WANT TO SEE David Cook arrange, David Archuleta emote, Carly Smithson belt and Ramiele Malubay do ... whatever it is she does? Then, Saturday's your day! It's the day that tickets to the "American Idols Live" tour go on sale across the country.

Thrill! to the kick-butt Beatles covers by Chikezie. Swoon! as Jason Castro beams his baby-blues your direction. Puzzle! over the appeal of Brooke White. The whole Top 10 will be there. Even Kristy Lee Cook.

The tour is sponsored by Pop Tarts, which I thought was a description of the Idolites rather than a sponsor at first glance. This relationship clearly was not checked out by Fox's Department of Irony.

Our homeboys and -girls in the D.C. area will have two chances to catch the Idols — both in the middle of the week, sadly: at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore on Tuesday, Aug. 12, and right downtown at the Verizon Center on Thursday, Aug. 14. Tickets for both are available starting at 10 a.m.

Our friends across the country can check the handy list below, ganked from americanidol.com. It includes the date, city and venue for each show and the local time at which tickets go on sale.

Enjoy.

Continue Reading "'American Idols Live' Tickets On Sale Saturday" »

Express' Greg Barber recaps the ousting of Syesha Mercado on "American Idol."

EVEN THOUGH the contestants won't be competing, it's clear from the buzz in the air and the clamor in the audience that this "American Idol" results broadcast will be more action-packed than most.

The show starts with a whip around the audience, and, oh, the "Idol" luminaries we see! Ex-contestants Michael Johns, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook and Ramiele Malubay! And former mentor Andrew Lloyd Webber!

And then it's cleavage-o-rama as the judges are introduced. Paula's girls are out for a night on the town — and don't get me started about the anatomical weirdness that her necklace engenders. Yikes.

And then there's Simon, who looks like he mugged a maitre d' on his way in, stole his shirt, then ripped off the top buttons. His outfit shows off much more of his chestal area than I would ever really want to see.

For the group sing, three very lonely looking Idolites — David Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado — strut out to sing the ironically titled "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now." Which is funny, of course, since one of them will be stopped dead in their tracks tonight.

Hey, more former Idolites! Jason Castro! Amanda Overmyer and her hair! Chikezie! David Hernandez! It's strange how long it seems since we've seen some of them, doesn't it?

Continue Reading "Idol Chatter: Syesha's Relief" »

Express' Greg Barber on the fortunes of David Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado as they sing for their supper on "American Idol."

CAN YOU FEEL IT? That extra tension in the air? That twinge of anticipation? That little jolt of electricity like winter static?

Yeah, I'm happy the rain in D.C. finally ended, too. Oh, and "American Idol!" It's the second-to-last week!

Three contestants are left: the juggernauts who've rumbled through the season with nary a bump in the road and the battle-scarred fighter who's clawed her way up from the trenches and has so far lived to tell the tale.

Where once we had dozens of hopefuls splayed out before us like quacking ducklings in a pond, only David Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado remain.

The stakes, they are high.

"This is it," says Seacrest as he opens the show. "It is a pivotal moment in the lives of our three finalists. The way they perform and the way you respond can truly affect the closest race this show has ever seen."

No pressure, right?

The contestants are set to perform three songs each: one they selected, one the judges picked and one the mighty producers chose from their thrones of darkness blanketed in shadow.

Over the weekend, the Top 3 contestants flew back to their hometowns to be fawned over. That's also where they received the judges' song choice.

Our first stop: Murray City, Utah.

Continue Reading "Idol Chatter: Three's a Crowd" »

WE KNOW THEIR NAMES: David Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado. And tonight, we get to look at their numbers to see which one of them won't make next week's "American Idol" finale.

Until then, though, there's much to discuss.

Which Top 3 contestants will make it to the finals? Who did the best job during last night's performances? And what about this stage dad dust-up involving Li'l David's father?

Join Express' Greg Barber to discuss all this and more today at 11 a.m.

I CAN'T RESIST diving into the flurry of stories that've shuffled out over the past few days about Li'l David Archuleta's dad, Jeff.

Here's the news nugget: Remember last week when Li'l David, in the midst of his performance of "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, warbled something about "all you beyouuuutiful girls"? No surprise, he did it on purpose. According to The New York Times, among many, many others, the line is a snippet from a song by Sean Kingston that Li'l D and his dad, who helps David arrange his songs, were warned not to use. David sang the lyrics anyway, which meant that "Idol" had to fork over extra cash for rights clearances and royalties.

The dust-up, according to the Times and others, got Papa Archuleta banned from the show's rehearsals.

But Li'l David's vocal coach, Dean Kaelin, says the news media has the story wrong. He tells The Salt Lake Tribune's Vince Horiuchi that Jeff Archuleta was told not to help his son arrange songs for "fairness," not because of a spat with producers:

"This whole thing with the words is ludicrous," said Kaelin, who has been working with David and his father during the show's run. "[David] easily would have sung that in front of producers, directors [during rehearsals]. Why wouldn't anyone go up to him and say, 'You can't sing that,' or go to Jeff? And nobody did." ...

"I have spoken to Jeff about all of this, and what he said to me is he is not 'banned' from the show," Kaelin said. "What he was banned from — and I wouldn't even call it that — is from the arranging sessions."

Continue Reading "Idol Chatter: For Archuleta, All the World's a Stage Dad" »

IT SEEMS LIKE a no-brainer: Two wildly successful contestants who have never once appeared in the bottom rows of the "American Idol" vote tally go up against a hopeful who's been there five times. They'll clean her clock, right?

