American Idol's Renaldo Lapuz - "We're Brothers Forever" Dance Remix

One of the best auditions from Week 1 of American Idol has to be Renaldo Lapuz's "We're Brothers Forever."





Through the magic of YouTube, the song has been remixed into many an incredible techno/dance song for the clubs.


They only get better.

Listen. Enjoy. Lose sleep over it.

Here's the original:

Blake Lewis performs "Break Anotha" on New Year's Eve

If you've been reading my blog, you know I'm the biggest Blake Lewis supporter out there from his time on American Idol. Since leaving the show, he's just been "aight wit me, dawg." I thought his CD was going to be better and Blake wouldn't have "made the band" with this performance from New Year's Day.



However, I'm sure it was freezing cold and miserable, which is going to make it next to impossible to beatbox.

Weekly Wrap Up - Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, WeAreSC, and Rotten Tomatoes close out my 2007

As we close out 2007, here are some published goodies of mine that made their way to the web this past week.

AmericanIdol.com
- Carrie Underwood is one of Elle's Best Dressed of 2007
- Clay Aiken Helps Out During the Holidays

It'd been too long since we had a Carrie pic.

RottenTomatoes.com
- Jen Yamato pulled together the RT Editors' Best Movie Picks of 2007. My shoutout is on Page 4.

WeAreSC.com
- Student Athlete: Brad Smith

That's a lot of words, folks. This is why my blogging has slowed down, but my word vomit is still all over the web!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
I'll be down in San Diego for the day today.

Unfortunately, real life threw me a bit of a curveball and we're being forced out of our current apartment so I've been dealing with finding a new apartment (success) and starting to get everything packed up. Because I am bitter, if anyone stumbles on here by doing a search on Lido Equities Management, know that they raised our rent by 22% spontaneously after we've been paying rent on time in this apartment for years. I understand that they want to make more money, but man, that's cold-blooded. Anyways!

Lots of fun stuff to blog about when I get back from SD. I went to a Spice Girls taping for the BBC (yes, it was fab), Marie' Digby concert, and Kelly Clarkson concert last weekend, which was all kinds of exciting. Apparently, Blogger can take video uploads now, so I tried to use it here, but it just took too long and the upload failed. What's weird is Google owns Blogger and Google owns YouTube, but Blogger just took 20 minutes of my life trying and failing to do what I just successfully did on YouTube over the course of two minutes.

Dark room + zoom = poop video.

On Wednesday, I caught the 10:45 AM showing of Enchanted, which made me believe that Giselle is now the "new Belle" (aka: Hottest animated character ever... people always give me weird looks when I say that).


I picked up Jordin Sparks' debut album, which I wrote about on Americanidol.com. In a pleasant surprise, the album is pretty good! I don't think that there's necessarily any songs that I'm going to listen to over and over, but the whole CD is pretty decent overall. Somehow, "This Is My Now" has also grown on me as well in the studio version. One way or another, the CD will be accompanying me via iPod on my way down to SD.

Again, happy Thanksgiving!

Jordin Sparks' next single, "No Air" Featuring Chris Brown?

After the leak of Jordin Sparks' song "No Air," off her debut album coming in a couple weeks, people are speculating that it'll be her next single. I do like the song, but because the quality of the leaks that are out there, it's tough to tell just how much I like it.

While I'm sure this video will get shut down, enjoy the sneak peek while you can!



I like Chris Brown. I like Jordin Sparks. So logic would say that I would like them together!

It worked for Rihanna and Ne-Yo's "Hate That I Love You," so hopefully Chris Brown and Jordin Sparks have a hit on their hands!

Check out my Flektor video on Carrie Underwood

One of the projects I wanted to do over the weekend was learning how to use Flektor. Surprisingly, I actually finished (I usually end up falling asleep all over the place and not getting anything done, which is what happened with me and packing this weekend).

What is Flektor? It's a site where you can use a web-based version of a more easy to use iMovie (consequently, with less features) to create and edit embeddable videos out of YouTube clips, MySpace video clips, etc. You can also create slideshows and a bunch of other things that I have yet to explore.

Regardless, I needed a subject that I could stand looking at for 4 or 5 hours or so, so I chose to make a video of Carrie Underwood that follows her time on American Idol Season 4 and beyond.

Over ten minutes of Carrie, made by me...

The video includes performances from American Idol, along with music videos and performances from Carnival Ride and Some Hearts. Enjoy!


It's long, but if you have a minute, I think it's pretty cool!

