KELLY CLARKSON: SuperBowl National Anthem (VIDEO)

The 3rd Idol (Carrie Underwood & Jordin Sparks have done it) to sing the National Anthem at the SuperBowl, Kelly Clarkson did a great job!  Altho somehow her rendition didn’t seem as BIG as others.  I think it was the arrangement.  Maybe because it wasn’t drawn out and dramatic like other arrangements.  But it was very similar to how Kelly always sings it.  Her performances are cool because they always seem almost improvised.

Yay for singing it LIVE and she even hit that high note at the end, which was pretty perfect!

Enjoy!

AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS: Performances 11/20/11

Here are just some of the performances from tonight’s award show:

KELLY CLARKSON:

• What a cool version of Kelly’s song!  It’s like a swing/big band version!  Kelly’s been dressing more “girly” these days, which is nice!

JENNIFER LOPEZ:

JLo always tends to do these big numbers.  Very showy.  But I gotta say, it was quite entertaining.  I really enjoyed it.  She looked pretty good too.

KATY PERRY:

• Nice job Katy!  Stripped down version of her new song The One That Got Away.  She really showed off that she doesn’t need a lot of bells & whistles to sing.  She sounded quite good!

MAROON5 & CHRISTINA AGUILERA:

• Such a catchy song by the two The Voice judges!  Umm…and we have to discuss Xtina.  She’s still looking a bit big…but she definitely looks better than when she was on The Voice.  And that dress style helped to flatten her down a bit.

DAUGHTRY:

• Umm…WTH was that?!  That was NOT good.  What was wrong with Chris’ voice?!  For one thing, it sounded like an octave HIGHER than normal.  Plus it was out of tune…in a lot of places.  It was hard on my ears…and as the song progressed, I felt like it got worse.  Ugh.

KELLY CLARKSON vs CARRIE UNDERWOOD: I Know You Won’t (Live)

Kelly Clarkson did a radio show concert in Los Angeles last night.  She sang a bunch of her “oldies but goodies,” as well as some new songs from her upcoming album (which releases on Tuesday).

Kelly also did a cover of one of Carrie Underwood’s songs, I Know You Won’t.  Kelly’s version is prett different from Carrie’s.  Much more stripped and very “ad lib-y,” which Kelly is great at.  Pretty awesome.

Here’s Carrie’s version to compare:

KELLY CLARKSON: Mr. Know It All (DWTS)

Kelly Clarkson was on the results show of Dancing with the Stars last night and performed her current single, “Mr Know It All,” from her upcoming album Stronger.

Kelly sounds awesome as usual.  She’s always been such a great performer.  And she looks pretty good…she’s definitely lost some weight.

KELLY CLARKSON: Mr. Know It All & Since U Been Gone (Ellen)

Kelly Clarkson is starting her promotion for her new album, which comes out next month.

She sang her new single, “Mr. Know It All” on the show.  Look at that dress she’s wearing!  Talk about glam!  That’s not the look we’re used to seeing on Kelly.

As usual, she’s sounds great!  Kelly has always been such a great performer!  Love how she ad libs and changes up her songs every time you watch her live!  She also did a special performance of probably her biggest hit, Since U Been Gone.

Enjoy!

AMERICAN IDOL: Forbes AI Top Earners

Forbes has published its list of the 2010 Top Earners for the past year.  Would you like to guess who was #1?

1. CARRIE UNDERWOOD ($20 million)

Buoyed by 83 concert dates in 12 months, the Season Four winner made as much as the rest of the TOP 5 IDOL EARNERS COMBINED.
GO CARRIE!



Here's the rest of the list:

2. DAUGHTRY ($6 million, tie)

Though he only finished fourth in Season Five, Chris Daughtry ’s eponymous band earned big with 53 dates in support of album Leave This Town.


3. ADAM LAMBERT ($6 million, tie)

Lambert was edged by Kris Allen in Season Eight, but he easily out-earned his rival thanks largely to 116 shows around the world in 12 months.
Go Adam!

4. FANTASIA ($4 million)

Season Three’s champ cashed in on new album Back to Me and 38 shows; will star in film Mahalia! later this year.
I think as long as you "tour" and do live shows, your number increase significantly...


5. JORDIN SPARKS ($3 million)

The youngest winner in the show’s history, Sparks debuted at age 17 and broke out with “No Air,” a duet with Chris Brown that has sold 4 million digital copies to date – making it the best-selling single ever by any American Idol contestant.
Jordin has always done well because of her singles...Great job Jordin!


