American Idol 8 News

American Idol’s Kara Dio Guardi

Hugh — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:48:51 +0000

Her name, Kara DioGuardi, didn’t ring a bell actually, but I got curious because I didn’t think the American Idol people would just pick up someone and dump her into a judge’s seat. After all, if it aint broke, don’t fix it right? And I never really thought that there was something wrong with the dynamic of the three judges. You had Paula, who was nicer, maybe kinder, giving the contestant the benefit of the doubt, and trying to find a positive spin on things even after the most dire of performances. Then on the other end of the spectrum, you have Simon, who’s all about being frank, blunt, a bit in your face (well, maybe not really), not afraid to tell you what he thinks, and in sometimes rather sharp language, but who usually struck me more as a tough love kind of guy. I mean, the way I see it, the music industry’s a pretty ruthless business, so if a contestant can’t stand the sometimes painful verbal lashings coming from Simon, then how will he or she deal with all the tabloids? And then of course, there’s Randy who balances things out in the middle, and focuses a lot on the technique and the nitty gritty of the performance.

So how does a 4th judge fit in in all that?

American Idol, 4 judges?

Hugh — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:44:31 +0000

I expected the people over at American Idol to tweak the show somewhat for the coming season, since well, the show’s been around for 7 years already after all, and I’m sure that they didn’t want American Idol to stagnate into a shadow of its former self. So I was thinking, I do hope they begin to focus on a lot of the great talent that passes through their auditions, as opposed to highlighting all the freak shows who give it a go just so they can have their (sometimes creepy) 15 minutes of fame. I mean, for me, American Idol is about the performances. I tune in on a weekly basis to be entertained by music. If I wanted to watch a bunch of freaks, I would tune in to… well… where do I start? Lol.

So it looks like this season, the 3 usual judges of American Idol are going to have to make a little bit of room at the table for a 4th judge, Kara DioGuardi. I wonder how that’ll play out.

American Idol 8 winner

Hugh — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:40:24 +0000

It’s a bit funny talking about an American Idol 8 winner, when I don’t even know who the contestants will be. Lol. But I was just thinking back to last year, and realizing that whoever the next American Idol will be really has quite a tough act to follow. I mean a really tough act.

After all, I can remember how, in the last Idol season, David Cook came up with that amazing, amazing performance of, Always Be My Baby, which for me made me realize, not just that this guy could be the next American Idol, but also that this guy really could go on to be a major music star, and sell records like hotcakes. I mean, it really was amazing. He took a song which I thought was just okay, from Mariah Carey, who churned out a bunch of pretty good songs some time ago, and elevated it to a whole new level, making me think, Gee, I’d probably buy that right now if I could download it from somewhere.

Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Both performance, but also arrangement. Can this coming season’s American Idol deliver similar goods?

American Idol 8 non winners

Hugh — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:36:02 +0000

So the great thing about American Idol last year was that there was quite a good amount of talent, even when the eventual winner David Cook isn’t counted. The runner up for example, David Archuleta, was excellent. He had some performances where I thought, wow. He had some really impressive moments, and in addition to that, he was mostly consistent all throughout the season. So that made for some good programming. I also liked the Castro fellow. Also a very consistent performer. And even if he didn’t quite have a mind blowing performance, similar to some of the others, I usually enjoyed watching the guy. And you can go on down the list, and find some of the other also rans, who while not winning American Idol, actually gave performances which made me glad to be watching the show.

Will this season be similar? Will there be a lot of talent scattered throughout the top 24? Or in this case, top 36? Or will most of the talent be concentrated at the top? Well, I hope that won’t be the case.

American Idol 8

Hugh — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:38:53 +0000

In just a few days, American Idol will be back on air for its 8th season this 2009. It looks like a few changes have been made to how the show will be carried out, some maybe not so important, but some quite significant, and may change the overall dynamic of the show. So there’s stuff here to look out for, and that doesn’t yet include the contestants.

Coming after what I felt was a pretty successful Season 7, I wonder how this particular American Idol season will stack up. I mean, the top two finishers from last year, I think, were some pretty compelling contestants, and I’m pretty sure that they’ll go on to build some music careers to watch out for, if they haven’t already by now. So the top 2 contestants last year were great, and American Idol would’ve been lucky to have had either of them as the American Idol. What about this year?