American Idol

Fantasia Gives Critics The "Middle Finger" In New Rant

Just moments ago, we were discussing Fantasia's weird Instgram message about how gays can get married and people can smoke pot, but somehow she gets crucified. The former American Idol singer later explained that all of that was taken out of context and she actually loves the gays. And now comes h ... More >>

100 & Single: Answering Questions On Adam Lambert's Historic Chart-Topping Album

I've never been happier to be wrong about something. Two weeks ago, the last line of my column read: "Probably won't happen. But wouldn't it be fun if it did?" The event I didn't think could happen was Adam Lambert scoring a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 album chart with his second disc, Trespas ... More >>

100 & Single: Buy An Adam Lambert Album, Strike A Tiny Blow For Gay Rights

About a year ago, the movie Bridesmaids opened in the U.S. and was the subject of a rather unusual awareness campaign. Female movie fans, largely independently of the film's producers, compelled women to go see the film in its opening weekend and defy common Hollywood wisdom that non-rom-com movies ... More >>

Kelly Clarkson's Seven Best Cover Songs

Bryan Horowitz​In this week's Voice I talked about the new album by Kelly Clarkson, inaugural American Idol and the pop star who seems most likely to be a rip-roaring time at a coffee klatsch/Tupperware party/gathering of pals. The show that put her on the map, of course, is known for putting ... More >>

100 & Single: The Erratic Chart Fortunes Of TV-Crowned Idols, From Kelly To Scotty

​Scotty McCreery—winner of the 10th edition of American Idol, and owner of the new No. 1 title on Billboard's album chart, Clear as Day—sets a handful of chart records this week that certainly sound impressive. As Billboard reports, McCreery is the first country act to debut at No ... More >>

Here's Something Else To Do Before The Summer Ends: Attend A Free Concert Put On By A Morning Chat Show

Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina at Central Park this morning.​Yesterday my wonderful colleague Jen Doll penned a list of 11 things to do in NYC before the summer ends, and I'd like to add one item to her list: Catch one of the outdoor concerts put on by the national morning shows. This morning I ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Reality TV Propels Aging Stars Back Into The Top 40

​ When I heard that Jennifer Lopez was leveraging her new position as an American Idol judge to launch her new single, premiering the video for "On The Floor" on one episode and performing the song on another, I rolled my eyes at what I thought was her hubris. It'd been less than two years sin ... More >>

Pia Toscano Would Like To Remind You That (Her) Life Is Unfair

Michael Becker/FOX​ Few low-level American Idol eliminations have been met with the hue and cry that accompanied the April booting of Pia Toscano, a comely, big-voiced belter who hails from Howard Beach and who was given this year's ninth-place trophy. The notion that Idol is a "singing compet ... More >>

The Voice Feels The Pressure Before Its Big Finish

via Rickey​ Already, The Voice is just about over. Tomorrow, the field of four contestants gets wiped away and we get a winner. This show could've kept going for another three months or so if it followed a less fucked-up elimination schedule, but maybe NBC didn't realize they had an actual hit ... More >>

Platinum Hit And The Mythical Aspects Of Making Music

via BravoMagic in action?​ Platinum Hit, Bravo's new talent competition for songwriters with Jewel as host and Kara DioGuardi as head judge, is not particularly enjoyable. Aside from the talented but super-ADD Sonyae (pronounced, somewhat ironically, like "soigné") and the arrogant but though ... More >>

The Voice Keeps The Niceness Quotient High

via Rickey​After the first of its live shows, some real problems have emerged with The Voice. Similar to the last season of American Idol, none of the celebrity panelists is willing to say anything remotely critical, although that reluctance at least makes more sense here because they're suppo ... More >>

American Idol: It's Finally Over!