6. KELLY CLARKSON ($2.5 million)

The first-ever American Idol continues to be a household name, though Clarkson’s earnings dipped from last year’s tour-fueled $11.7 million. Look for a comeback: her fifth album is set for release this fall.


7. JENNIFER HUDSON ($2 million)

Hudson’s yearly take is a bit low due to a paucity of tour dates, but she remains one of Idol’s greatest successes, winning an Oscar in 2006 for her role in Dreamgirls. She recently signed on as spokeswoman for Weight Watchers.


8. KELLIE PICKLER ($1.8 million)

With nearly 80 shows in the past 12 months, mostly as a supporting act or co-headliner, Pickler is one of the hardest-working Idol alums.


9. CLAY AIKEN ($1.5 million)

The Raleigh, N.C., native has sold over 4 million albums, penned a New York Times bestselling memoir and starred in Broadway’s “Spamalot” in the wake of his second-place finish in Season Two; new album Tried and True hit stores last year.
Considering Clay hasn't had an album in a while, it's still pretty impressive.


10. KATHARINE MCPHEE ($1 million, tie)

In addition to releasing three albums, the Season Five runner-up has co-starred in series The House Bunny and is set to co-star in NBC’s Smash.
Now that Kat will be in "Smash," hopefully her numbers will rise next year.


10. DAVID ARCHULETA ($1 million, tie)

Defeated in Season Seven by David Cook, Archuleta went on to release a self-titled album on Jive records that reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts. His memoir, Chords of Strength, debuted last June.


10. DAVID COOK ($1 million, tie)

Cook has come a long way from tending bar in Tulsa, Okla. four years ago. After winning Season Seven, debut album David Cook went platinum. He also boasts an endorsement deal with Sketchers; his second album, This Loud Morning, was released in June.


Near Misses

Recent contestants Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze, Crystal Bowersox and Season Two champ Ruben Studdard narrowly missed the list this year.

Methodology

These numbers are based on estimated pretax income earned from May 2010 to May 2011, before subtracting agent and manager fees. The totals were compiled with the help of data from Pollstar, RIAA and others, as well as extensive interviews with industry insiders including managers, concert promoters, publicists, agents and, in some cases, the musicians themselves. For more on the business of music, check out Zack’s Jay-Z biography, Empire State of Mind.


Source

KELLY CLARKSON: National Anthem (NBA Finals) 6/7/11

Kelly Clarkson sang the Star Spangled Banner at today’s NBA Finals game. Kelly’s originally from Texas, thus the Dallas shirt.

Besides Carrie Underwood’s version, which I still think is my favorite…This version is up there too. Kelly did a great job…she sometimes does too much of the runs, but today it wasn’t too much…and she made it her own.

Great job!

CARRIE UNDERWOOD: AI’s Top Earner!

The Hollywood Reporter released their annual list of the most successful earners in American Idol history.  Guess who’s #1?!

CARRIE UNDERWOOD!

WOOOHOO!  Not surprising really…but pretty awesome she has surpassed Kelly Clarkson, considering Carrie won 3 YEARS AFTER Kelly did.

Here’s the entire Top 10:

1.    Carrie Underwood

Season 4 winner

Album sales: 12,296,000

Digital track sales: 18,482,000

Concert revenue: $66,762,207

2.    Kelly Clarkson

Season 1 winner

Album sales: 10,674,000

Digital track sales: 17,254,000

Concert revenue: $32,681,389

The singer who started it all, Clarkson’s 18 singles, many of them hits, set the Idol bar high.

3.    Chris Daughtry

Season 5, 4th place

Album sales: 6,104,000

Digital track sales: 11,127,000

Concert revenue: $19,159,287

He turned out to be a winner at rock radio with a string of chart-topping singles.

4.    Clay Aiken

Season 2, runner up

Album sales: 4,990,000

Digital track sales: 581,000

Concert revenue: $17,754,872

His debut was a hit, and while Aiken has kept a low profile of late, public outings like his recent co-headlining trek with Ruben Studdard proved successful.

5.    Fantasia

Season 3 winner

Album sales: 2,809,000

Digital track sales: 1,325,000

Concert revenues: $466,631

After a 2008 stint on Broadway in The Color Purple, she launched a reality show, Fantasia For Real, which became VH1’s No. 1 rated series.