Maybe. But if David Archuleta and David Cook think they've got an easy road to next week's finale, they need a little history lesson.

Melinda Doolittle was a virtual paragon of "Idol" safety last year -- until she got an unexpected boot during the show's second-to-last week. And fans two years ago were shocked to see Elliott Yamin sent home at this point in the competition.

But there's a precedent for a dual-David final, too. Kimberley Locke, who also racked up five bottom-tier finishes, made it to the Top 3, then was
booted before the finale.

Continue Reading "Idol Chatter: Will Cook, Archuleta Be Dueling Davids?" »

Express' Greg Barber on the elimination of Jason Castro on "American Idol."

THERE'S SOMETHING DIFFERENT about the lineup of contestants as this episode kicks off. Sure, there's only four of them, that's true — but something deeper. You can see it in each of their eyes. Every last one of them is concerned that tonight might be their last night on that stage. And almost all of them have a reason to worry.

Welcome to the beginning of the end, my friends. It's a new "Idol" world order, and no one is safe.

In fact, they're 51 million different kinds of not safe. That's how many votes came in after Tuesday night's Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame-themed show. And according to Seacrest, each of the top three vote-getters was within 1 million votes of his or her nearest competitor. Which is pretty tight, considering the volume of votes.

The talk at first turns to Syesha: Did Randy make her cry? He says no. He says Syesha told him no. Seacrest intimates that maybe the answer is really yes. Paula haughtily suggests that she facilitated Syesha's "moment of recognition."

Then, Seacrest asks Simon if he really was as angry as he seemed last night. "No, I wasn't angry, I was just surprised at some of the disastrous song choices," he says.

There's a great intro for a group sing!

Which kicks off slightly awkwardly since Li'l David Archuleta seems to miss his cue by a millisecond or two. The song in question is "Reelin' in the Years" by Steely Dan, and unlike last week, the Idolites harmonize really well. (Watch here.) Too bad there'll be one less of them in less than an hour.

THE EASY PART
As the elimination round begins, Li'l David is first out — a natural choice, since he's the one least likely to be sent home. He had a highly rated night in which he sang two songs — "Stand by Me" and "Love Me Tender" — that played magnificently to his audience of squealing teenage girls whose hearts and eyelids flutter at the mere thought of him. His breathy exhortations were sure to stimulate the raw nerves of their ... phone-dialing fingers.

What was his game plan, Seacrest asks.

"It's never really changed. I definitely concentrated more on having fun with 'Stand by Me,'" he says. "And then with 'Love Me Tender,' I just wanted to really connect with the song and hope that everyone else would connect with it if, you know."

We know. Oh, and he's safe.

The gremlins are loose in the "Idol" control room, by the way. First, there was a problem with the lighting during the first break, then the video switching was totally bungled as Seacrest attempted to show footage from past Idolites' trips home, during which a shot of Li'l David and then only the "Idol" logo were shown. And as he tried to cut to a shot of David Cook, Syesha and Jason Castro backstage, he somehow instead received video that appeared to be a rally of some sort — probably video from one of the aforementioned trips home that the Top 3 take every year.

Too bad this show isn't one of the highest-rated programs on network television. I hear those are run more smoothly.

Continue Reading "Idol Chatter: Out Castro" »

Express' Greg Barber recaps the performances of the Top Four on "American Idol."

THE THEME OF TUESDAY NIGHT is, on a number of levels, math. Which isn't my strong suit. In fact, even though I kicked booty to the 15th power at Algebra 2: Electric Boogaloo, I haven't been much of a math fan since Ms. Shelton made me want to lobotomize myself with a graphin' calculator in the 12th grade.

But just as Hillary Clinton is confronting some disconcerting math after presidential primary contests in Indiana and North Carolina — seriously, we're going to have an American Idol before we have a Democratic presidential candidate. That's wild — so, too, are Syesha Mercado and Jason Castro likely weighing their chances of survival on "American Idol."

Syesha's landed near the bottom of the "Idol" pack a record-tying five times. Jason's performances have been flagging in recent weeks. And both of them have the misfortune of not being named David, which seems to be the key to success on this season.

But before minute one had ticked to a close in Tuesday's episode, Seacrest revealed an intriguing bit of trivia: Three of the remaining four contestants have racked up first-place finishes in weekly votes.

Unless the "Idol" math has fluctuated as wildly as fan support for Miley Cyrus, it's likely Syesha never made it to the front of the pack. So that means that Jason has. But when? And what does that mean for Syesha? Will she survive the week? And the Davids — are they not as dominant as we'd think?

I'll get the graphin' calculator. There's a sine curve in this somewhere.

Continue Reading "Idol Chatter: Rocky Road" »

THE TOP FOUR have performed, but who will emerge victorious? Express' Greg Barber discusses the "Idol" hopefuls' chances at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

THIS MIGHT be Syesha Mercado's last week on "American Idol." And she should be ecstatic about that.

Not because she'll be leaving the hit show -- that's a tough break in any case. But because she outlasted, outperformed and outsang all of the female competitors and all but three of the wildly popular men in this season's formidable lineup.

And she's had to fight for her survival each step of the way, landing near the bottom of the contestant pack a record-tying five times at least without losing her spot in the mix.

The secret to her success? It's tough to say, since the "Idol" audience can be as unpredictable as a Gulf Coast hurricane, but her continued improvement onstage is surely a factor. She dazzled during Andrew Lloyd Webber week and showed off an impressive range with the songs of Neil Diamond.

Continue Reading "Idol Chatter: Syesha Mercado, 'Idol's' Soulful Survivor" »