Michael Becker/FOX​A deeply frustrating season of American Idol is over now, having discovered exactly zero future stars, and last night we got the massive glitzathon finale, an annual event that reliably has little or nothing to do with the rest of the season. Scotty McCreery barely even look ... More >>

Live: Kelly Clarkson Shows Those Whippersnapper Idol Finalists How It's Done

Bryan Horowitz​ Kelly Clarkson Highline Ballroom Wednesday, May 25 Better than: Watching the American Idol finale in real time. I'll be honest: There was something pretty delicious about spending last night, during which a super-frustrating American Idol season came to an end by crowning a ... More >>

American Idol Goes Really, Really Country

Michael Becker/FOX​Oh boy, here we go. I can't possibly overemphasize how not excited I was to watch this Idol finale: Two perfectly decent singers who stick entirely within their genre--the exact same genre, even--and who both ran out of interesting tricks and wrinkles weeks ago. TMZ had a st ... More >>

American Idol Sets Up A Pretty Boring Finale

​So we lost Haley Reinhart this week. Fuck you, America. That's all I really have to say about that. I don't know why twangy teenagers are bulldozing everyone else this year, but it's going to make for a truly boring one-note final show. Has American Idol ever had a less interesting final two ... More >>

American Idol: James Durbin's Not-Very-Good Voice Finally Leaves Us

Michael Becker/FOX​ Tonight, American Idol lost James Durbin. I was sorry to see him go, but only because his departure meant that we'll never get to see the live-TV Tourettic freakout that I was really excited about back when he first came into our lives. As it turns out, most people with Tou ... More >>

American Idol: Jacob Lusk, You Were Too Good For This Show

Michael Becker/FOXFarewell, Jacob. ​It always happens. My end-to-end favorite contestant has never, ever won American Idol. They usually do pretty well, but they always flame out within a few weeks of the finish line because of some combination of nerves, bad choices, mass bad taste, and the f ... More >>

American Idol: No Judging, Please, We're Only Being Paid Gobs Of Money To Do So

Michael Becker/FOX​Hey, remember when enough people would get voted off American Idol and the show would go down to a much saner 60-minute running time? That was nice. Now, with only five people left, we still get a 90-minute show, with all the contestants singing twice. Maybe Fox is just dete ... More >>

American Idol: Casey Abrams Gets Sent Packing, This Time For Good

Michael Becker/FOX​ For the second time, Casey Abrams got voted off American Idol, and I honestly don't have a thing to say about it. I liked him at first, and then I got sick of him yelling and scatting at me. He ended things nicely, screaming and grunting while running around and singing "I ... More >>

"The Voice" Closes Its Eyes And Takes On "American Idol"

​So: The Voice. The big challenge. American Idol has been the dominant ratings force in American TV for a full decade now, but none of the other networks has really managed to do much with that show's format, which seems like a relatively easy thing to steal. (Or they haven't made a big singin ... More >>

"American Idol": Stefano Langone Won't Get Any Closer To Winning

Michael Becker/FOX​So this was Stefano Langone's week to disappear. I can't say it's a surprise; he'd been on the chopping block for a while, bouncing in and out of the bottom three and generally coming across as someone who was not long for this show. It's still a bit messed up the way the sh ... More >>

"American Idol" Drags Itself Into The 21st Century

Michael Becker/FOX​Last night's episode of American Idol started as this gramatically ridiculous question flashed on the screen: "Do you remember when they were just a face in the crowd?" No, I don't. I don't remember when they were all just one face. That would've been some weird David Cronen ... More >>

American Idol Season 10: Pia Toscano Has A Reason To Weep

Michael Becker/FOX​ Judging by the slavering praise the judges heaped on every last candidate on Wednesday night's American Idol, it was hard to even guess at who would go home this week. Still, losing Pia Toscano is a pretty big surprise. She's one of the few people on the show who actually ... More >>

Are You Smarter Than A Rock Critic?: Can You Name The American Idol Finalists?

Michael Becker/FOXWho are these people?​ For weeks, our weekly indignity parade "Are You Smarter Than A Rock Critic?" has been putting our writers at an unfair disadvantage, asking for the intimate details of long dead and gone artists like The Clash, The Doors and Metallica [yeah, no sic]. I ... More >>

American Idol Season 10, Elimination Recap: Goodbye Thia Megia!