6.    Ruben Studdard

Season 2 winner

Album sales: 2,556,000

Digital track sales: 445,000

Concert revenues: N/A

Four albums, a Grammy nomination and a co-headlining tour with Aiken has kept Studdard on the radar.

7.    Jordin Sparks

Season 6 winner

Album sales: 1,275,000

Digital track sales: 9,547,000

Concert revenue: $1,141,629

Her massive presence on pop radio translates to 9 tracks sold for every album.

8.    Jennifer Hudson

Season 3, 7th place

Album sales: 1,160,000

Digital track sales: 1,964,000

Concert revenues: $1,055,971

After winning an Oscar and Grammy, she lost over 80 pounds and became the spokewoman for Weight Watchers in 2010.

9.    David Cook

Season 7 winner

Album sales: 1,324,000

Digital track sales: 4,196,000

Concert revenue: $1,012,335

Soon to follow his platinum-selling debut with June 28’s This Loud Morning, Cook also tours regularly and scored a deal with Skechers.

10.    Kellie Pickler

Season 5, 6th place

Album sales: 1,322,000

Digital track sales: 3,319,000

Concert revenues: N/A

Source

VIDEO: Kelly Clarkson – Medley

Haven’t heard much about Kelly Clarkson recently, but found this video someone posted of Kelly singing a medley of her older songs (from her 1st couple of albums) at a concert in Sydney, Australia.

The songs included in the medley:

• Just Missed The Train
  
• Low
  
• Addicted
  
• Gone
  

None of these songs were huge chart hits for Kelly, but they are awesome songs, some of which are my favorites, so it’s really cool to hear her singing them live!

If you haven’t even seen/heard Kelly perform LIVE, it’s something to see…she is, and always has been, one of the best live performers because she’s so effortless and so good at adlibbing/changing up the arrangements of her songs…quite awesome.  No matter how many times she sings a song, pretty much every time you hear/see her, there’s at least SOMETHING different thrown in there vocally.  Not to mention her vocals are SPOT ON.

Love it.  Totally worth watching.

Record Label Defends Taylor’s Grammy Performance…Kelly Responds

Grammy award-winning Taylor Swift has been getting quite a bit of criticism for a less-than-perfect (imo, WAY LESS than perfect) live performance at the Grammy Awards.

Not to sound mean, but…IT’S ABOUT TIME!

How long have I been saying how “under par” Taylor is when she sings live?  It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who’s so bothered by it.  Taylor’s performed MANY times at these awards shows…basically sounding just like she did at the Grammys this past weekend…but yet I didn’t hear/read about people making a big deal about it/criticizing her (which always amazed me actually).  I’m guessing most of the criticism has come out mainly because Taylor did WIN 4 awards…one of them being for Country Female VOCAL performance.

In light of all the criticism, Yahoo! posted an article where her record label CEO says:

“She is the voice of this generation. She speaks directly to (her fans), and they speak directly back to her,” “This is not `American Idol.’ This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.”

Yes, I will totally give Taylor credit for being a great ARTIST in the sense that she does write ALL her songs, plays the guitar/piano, etc.  But SINGING-wise, which counts for A LOT of the package…umm…hello?  You can call yourself a singer if you can’t actually sing.  And to take a jab at American Idol…umm…have you HEARD all of the American Idol winners SING?!

Her record label goes on to blame technical issues as to why Taylor may not have sounded the best on Grammy night:

“We had a volume problem in the ear. So, she was concerned that she wasn’t able to hear everything in the mix,” Borchetta said. “That’s just part of live TV. … So you’re going to have difficulties on occasion. Unfortunately, on one of the biggest stages, we did have a technical issue. She couldn’t hear herself like she had in rehearsal.”

That MAY have definitely contributed to some pitch problems, but…have you ever watched any of Taylor’s OTHER live performances?  Does she have technical difficulties at EVERY performance?  Stop trying to blame technicality for just a lack in vocal ability.

Finally, sounding kind of annoyed about having to defend his “star,” the CEO goes on to say:

“If you haven’t seen her live performance, you’re welcome to come out as my guest to a Taylor Swift show and experience the whole thing, because it’s amazing. You can see her in her element. There’s a reason tickets are selling like they are.”