Finally made the most popular blog list on AmericanIdol.com

Today, for the first time, my blog on AmericanIdol.com, called "Neverending Idol Crushes" made the top ten most popular blog list!

It's impossible to read on here, but it's in the bottom right, sitting in the #7 spot!

There's a first time for everything.

2007 Country Music Awards (CMA) Winners! / Carrie Underwood Picture and Video Bonanza

Since I can't sleep, let's talk about what I watched on TV tonight - the 2007 Country Music Awards or 2007 CMAs, which rolls off the tongue a little better.

Something that I really like about the Country Music Awards is that every single award sounds like a really big one. In some other larger award shows, especially in music and movies, two subjects that I'm pretty knowledgeable about, there's always a ton of categories that we inevitably know nothing about. You pretend that you know all these movies and artists, but you just have no idea who they are or what they are a lot of times if you're being honest with yourself.

Carrie = Winnarrrrr!! x2

However, in the CMAs, because the show is already broken out by specifically awarding the achievements of performers in one genre, pretty much every category not only makes sense, but is a big deal!

Without further adoooo, here are the winners for the 2007 41st Annual CMA Awards.

Entertainer of the Year: Kenny Chesney

Female Vocalist of the Year: Carrie Underwood

Harroooo two-time 2007 CMA winner Carrie Underwood!

Male Vocalist of the Year: Brad Paisley

Horizon Award: Taylor Swift


Vocal Group of the Year: Rascal Flatts

Vocal Duo of the Year: Sugarland

Single of the Year: "Before He Cheats" - Artist Carrie Underwood/Producer Mark Bright

Album of the Year: "It Just Comes Natural" - Artist George Strait

Song of the Year: "Give It Away"

Musical Event of the Year: "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" - Tracy Lawrence featuring Tim McGraw and Brad Paisley

Music Video of the Year: "Online" - Artist Brad Paisley/Director Jason Alexander

Musician of the Year: Jerry Douglas - Dobro

A lot of people on certain message boards were giving me crap for saying that I thought Taylor Swift was going to win the Horizon Award, which is kind of like Best New Artist for Country music. Apparently, many on the CMT website believed that American Idol Season 5 finalist Kellie Pickler deserved the award, which would have been great as well.

I think that Taylor Swift has a huge teen/early college fan base within the up and coming generation of "new country" lovers and that her fans love her enough to stick by her.

While the CMAs aren't fan voted, I think that you want to give your Best New Artist equivalent to an artist that you think is going to have some staying power and represent the industry well. Before Christina Aguilera went "Dirrrttyyyyyy," she beat out Britney Spears for Best New Artist, despite trailing her in album sales. I attributed the win to her then-less controversial image and more critical acclaim for her vocals compared to many other teeny-boppers that had one album wonder potential. Taylor Swift has not only the fan base, but she's entertaining and had a really great first album with tons of single-worthy tracks. More than that, she's "cool," 17 years old, and she's going to stay cool. Despite what others may say, I think it was a great choice.

And it doesn't hurt when you look like this

Sugarland had an absolutely lights out performance. Carrie Underwood performed "So Small" in a really long (and pretty) yellow dress, though her performance got outshined by Sugarland's a little bit. I think Rascal Flatts won Vocal Group of the Year for the sixth year in a row if I'm correct, which might be a CMA record? Those guys are incredible.

Here's Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood sharing the stage at the Grammys performing some country classics in one of the cooler videos you'll see today.



Here's Carrie and Rascal performing their ever famous "God Bless The Broken Road" duet on American Idol, which marked the definitive moment that I started to get into country music (Carrie's initial Rascal-less performance of the song got the ball rolling and this made it completely happen).


This is unrelated, but "God Bless The Broken Road," has to be one of the best songs ever. It's really simple, it might be a little cheesy, but that song is amazing. Here's JR Aquino, a YouTube celebrity in his own right, singing that very song. It has nothing to do with the CMA awards, but I thought he was pretty good and thought it was worth posting.


Carrie didn't end up winning Music Video of the Year for "Before He Cheats," but it's always worth watching!


Until next year, CMAs!

Byeeeee!!

American Idol Season 7 kicks off on... January 15th!

Wondering when American Idol Season 7 starts?

Dun, dun na naaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Now we officially know! The search for the seventh superstar begins on January 15th!

Y'all know what it issssssss...

Jordin Sparks releases music video for Tattoo

American Idol Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks just released her music video for her Top 40 single "Tattoo."

If you haven't yet seen it, here it is!

Jordin Sparks - Tattoo
Uploaded by Alisvideo

I like the song, but the video is just "aight wit me, dawg."

Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride Debuts Gold with First Week Sales Totaling 527,101

Carrie Underwood broke a pretty disgusting (in a good way) number of records with the release of her second album Carnival Ride last week.

Stompin' fools, yo.

Powered by a huge fanbase of Carrie fans and her newest single "So Small," here's what Carrie managed to do in just one week.

Records and Chace Crawford! (allegedly)

- Debuted atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums and Billboard 200 charts with first-week sales totaling 527,101 (Gold)
- 60% increase over Carrie’s debut-week sales of her six-time platinum album Some Hearts (which tallied 314,549)
- Carnival Ride also became the largest country debut in digital album chart history with digital sales of 44,928
- Highest first week sales of any female artist this year (and it's November!!)

And you know, just top things off with a little World Series action.

It's time for Blake Lewis to Break Anotha... not Break Another

My favorite Idol from Season 6, Blake Lewis, just released his first single called "Break Anotha" earlier this week off his upcoming CD Audio Day Dream. I posted trailers earlier this week and they featured the guitar line that is used in the actual single.

While it's not a music video, you can hear the whole song right here.

B-b-b-break Anotha

I don't know about you, but I love it, as does Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly, who said "I'm so totally jazzed by Blake Lewis' dizzyingly catchy (if somewhat unfortunately titled) new single, "Break Anotha." But then again, maybe not. After several listens, "Break Anotha," with its opening blast of sirens and its hiccup-y beats, sounds like it could easily hold its own on Billboard's Hot 100. In other words, it's not just a "good for an Idol graduate" kind of single, but instead the kind of track I'd spend money to download."

Do yo' thang, Blake.

Blake Lewis releases trailer for Audio Day Dream

American Idol Season 6 runner-up Blake Lewis has his debut studio album Audio Day Dream in the works and AI fans are pretty excited about this one. From the looks and sounds of the trailer he just released to YouTube, it sounds like it could be pretty amazing!

Blooblippidydahbloobah!

I was a Blake fan (or a Blaker Girl) this season, so I'm really looking forward to this album (scheduled for a December 4, 2007 release). There's another official trailer going around and you can see it on the AmericanIdol.com site.

Here's some pre-AI videos of Blake in action that have me very excited for the album.

I like this one...

More than this one

Why Watch American Idol Season 7?

I'll be the first one to admit that I have questionable taste in music, TV, and especially movies, but American Idol is something that I'll defend until the show reaches its series finale, whenever that may be.

I've been an avid Idol fan since Season 1, only missing performances during Season 5, most of which I've since caught up on via YouTube. With Season 7 just around the corner, I recently got into a conversation at work where someone asked me why I was still so into the show six years after its premiere in the United States.

And no, it's not just because of Carrie Underwood...
Though this picture makes me think that's enough reason....

No, not just the rumors of Baylie Brown trying out again.

The thing that I like, actually love, about American Idol is that it's one of the few television shows in the U.S. that anyone could talk about with anyone and people would understand what you're talking about. They might not be watching that particular season or they might be unfamiliar with your favorite Idol, but most everyone has seen the show. People know what it's about and chances are they've followed at least one of the seasons to a moderate level and maybe even voted for an Idol or two.

I think that I legitimately have about 100 channels on my cable TV plan right now, which I know pales in comparison to people who have DirecTV or some kind of "All the Best" (AKA "All Your Loot") cable package from Time Warner. With cable TV fragmenting the television audience more and more with all these niche channels, there are so few programs that "everyone watches," these days.

Now I know that the upper middle class, college educated audience likes to say that "everyone" watches The Colbert Report and The Daily Show and always likes to say that "more people get their news from Colbert and Stewart than they do from network news" for some reason when they're trying to make a point (which is completely not true if people would actually check the ratings...as these were always some of the more idiotic statements I ever heard from liberal fist-pumpers in one of my classes), but really, it's only a small population of people that attracts a smaller audience than professional wrestling that watch those programs.

Kicks Colbert's ass

And yes, "everyone" in the literal sense does not watch American Idol. But I don't think I would be taking too big of a gamble when saying that close to a majority of our population has seen at least one episode of the singing/popularity competition. We're in a new era where there won't be 30 million people tuning in to see the last episode of a TV show. Remember when Seinfeld aired its final episode and everyone was wondering if it was going to top Cheers? That's never going to happen again. Even The Simpsons, currently television's longest running sitcom, whenever it ends, will not even come close to the numbers that Cheers had for its final episode. This isn't because it's not as good of a show (though most would argue that it's lost some of its luster), but it's because we're just in a different era of TV.