Michael Becker/FOX Last week's insanely dramatic American Idol result show was the some truly compelling and weird TV; I sure as hell can't remember having that much fun watching one of those shows. The big moment, of course, came when the judges saved Casey Abrams and when Abrams collapsed into pa ... More >>

American Idol Season 10, Top 11: The Freaky Rictus Smile of Thia Megia

This person has no idea what Motown is. Photo courtesy Michael Becker/ FOX. ​Since last we spoke, Karen Rodriguez has gone back to MySpaceLand, Steven Tyler's wardrobe has grown impressively more absurd, and Jacob Lusk has bodied the fuck out of Heart's "Alone." I missed the last week of Ameri ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10, "Idols Week" Elimination: Someone Teach Adam Lambert How To Dougie

You've befouled Diana Ross' good name for the last time, Ashthon. Credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX.​Ashthon Jones got sent home from American Idol tonight. I am perfectly OK with this! She was not very good on this show! In her final performance, she once again bleated her way through a Diana Ross son ... More >>

Kelly Clarkson in Spider-Man?

​Someone posted on the ATC Broadway board that a high-profile visitor to Broadway's troubled Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, who is famous from American Idol, might have gone as a precursor to possibly taking over one of the roles in the show. That's pretty vague--someone please turn off the d ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10, Final 13: Bodies Falling Everywhere

No time even to discuss that shirt. Credit: Frank Micelotta/FOX.​Two hours? Really, American Idol? You needed two hours for a results show? And you were still scrambling to finish it by the end? This show's results episodes are notoriously stretched-out marathons, where 30 seconds' worth of in ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10, Live Show #1: Up With Judas Priest, Down With Edwin McCain

This shirt is a major problem. Credit: Frank Micelotta/FOX.​Before we say anything else about the first live American Idol show this season, we're going to need to talk about Steven Tyler's shirt. Steven Tyler came out wearing this impossible-to-figure silky blouse-y thing with pictures of gig ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10: Hollywood At Last

Some of these people can actually sing! Credit: Michael Becker/FOX.​The centuries-long death march of supposedly-funny bad singers has finally drawn to an end, and American Idol has moved onto the phase of its existence where the focus shifts to people who, ostensibly, can actually sing. The f ... More >>

American Idol Season 10, Los Angeles: How Do You Get To Work?

Stop grinning, bro. Photo by Michael Becker / FOX. ​The other night, a crippling snowstorm hit Chicago, way more crippling than the sad little Snowpocalypses you East Coast whiners are heroically enduring. It knocked out my cable, and no cable means no American Idol, since I'm not smart enough ... More >>

American Idol, Season 10: No One Cares That Your Cousin Has Cancer

This man may or may not be running an organ farm. Credit: Michael Becker/FOX.​Midway through tonight's Nashville-set American Idol audition show, there's a mid-montage moment where some big gumpy white guy is singing "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," and all three judges are singing along at the top ... More >>

American Idol Season 10: Comfortably Banal Down In "N'awlins"

Way less of dudes like this, at least. Photo by Michael Becker/FOX.​Tonight's American Idol starts off with two bits of welcome news. First off, Bones is on tonight. That means Idol is only an hour long and I don't have to wait all goddamn night to watch Community. (They dressed Malcolm Jamal- ... More >>

Fantasia

American Idol Season 9, Sinatra Week, In Which Ryan Seacrest Does a Better Sinatra Impersonation Than Any of the Actual Contestants

Hey, look, it's freaky little imp Aaron Kelly. CR: Michael Becker / FOX. ​Oh boy. Here we go. Sinatra Week. What a muddled and ill-conceived concept, even in a season that's attempted to grab attention by grabbing every iconic name off the shelf (Beatles, Stones, Elvis). I honestly can't imagi ... More >>

American Idol Season 9: Top 10 Results

Diddy, please never let that white suit go. Photo by Michael Becker / FOX. ​Are the results shows always this bad? This padded out with product placements and movie tie-ins and Seacrest/Cowell banter that seems one barb away from a loogie to the face? Just kidding--I know they're always this b ... More >>