I’m SURE seeing her live at one of her concerts would be a lot better.  But still…you can’t argue that altho Taylor is gifted in SO MANY musical ways…VOCALLY she really lacks.  Considering how many peformances she does live, and for how many years now, you would think she would’ve gotten better…

THEN…

Kelly Clarkson posted on her blog a “letter” in response to Taylor’s record label’s comments (specifically the AI jab)…she had QUITE A FEW things to say:

Wow …..Dear Scott Borchetta,

I understand defending your artist obviously because I have done the same in the past for artists I like, including Taylor, so you might see why its upsetting to read you attacking American Idol  for producing simply vocalists that hit ‘the high notes’. Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor because you know what, we not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well. Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable, but throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better. I have been criticized left and right for having shaky performances before (and they were shaky) and what my manager or label executives say to me and the public is “I’ll kick butt next time” or “every performance isn’t going to be perfect” ……I bring this up because you should take a lesson from these people and instead of lashing out at other artists (that in your ‘humble’ opinion lack true artistry), you should simply take a breath and realize that sometimes things won’t go according to plan or work out and that’s okay.

Sincerely,

One of those contestants from American Idol who only made it because of her high notes

KELLY…YOU GO GIRL!

VH1 Diva Duets

Looks like the VH1 Divas live this Thursday will include Diva Duets…the pairings for the duets were revealed on the Today Show this morning:

• LEONA LEWIS and CYNDI LAUPER
• KELLY CLARKSON and MELISSA ETHERIDGE
• JORDIN SPARKS and MARTINA MCBRIDE
• JENNIFER HUDSON and STEVIE WONDER
• MILEY CYRUS and SHERYL CROW

As you could probably guess, the pairing that excites me the most is Jordin & Martina!  Awesome!

Kelly & Melissa is a good pairing…they will rock it out I’m sure!

Funny how Jennifer’s duet is with a male…I mean, Stevie Wonder is great, but…this IS DIVAS Live.  Interesting.  No woman could “compete” with “The Lion.”  Ha!

VH1 DIVAS

Thursday, September 17, 2009

9/8c pm

VH1

Reaction to the VMAs

KELLY CLARKSON, who was nominated in the category that Taylor Swift won, posted a reaction to Kanye’s stunt on her blog.  I would just post her entire response here on my blog, but she uses QUITE a bit of words, so I’ll just post the link HERE.

Also, KANYE WEST posting an “apology” on his blog.  Umm…I wouldn’t necessarily call it an apology.  You KNOW he’s just doing it ’cause he HAS to to cover his butt…EVERYONE is against him/trashing him after last night, so…take it with a grain of salt.  Read it HERE.

Divas Live! 2009 Poster

Here’s a picture of the Divas Live! 2009 poster:

Not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but Jordin Sparks and Jennifer Hudson have now been added to the set list.

Yay for Jordin!  J-Hud…eh.

It’s becoming an Idol alumni concert already!  Ha!

Kelly Clarkson on Shape

Kelly Clarkson is on the new issue of Shape Magazine…

Umm…Can you say PHOTOSHOP?!

I’m sorry…but no matter HOW much Kelly says she HASN’T gained weight…She does NOT look like THAT on a normal basis.  Click HERE for the full article I found online, with other pictures of her recent performance on Good Morning America:

Don’t tell me that Shape cover wasn’t fixed…:-)

Amazing what photoshop can do…

VH1 Divas Live returns!

Remember that show Divas Live on VH1?  They’ve had quite a few different installments of the benefit concert, but nothing compares to that original one back in 1998 that had Mariah, Celine, Shania, Gloria, Aretha…Those were the good ‘ole days, and that was an awesome show.  Anyway, it’s been 4 years since the last installment of the show.  This year’s “cast” consists of an interesting group of “divas”:

KELLY CLARKSON (“My Life Would Suck Without You”, “Since U Been Gone”)

LEONA LEWIS (“Bleeding Love”, “Better In Time”)

ADELE (“Chasing Pavements”)

MILEY CYRUS (“The Climb”, Hannah Montana)

According the press release, they’re the only ones that have been booked to perform…so far.  I’m actually pretty excited for it, as I like all of these ladies (Miley Cyrus is just OK…but I like her enuf. :-p  Plus, is she a DIVA?!  I guess a teen diva :-p)!  Maybe they’ll even do some duets with each other!  They usually do at least ONE group number together…How exciting!

VH1 DIVAS LIVE

Thursday, September 17, 2009

9:00 pm

VH1