Idol Watch

American Idol Orlando Auditions

Here's the latest press release from American Idol producers concerning auditions in Orlando next week:

***FOX MEDIA ALERT***

AMERICAN IDOL AUDITIONS - ORLANDO
Thursday, July 9
(PRE-REGISTRATION ON JULY 7 & 8)

WHAT: Open call audition for the ninth season of AMERICAN IDOL in Orlando, FL.

WHERE: AMWAY ARENA 600 W. Amelia St. Orlando, FL 32801

WHEN: PRE-REGISTRATION

(Tuesday, July 7 & Wednesday, July 8)

Wristbands will be distributed to auditioners during pre-registration (tables open at approximately 7 a.m. and will remain open until Thursday at 8 a.m.). Once auditioners obtain their wristbands, they will be asked to return to the stadium by 5 a.m. on Thursday, July 9 to line up for their audition.
NOTE: Auditioners can sing for the camera at this time if they would like to.

Idol Poll: Chris Daughtry covers GaGa

Chris Daughtry's new CD, Leave This Town, arrives July 14. But the piece of music that's getting attention on Twitter today is Daughtry's acoustic cover of Lady GaGa's Poker Face for a German radio program. In GaGa's hands the music is impersonal, generic dance drivel. Daughtry's simple pass at the tune, and the fact he can sing with more personality than this GaGa person, lends Poker Face some unexpected depth of feeling.

Take a listen by clicking here and then vote on who does a better Poker Face.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Michael Johns' CD Review

Read my review of Michael Johns' Hold Back My Heart by clicking here

Follow on Twitter @HowardCohen

Syesha Mercado becomes a Dreamgirl

Another American Idol finalist has landed a role in Dreamgirls. Following Jennifer Hudson, who won an Oscar for her role in the dreary Dreamgirls movie, Florida International University Theater Dept. alum Syesha Mercado, the highest placed female finalist among the season 7 crop, will play the role of Deena Jones in an national touring stage version of Dreamgirls, the buzz says. This is the part Beyonce had in the movie.

Historically, scenes in the movie depict Harlem's iconic Apollo Theater and this is reportedly where this new version of Dreamgirls will open Nov. 7 - Dec. 6 before heading onto the road. Miami date? We don't know yet.

Follow on Twitter @HowardCohen

Photo: Charles Trainor/Miami Herald 2008

Michael Johns releases new CD

Michael Johns, season 7 eighth place finalist releases, Hold Back My Heart, his post-Idol album today.

Look for my review in The Miami Herald's Tropical Life section back page next Monday, June 29.

Follow on Twitter @HowardCohen

Website touts release of "new" Adam Lambert single.

A popular gossip website posted a link to the "new" Adam Lambert single, Want, from an album to be released this summer called On With the Show.

Fans who played the link to the ballad griped it sounded too much like "Clay Aiken" (the horror!) or it just was not good enough to be a first single. Still other fanatics gushed.

Don't worry Adam fans. This isn't a new song from his post-Idol album. It's a track cut more than a year ago before his run on Idol and it's not from the album he's cutting for the major label J Records/BMG.

It's an OK midtempo, ballady tune but if it were his official first single from an album set to come out in later fall I would agree that it was a let-down. At this stage, for the legit album, I hope Adam comes out with something a lot gutsier than what he did for this older, rather ordinary recording.

 I'm sure BMG isn't thrilled if an old indie, pre-fame record leaps out ahead of his first big-time release and masquerades as his "debut album post-American Idol." Fans should not get too excited and should proceed with caution and not hold Want against him as an indicator of his post-Idol career. Let's wait to evaluate the material he's working on now as a whole. 

Follow on Twitter @HowardCohen

Photo: AP

Brooke White's new album charms

Season 7 finalist Brooke White channeled her influences Carly Simon, Carole King, Fleetwood Mac et al. during her run on American Idol and she's become the first Idol contestant to secure the services of judge Randy Jackson in the recording studio. That's a bit of a surprise and seemingly a stretch for Jackson.

The good news: Brooke's High Hopes & Heartbreak falls toward the first part of that title (High Hopes) moreso than the Heartbreak part. You can hear her 70s singer-songwriter inspirations swirling about her on this engaging pop album. The melodic Out of the Ashes, for instance, sounds as if it could have come from the sessions of Simon's 1990 album, Have You Seen Me Lately? although, of course, vocally Brooke sounds more like Sophie B. Hawkins in tonality.

Other standouts on Brooke's CD, which hits stores July 21, are California Song, which name drops America, Joni Mitchell and Mamas & the Papas, and the catchy title track which has a soft dance tempo. White also covered Kings of Leon's Use Somebody on this CD. The most striking track, vocally, is the affecting ballad, Smile. Lovely piano-based melody with a great arrangement and Brooke sings out with feeling. Arguably, this is the track, moreso than the new single Radio Radio, she should showcase on TV appearances.

Follow me @HowardCohen on http://twitter.com/HowardCohen for more music stuff and chatter.

Adam Lambert to record with GaGa producer

I'm thrilled with all the attention Adam Lambert's been receiving of late -- although I wish it wasn't on the boring subject of his sexuality, which isn't newsworthy, and would focus more on everything else that has made him the most interesting and gifted American Idol contestant yet.

On that note, some music news. Adam's going to work on a handful of songs with RedOne, the producer behind the inexplicably popular Lady GaGa.

I can't stomach Lady GaGa, the most overrated and unlikable pop star I've seen in awhile. Lambert and his producer promise some rock. I sure hope so and that it's not in keeping with GaGa's insipid dance drivel. This is still the Idol album I'm looking forward to more than any other in recent memory.

Follow me @HowardCohen on http://twitter.com/HowardCohen for more music stuff and chatter

Here's some more from Rolling Stone.

David Archuleta's dad busted for soliciting prostitute

David Archuleta had the stage dad from hell on season 7 of the popular show, by all accounts. The clean-cut kid finished second behind David Cook.

Now his dad, Jeff Archulta's been busted in Utah at a massage parlor for prostitute solicition. Arrest happened in mid-January. He pleaded no contest and paid a fine.

Click here.

Follow me @HowardCohen on http://twitter.com/HowardCohen for more music stuff and chatter.

Idol Watch hibernates for two weeks

I will be taking a mandatory one week furlough and then tacking on a week's vacation, so Idol Watch is going to take a two week sabbatical. Though the season's over, I'll still weigh in on Idol news when I return June 15.