Gogo Over to "Gogo Idol" at the Monster

​The problem with American Idol is that the world has no real use for people who can belt out a song, especially when they do it really well. A far more important talent to use as a salve for the planet's ills is gogo dancing! Nothing soothes the savage beast more than another savage beast p ... More >>

American Idol Season 9, R&B Week: Usher Clowns Tim Urban; Crystal Bowersox Teaches Typing

Michael Lynche goes India.Arie. Photo by Michael Becker / FOX. ​It's not always this way, but American Idol viewers had plenty of reason to fear the living hell out of soul/R&B week in this, the whitest Idol year in memory. Most of the remaining contestants this year look and act like they bel ... More >>

Hippie Bloomberg Performs for 2010 Inner Circle Dinner

Special guest stars: Ace from American Idol, the cast of Hair, and from Jersey Shore, Snooki and that young man who named his abdominal muscles. Enjoy.

American Idol Season 9, Top 12 vs. the Rolling Stones: Siobhan Magnus Turns Into An Awesome Goblin; Tim Urban Carnival Cruises Through "Under My Thumb"

Siobhan Magnus, unleashing her inner goblin. Credit: Michael Becker/ FOX. ​Top 12 week is where the real American Idol competition supposedly starts. Everyone's worked out their jitters, most of the no-chancers have been cut, and the singers finally have to start submitting to theme weeks, ide ... More >>

Explaining the Success of Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Which Has Sold More Copies Than 50 Cent's Before I Self-Destruct and That Joanna Newsom Record Combined

​A small shift at the top of the charts this week -- snoozy country act Lady Antebellum retakes the top spot, with Need You Now selling 126,000 copies to the smoky Sade album Soldier Of Love's 79,000 -- is followed by a slew of debuts from artists of varying notoriety. Polarizing American Idol ... More >>

American Idol Season 9, Top 8 Guys: Michael Lynche Redeems His Own Bad Parenting; Tim Urban Hits the Suburbs

Kidnap that fool--Tim Urban. Photo by Frank Micelotta/ FOX. ​Such a weird night on Idol. There's still plenty of dogshit left on the men's side of the competition, and maybe even worse, there are plenty of people who haven't yet decided if they're going to be dogshit or not. And the night got ... More >>

American Idol Season 9, Top 8 Ladies: Siobhan Magnus Murders "House of the Rising Sun"; Paige Miles Goes Meta with "Smile," and Pays the Price

Please welcome the next Ernie and/or Swizz Beatz. Photo by Frank Micelotta/ FOX​Holy shit, only one hour this week! Do you guys know what this means? It means we don't have to sit through endless inane video packages about every contestant's favorite fruit or whatever the fuck! It means the ne ... More >>

Ryan Seacrest Whipped By Women!

Project Publicity​CLICK HERE and read my new column, in which singer extraordinaire Raven O talks about the time he enabled the American Idol host to get 20 lashes from...well, read it and see for yourself. Believe me, it redefines "pussy whipped." The fun-tastic column also welcomes you to: ... More >>

American Idol Season 9: Shania Twain Sexually Harasses Contestant, Barack Obama Doesn't Show for Chicago Auditions

Michael Becker / FOXBoob-Boxer Amy Lang​ Chicago may be Frank Sinatra's kind of town, but it's definitely not American Idol's. The third audition city of Season 9 produced a meager 13 golden tickets to Hollywood, numerous digs at fat people, and an epic editing fake-out that placed Obama's Ele ... More >>

American Idol Finale: The Live-Blog

Everybody excited for tonight's preview premiere of Glee? I know I am. But first we have to get through this bullshit. Show of shows! Part one of the end of a long Idol season, marked by an abundance of bad dancing, unmemorable white boys, baseless support of the untalented, pity for the disabled an ... More >>

American Idols Live! Tour 2008: New Jersey Edition

A Heaping Pile of Salacious Blind Items!

Who did what to whom? When? How? Where? (Don't ask why.)

This Is Constantine Maroulis. He Wishes You Knew That.

In which an American Idol runner-up tops it all by blow-drying his chest