​

James Durbin is a fighter with the heart of a lover. He has managed to not let personal struggles hold him back and has had success with the theater group Kids On Broadway and with American Idol. It doesn't even matter that he was voted off in the top 4 because he releases his debut Memories Of A Beautiful Disaster today, so the sky is the limit for Durbin. We spoke with the man behind the music about recording his album, American Idol, and his dream collaborations.

More >>

​​​​​This story is just weird. American Idol 2010 semifinalist Alex Lambert (the football-playing one, not the gay one) has told the world via Twitter he is "sleeping on the street and behind buildings." The 20-year-old Texas native went on to claim he is sending all of his earnings back to his mother and brothers, leaving himself to crash coffeehouses for wifi to reach his fans (fan?).More >>

​

What? I'm writing about "American Idol?" Someone please come to my apartment and make sure I'm not hallucinating.

So anyway...Ellen DeGeneres has been picked as Paula Abdul's replacement for the upcoming season.

Do I care? No. Should you? No.

But I figured you might want to know.

Apparently, the Intranets are split on whether or not this is a wise choice. But who cares about bloggers (they're all terrible people if you ask me), what does Eric the Midget think?

PS Hey Paula, you really done fucked up this one. They paid you how much money to sit there and give opinions on whether or not people could sing? And you couldn't do that any more? Shit, that's like what the Weekly does with me, except for a lot less dough, and I'm still doing it.

I feel like I should make something clear: I don't hate Taylor Hicks. I don't know how that rumor got started. I was probably more of a Katharine McPhee fan that season of American Idol, sure, but I thought it was actually kind of cool, at least from a novelty standpoint, when he won.

And sure, I made some jokes about his upcoming appearance at the Wal-Mart in Orange, but it wasn't really about him, it was more the inherent oddity of a relatively recent winner of one of the biggest television competitions in history appearing in the middle of the afternoon, on a weekday, at a Wal-Mart in Orange. If it was one of my favorite artists, I'd think it was funny (and sad. Very, very sad). Still, apparently my words offended some Taylor Hicks fans. Such as:

More >>

As music editor, I'm trained to be on the lookout for HOT SCOOPS wherever they may be. Like a couple days ago when I was at the Wal-Mart at the Village at Orange, and made this enticing discovery: that American Idol season five winner Taylor Hicks will be signing CDs at that store this Thursday, May 7, at 4 p.m. So, there you go. If you have nothing going on during a work day at 4 in the afternoon, and have been hoping to get a CD signed by Taylor Hicks, and can make it to the Wal-Mart in Orange that day, well, it's your lucky day, weirdo.

• 
  

For most avid A.I. fans, it seems like only yesterday when a young, slightly pale, 16 year-old David Archuleta came on the scene and sang his way into our hearts. Now a bona fide king of the tweens, Archulta madness still hangs in the air even after his season ended.

But before he was swooning the Idol crowd, this kid was honing his skills as a "soulful little Wayne Newton mini-me". That's actually a pretty accurate description when you check out Archuleta's get up in his 2003 semi finalist performance on Star Search. Damn, that hair? That shirt? Adolescent fashion faux pas aside, watch this cute little tyke blow away host Arsenio Hall with his vicious vocal runs on the Alicia Keys song "Fallin'".

 It's hard to believe that this kid was only 12years old in this video. Tomorrow, a bold 18-year-old Archuleta makes his first appearance at The Glass House. Though it seems like a strange venue choice for an A.I. alumni, it might add some weight to his indie rock cred. Well, probably not.

Yep. Both of the Orange County folks in the top 36--Mishavonna Henson and Kai Kalama--were eliminated last night during the American Idol results show. Not really surprising, given the thoroughly lukewarm responses to their performances last night, but still, a bit of a letdown, no? They do have a chance to return via the exciting new "wildcard" round on March 5 ("wildcard, bitches!" to echo Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), so we'll see how all that goes. I knew Train was a bad idea.

Oh boy. Both of our remaining local American Idol hopefuls--Mishavonna Henson and Kai Kalama--performed on the shizow last night.

Videos and surely insightful commentary after the jump, yep.

More >>

American Idol finalized their top 36 last night, and Orange County is responsible for two of them--that's 5.555(and so on) percent! Not too shabby.

Irvine's Mishavonna Henson (left) and San Clemente's Kai Kalama both made it through into the live episodes, which start this Tuesday with the first crop of 12 semifinalists performing. We'll be tracking their progress here, of course. Go team OC! Yay for opportunties to make still-funny Ryan Seacrest jokes!