American Idol - Season 8 - Top 36 - Week 1 - Results

The night starts with a group sing of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.

While it was refreshing to hear some recent, relevant material on AI, the singing itself was not great... But it was still entertaining, if not for the sheer cheese value of it all.

Now onto the results. Ryan calls the contestants to center stage, chats with them, announces the results.

Casey - out
Stephen - out
Alexis - in - She sings an encore of her song" I Ain’t Never Loved a Man". And she does it even better than the previous night!

VIDEO

Rickey - out
Jacquie - out
Anoop - out (I'm sure he'll get a wildcard spot...)
Michael - in - He sings "I Don't Want To Be" again. And while i still think this was not a song for him, he does it better than the previous night, too.

VIDEO

Michael Johns and Carly sing "The Letter" - individually, they sounded great... But together, it was not so great.

VIDEO

Anne Marie - out
Brent - out
Stevie - out

Tatiana - out (oh the drama! I thought she was going to faint!)
Danny - in and he sings "Hero" again as the encore and it sounds great!

VIDEO

Next week's group will be:

1. Megan Corkrey
2. Kris Allen
3. Mishavonna Henson
4. Matt Breitzke
5. Allison Iraheta
6. Matt Giraud
7. Jasmine Murray
8. Kai Kalama
9. Jesse Langseth
10. Adam Lambert
11. Jeanine Vailes
12. Norman Gentle

Thanks to www.mjsbigblog.com for the videos

Blake Lewis - Vlog #1

Talks about being singed to Tommy Boy, upcoming shows, and upcoming music!

JD Fortune - The Death Of A Motivational Speaker - New Songs!

And new videos!

Please visit

http://www.myspace.com/jdfortune448 and go listen to JD's new music! 6 new songs are up, and they are AMAZING. Go! GO!!!!

EDITED

I had to edit this since JD keeps on deleting his videos! Your best bet to hear JD's music is to visit his website at www.jdfortune448.com and listen! Oh, and you can register there, too!

American Idol - Season 8 - Top 36 - Week 1 - VIDEOS

This year, we'll see 3 groups of 12 contestants for the first three weeks. This week's group is:

Alexis Grace
Anne Marie Boskovich
Anoop Desai
Brent Keith
Casey Carlson
Danny Gokey
Jackie Tohn
Michael Sarver
Ricky Braddy
Stephen Fowler
Stevie Wright
Tatiana Del Toro

3 of these people will be in the Top 12, as the The Top Female, Top Male and Top vote getter of each group will advance to the next round.

This week, the contestants choose a Top 10 song from the Billboard Hot 100 from any year.So we start with:


Jackie Tohn - A Little Less Conversation (Elvis Presley) VIDEO

I think she did good opening up the season! I love her voice, but this slowed down version didn't really allowed her to let it shine. Her best part was the bridge just before the "come on come on", followed by the come on come on. I also though her performance was a bit manic... All in all, a good start of the season. 6/10


Ricky Braddy - A Song For You (Donny Hathaway) VIDEO

Not bad, but a ballad in the #2 spot won't help him get through. The format is not helping him either - poor guy has had no face time at all during the auditions and Hollywood week. His vocals tonight were good, especially once he got into his higher register. I also liked the way he interpreted it. I liked it until the very end... I did not like the end at all. 8/10


Alexis Grace - Never Loved a Man (Aretha Franklin) VIDEO

I love the way she looks tonight. GREAT song for her voice, for her look, for the sexy little thing she wants to established. Lots of blues and soul in her voice. Loving it! 9/10


Brent Keith - Hicktown - (Jason Aldean) VIDEO

Cutie who will suffer from the lack of exposure during Hollywood week. I didn't know he was kind rock, kinda country. Good song, nice singing, good voice, nice performance. But kinda middle of the pack I think. 7/10


Stevie Wright - You Belong to Me -(Taylor Swift) VIDEO

The lower parts were painful.... Actually, her whole vocal performance was shaky as hell. No power, no oumph, nothing. I liked her song choice, but that song really didn't show off her voice AT ALL. 4/10


Anoop Desai - Angel Of Mine (Monica) VIDEO

What an old fashion song choice! Solid vocals, but boring song and boring performance! 7/10


Casey Carlson - Every Little Thing She Does is Magic (The Police) VIDEO

Facial expressions are weird and turning me off! Vocals only are not bad... But she doesn't have a powerful enough voice to pull this off. It really sounded karaoke. 5/10


Michael Sarver - I Don't Want To Be (Gavin DeGraw) VIDEO

I don't know what to think of this! His vocals were ok, his performance was ok, and I like the sentiment behind doing this song. But it didn't show off his beautiful vocals! He did surprised me with the performance. I didn't think he would be able to do it, but he did. 6/10


