American Idol Updates @ BLOGGED

As with every year, the American Idol kids rang the Nasdaq closing bell, but Matt Giraud and Anoop Desai dropped by the Daily Show with Jon Stewart afterwards. From their Twitter accounts:

@MGiraudOfficial twittered: What an amazing day so far. Went to the Daily show. Noop and I Hung out with Jon Stewart after which was amazing!! http://twitpic.com/dg4m8

@AnoopDoggDesai twittered: Great day, went to the Daily Show, hung with Jon Stewart, now off to dinner.

Meanwhile, Kris Allen guested on MTV’s It’s on with Alexa Chung, where he talked about his travels as a missionary, his childhood tumor, and his biggest fears. At some point during the interview, he sings jingles while sitting on Alexa’s lap – pretty fun stuff. Check out the video under the jump!

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So the American Idol kids stopped by Memphis, Tennessee last Saturday, July 26 and for those of you who weren’t able to see it, I have here some pictures of the show from Bailee of the Idol Forums along with a short recap.

Matt Giraud sang “Tell Her About It” with Scott MacIntyre and the performance was said to be far better than those in previous shows. Aside from the duet, he also sang “Hard to Handle”, “Georgia”, and “You Found Me.” Matt is quite the showman and despite doing similar moves in every show (based on the YouTube videos), the performance still felt authentic.

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The American Idol Season 8 Tour is going to kick off real soon and so far, we’ve already got a bunch of song spoilers. The first one is really obvious: since every Idol winner performs the winning Idol song, it’s probably safe to assume that Kris Allen will be singing “No Boundaries”. Here are the rest of our guesses:

It looks like the judges’ save was totally wasted on Matt Giraud because America voted, and he’s out of the show! Not really very surprising, considering how he was off-key during Rat Pack night. But a quick recap of tonight’s show before we get into the gory details of the elimination.

The show begins with the top 5 coming onstage singing a medley of “I Got Rhythm” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing”, plus Danny and Allison’s birthdays get celebrated with a cake onstage. Then the results begin. Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey are safe, and the bottom three is made up of Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, and Matt Giraud.

The suspense is prolonged when Natalie Cole comes to sing a rather pitchy rendition of “Something’s Gotta Give.” Up next is Taylor Hicks, with his new single, “Seven Mile Breakdown.” Simon looks disgusted.

Kris is declared safe, and Matt and Adam was left in the bottom 2! It wasn’t Adam’s best performance, definitely, but I’m surprised he was left with Matt.

After Jamie Foxx performs “Blame It”, it’s official: Adam Lambert is safe, and Matt Giraud is leaving the show. Like I said, it wasn’t really all that surprising. I wish Anoop had gotten this far into the show in Matt’s place.

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The top 5 remaining contestants of American Idol season 8 were looking really sharp as they came up on stage for the Rat Pack theme. What with everyone in the Rat Pack being dead and all, their mentor was a mystery to them, until it was revealed that Jamie Foxx would be helping them out.

Kris Allen – The Way You Look Tonight

The arrangement for this song was pretty traditional, with a band, and pretty. Kris doesn’t have the widest range or the best vocals, but he can definitely interpret a song well. That’s one of his strengths and I think that will take him far. The song gets livelier in the middle and although it did show his limitations, it was still a good performance.

Allison Iraheta – Someone to Watch Over Me

Allison turned 17 the day before, happy birthday to her! Sometimes I forget that she’s so young, because holy crap can this girl sing! Yesterday’s performance just blew me away. She hit a lot of nice notes in the middle, and was overall tender and sweet, despite the sexy edge of her husky voice. I’m not sure if Allison will win the competition, but I think she can make it as far as the top 3.

Matt Giraud – My Funny Valentine

Matt loves jazz so much that he took it up in college, but just because you love something doesn’t mean you’re good at it. He was off-pitch from the start and the phrasing was a little strange. Although he improved as the song went along and hit some big notes, Matt’s performance pales in comparison to the other two – and will probably do so next to Adam and Danny’s. Flawed performance, sucky vocal arrangement – who else thinks that Matt Giraud is next to go?

Danny Gokey – Come Rain Come Shine

My first impression of his performance was that it felt very restrained, but as he went along I realized that this is one of his best vocals ever. He had confidence and swagger, and he handled the melody very creatively. I don’t know if he can win the competition, but one thing’s for sure: he’s not leaving this week.

Adam Lambert – Feeling Good

Can we expect nothing less than a theatrical and drama-filled performance from Adam Lambert? Of course not! Sure, it was a little showy and he held onto his glory notes a bit too long, but he breathes life into this competition like nobody else has. I don’t think it’s his best performance, but it was definitely entertaining – performance-wise and vocally.

According to MJ’s Blog and Top Idol, both excellent sources of American Idol gossip and spoilers, next week’s theme is called “Rat Pack” standards. Basically – anything sung by the Rat Pack, a group of oldie performers including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and Dean Martin.

Apparently, the song list is going to be short and there’s no new as to whether or not the Idol contestants will be singing two songs instead of one.

Guest performer for the results show is going to be season 5’s American idol, Taylor Hicks, who’ll be singing the single “Seven Mile Breakdown” from his new indie album called The Distance.

Sorry I couldn’t make a recap of the performances on Tuesday; I was swamped with work and didn’t have time to watch TV! But I did see the eliminations round and I was really surprised with the results. Because the judges saved Matt Giraud last week, the seven Idols faced a double elimination last night. I was expecting him to go this week, but Allison Iraheta ended up in the bottom 3 along with Anoop Desai and Lil Rounds. And with last night’s eliminations round, ethnic diversity in the show ended because because Anoop and Lil had to go.

I wasn’t too surprised about Lil’s departure because I was personally getting tired of her declining performances – and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels the same way. But Anoop? Sure, he annoyed me at times and came off as a little too arrogant, but he got better in the last two weeks. Not to mention that he seems to have a strong fan base online. I didn’t like how American Idol didn’t even bother giving him a proper goodbye – he had to share his exit video with Lil. At least his last performance was fantastic. Incidentally, this is the first American Idol season without an African American female in the top 5.

Other noteworthy things about last night’s episode: Paula Abdul choreographed the Disco group dance number and it was the best EVER. They were dancing to Michael Jackson’s Shake Your Body Down to the Ground and it was wild. David Archuleta was the guest performer and he sang Touch My Hand, though it wasn’t really a very good song. He’s still adorable though – I really do think he would have made a better Idol than David Cook. Stronger fan base, plus has there been an American Idol as young as he?

So what do you think about Lil and Anoop’s departure?

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