Those happy days are gone...
And Michael Richards is racist...
Or he just has an anger management problem.

Gone are the days when "everyone" watched one show. There is no Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but there's Leno, Kimmel, Chelsea, Letterman, Colbert, and Stewart. There's no Dallas, but there's Grey's, Desperate, LOST, Friday Night Lights, Sopranos (RIP), Sex and the City (RIP), Entourage, Six Feet Under, Weeds, Gossip Girl, Smallville, Brothers and Sisters, Boston Legal, House, ER, Prison Break, and 24. But with Idol, we get pretty close. People generally know what the show is about and because the show reaches such a disproportionate mass of people compared to many other television programs, people continue hearing about it and reading about it.

Call me nostalgic, but I think that's awesome.

Yes, so the show is filled with sponsorship and cheesy music videos. Through all the clutter, there are a lot of diamonds in the rough as Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Fantasia Barrino, Josh Gracin, and more have proven through their commercial success.

It begins... [Kelly Clarkson]


It continues... [Kelly Clarkson]

People say that they're annoyed with the "bad auditions," but I feel like they're comic relief for all the serious stories and serious talent that comes to the auditions. Without the silly auditions, the show would feel like a musical version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

And a lot of them are really unique [Blake Lewis]

And memorable [Blake Lewis' Virtual Insanity].

If you don't like the music, singing, smiles, or general upbeat nature of the show, then that totally makes sense. Clearly, the show has been proven to find a commercially successful artist that will appeal to the masses through its voting system. If you love underground hip-hop or dark rock music, chances are the show won't really do anything for you. However, for what it is, I love how American Idol can be one of the few shows left that you can strike up random conversation about with pretty much anyone.

While it sounds like there will be a return to focusing on the contestants for the upcoming season, much like what was done this season with So You Think You Can Dance, with the performances, features, personalities, and music that await us come January, I cannot wait for American Idol Season 7.

Carrie Underwood to perform at Game 3 of the World Series

The Red Sox are in the World Series and my favorite singer Carrie Underwood will be opening up the show at Game 3 tonight with the Red Sox up 2-0. As long as the Sox win, could a game get any better?

Carrie says, "Noooo...."

For a preview of what we can look forward to tonight, here's Carrie's performance of the national anthem at the 2005 NFC Championship game.


And of course, you can check out the official news item on AmericanIdol.com! I do realize that I should have capitalized "Fall Classic," but my editing software isn't working for some reason from home.

Carrie answers fans' questions in new Q&A on AmericanIdol.com

Check out our newest interview with Carrie Underwood posted on AmericanIdol.com! The questions are drawn from fan submissions that were provided on AmericanIdol.com and Carrie's official site.

Oh it's that good.

Goodbye to FOX's Nashville?

Even though people say Nashville will be "rescheduled at a later date," I think it's safe to say that we've seen our last episode of Nashville.

Me and the 3 other guys who watched it for the hot girls are pretty bummed about it. I cursed my DVR for two straight weeks for not recording the show before realizing it got canceled. Taking over Nashville's spot was K-Ville, and soon, TNGAB.

R.I.P. Nashville, we hardly knew you. Now you're donezo (to pay homage to the show's uncle Laguna Beach, we had to use that word).



Though you are sad, Nashville, Carrie will sing you back to happiness.

This performance was the single moment that made me start listening to country music. To people who hate riding in my car because of that, blame Carrie and this moment.

Melinda Doolittle to host Christmas Concert @ Belmont University

Awww snap, girlfren...

She's going going... back back... to Belmont Belmont.

Melinda Doolittle will be hosting a concert (taping next month) that will be broadcast on PBS (around Christmas time) at her alma mater, Belmont University. She graduated in 1999 from the Nashville-area school with a degree in commercial voice.

Yay for college degrees!

For the full story, you can check out the my post on the news blog on AmericanIdol.com!

Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride ads take over AmericanIdol.com

And I'm very ok with that.

If you click on any of the ads, it takes you to a full album preview of Carrie's newest CD, Carnival Ride! (releasing October 23, 2007). You can hear 30 second clips of every song on the CD and I could not be more excited.

Simpsonized American Idol

My love for American Idol is no secret from the massive amounts of Idol-related YouTube videos that get posted here on every other post.

Here's one of my all-time favorites from this past year's "Idol Gives Back" starring the cast of the Simpsons and Simon Cowell.

Don't Cha?

For obvious reasons, this clip remains my favorite.

Carrie Underwood - I'll Stand By You