Anne Marie Boskovich - Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin) VIDEO

Pitchy in the higher notes. Good ending. I just don't like that song.... I felt like her voice was a bit too thin for this song. 5/10


Stephen Fowler - Rock With You (Michael Jackson) VIDEO

The arrangement was so freaking CHEESY!!! It felt also very pitchy. The only good thing is that he looked comfortable on the stage. Bad, bad, bad. 4/10


Tatiana Del Toro - Saving All My Love For You (Whitney Houston) VIDEO

Putting aside that she is fucking annoying, that was the best performance so far. 8.5/10


Danny Gokey - Hero (Mariah Carey) VIDEO

He was bare none the best. He gave me shivers. I was disappointed he did not rearranged the song, but he made the best of it. I LOVED his growly notes and the falsetto... 9.5/10


I HATE this format. This heavily favours those who had lots of screen time during auditions and Hollywood Week. And of course, it's a huge disadvantage for those who didn't. It's already a popularity contest when it should be a talent contest, at least in these earlier rounds!

I think Danny and Alexis are in for sure. Third person probably will be Anoop, although I'm really hoping it'll be Michael Sarver.

I guess we'll see tomorrow!

Videos provided by http://www.mjsbigblog.com

American Idol Season 8 - Your Top 36

Anoop Desai

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=446173972

Von Smith

http://www.myspace.com/vonleesmith

Alex Wagner Trugman

http://www.myspace.com/alexwagnertrugmanfansite

Adam Lambert

http://www.myspace.com/adamlambertmusic

Taylor Vaifanua

http:// www.myspace.com/taylorvaifanua

Jasmine Murray

http://www.myspace.com/jasminemurrayfans

Ariana Asfar

http://www.myspace.com/ariannaafsar

Casey Carlson

http://www.myspace.com/caseycarlsonmusic

Megan Corkrey

http://www.myspace.com/megancorkreyfansite

Mishavonna Henson

http://www.myspace.com/mishavonna

Stevie Wright

http://www.myspace.com/steviewrightmusic

Felicia Barton

http://www.myspace.com/feliciabarton

Kendall Beard

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=316243399

Kristen McNamara

http://www.myspace.com/kristenmcnamara

Alexis Grace

http://www.myspace.com/flexinlexin

Scott MacIntyre

http://www.myspace.com/scottmacintyre

Lil Rounds

http://www.lilroundsfan.com/

Jesse Langseth


Allison Iraheta

http://www.myspace.com/allison_iraheta

Danny Gokey

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=444993263

Ricky Braddy


Matt Giraud

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=49367494

Ju’not Joyner

http://www.myspace.com/junotmusicpage

Jorge Nunez


Brent Keith

http://www.myspace.com/brentkeith

Stephen Fowler

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=448091390

Nick Mitchell — Norman Gentle

http://www.youtube.com/user/youraschmo

Jackie Tohn

http://www.myspace.com/jackietohn

Tatiana Del Toro

http://www.myspace.com/tatiananicoledeltoro

Nathaniel Marshall


Jeanine Vailes


Kai Kalama


Anne Marie Boskovich

http://www.myspace.com/annmariesings

Kris Allen

http://www.myspace.com/krisallenmusic

Michael Sarver

http://www.myspace.com/graymakstudios

Matt Breitzke

Pork Beans - Behind The Scene

Idol Worship: Blake Lewis' New Deal; Album To Feature Ben Gibbard?

http://billboard.blogs.com/jadedinsider/2009/02/idol-worship-blake-lewis-new-deal-album-to-feature-death-cabs-ben-gibbard.html

The season six runner-up has signed a new record deal with Tommy Boy Entertainment, the seminal dance/hip hop/electronic label whose catalog includes albums by Africa Bambaataa, Biz Markie and De La Soul. "I'm doing an electro-pop slash real-hip hop-influenced album," he told Billboard. "It's a great record already and we're only five songs into it. We're hoping to have it out for April, so I'm working my butt off."

Blake says there will be a "ton of guests" on the record, mostly Seattle vocalists, but he also has his sights on someone we didn't quite expect: Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie. Turns out, Blake's got a connection. "My manager Leslie Lewis is Jenny Lewis' sister, so it's all a community thing," he said. "I'm hoping to talk to him about it at the Grammys."

In the meantime, Blake, who was dropped by RCA after one album, is getting a kick out of watching the new season of American Idol, for the first time since his near win in 2007. And he's also commenting on it, as a special correspondent for his local FOX station. "It's comedy to me," he said. "Because with the audition episodes, I was there for 12 hours, and to see how they cut it into two cities in a one-hour show, I just laugh about it." -- Shirley Halperin