this version of Freddie Mercury wears only long brown pants with red suspenders, and often carries his trademark broken microphone stand. In the world of Cromartie, Freddie is either still alive and in hiding, or a clone of the original Freddie. He shows some remarkable attributes, such as extreme patience when other characters repeatedly slap him in the head, and the ability to navigate Tokyo using only his "animal instincts," as one character describes it.

[silent_jonny]

Dances With Vicodin

ROFL!!

[StrictTime]

Her audition showed an emotional humble girl who fell to the floow and cried genuine tears at being selected.

I guess there were those in the audience who bought that and those that didn't. I didn't.

[Netizen]

I guess there were those in the audience who bought that and those that didn't. I didn't.

I didn't either. I don't care much for her singing but she might make a good actress. I can easily see her playing some role in a show like Dallas!