Approximately one year ago, Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, Megan Joy and Allison Iraheta, Alexis Grace and Anoop Desai arose before dawn to stand in line with thousands of dreamers, waiting for their long shot at stardom. Five years ago, Carrie Underwood camped out and waited for her turn, four years ago Chris Daughtry was a face in the mob. Three years ago, Jordin Sparks was passed over in one city so flew off to try again in another. Two years ago, David Cook escorted his brother to his audition, with no thought that he was taking the first step in a life-changing journey of his own.
Yesterday, outside the Rose Bowl, 11,000 would-be superstars waited in the darkness, nursing their dreams. There are a thousand stories in the naked city, but in the end only three or so of the stories waiting in this line will make it to the big stage.
Every May as the world convenes in front of TV sets to choose our new pop despot, a certain college of cardinals gathers around the main stage. For the 80-some singers who have stood on the "Idol" stage before, finale time is like a giant family reunion, a time to reconnect with their comrades in arms, with whom one, two or six years ago they fought through a bloody season and toured the nation before being scattered to the four winds to seek their fates in the swirling tides of contemporary music.
On finals eve, the gathering place of this fabled fraternity was in a off-the-map basement on the opposite edge of downtown from the Nokia. On Monday night, the Edison bar was the scene of the most intimate of "Idol" conclaves as about two dozen Idols past gathered for a party thrown by Fox Radio to celebrate the finals.
Into a quiet alley, down a long stairwell, one found a cozy little gathering where Kimberley Locke and Bo Bice, Diana DiGarmo and Hayly Scarnato, Melinda Doolittle and Jason Castro hobnobbed with those few who have walked the lonely path of the American Idol. And talking with them, one gets a sense of the many directions a post-"Idol" career can go.
This past weekend, "American Idol" alumni Phil Stacey, Melinda Doolittle, Gina Glocksen and Chikezie kicked off their American Stars in Concert national spring tour, playing 15 dates across America. Last week, I dropped in at their North Hollywood rehearsal space to chat during their breaks between learning dance routines and running through the many songs that will make up their sets.
Below, check out videos of the rehearsal. And then click over to read excerpts from my interviews with each of the Idoldome giants.
The most shocking revelation: When pressed about how he feels surrounded by alumni from the "Idol" year prior to his run — Season 6 — Chikezie replied that having in fact made it to Hollywood Week in S6, he felt that that season was in fact his natural home, and was ready to defect from Season 7. Shock waves will be felt across the Idol realm by this stunning turn, without a doubt.
We chatted with Chikezie, one of the bright lights of "American Idol's" Season 7, last week as he took a
break from rehearsing for his 15-city American Stars in Concert tour.
Q: How is the album coming?
C: The album is coming great. I'm just finishing up writing. I'm going to be recording it while we're on tour. There's like a little two-week gap in between where I'm going to be in the studio doing that and the biggest focus is on the single more than anything else. But the album is the major focus. I'm doing that and then actually in the middle of the tour, as well, I'm going to be doing a performance for the Run/Walk, the big Run/Walk in L.A. for Give Life, which are organ donors and things like that. What else is going on? My manager is better at answering these questions. She just tells me what's up a couple of days ahead.
Q: Tell us about more about the album.
C: The album is my baby. It's basically a culmination of everything that I've learned as far as musically and style-wise and things like that. I bring together a lot of different styles. It's got heavy soul and rock influences on it. I'm going to be trying to play as much as I can on guitar and a lot of mostly real music, not so heavily produced like a lot of stuff is today. It's as close as we can do to real live music. I'm going to try and get my band and have my band doing it. It's weird music, because I'm a weird guy. Not weird in the way that people won't understand it, but it's weird in the way that the industry seems to be going. You have a lot of artists like Kanye West and Lil Wayne who are doing stuff that's slightly skewed from the norm, the sort of stuff that Andre 3000 was doing before. It's thing like that where you're just attacking it from left field as opposed to right.
The semifinals are over and we have officially started the real competition phase of "American Idol." The contestants have left the comfort of open song choice and have entered the hit-and-miss theme weeks. Michael Jackson was our inspiration tonight, and I was pleasantly surprised at what we heard!
I am in L.A. this week for an upcoming tour and caught the show sitting in the audience! Bumped into the L.A. Times' own Richard Rushfield. I must admit that it was very weird sitting in the audience instead of singing on stage. It was nice to see the children of contestants come out during their parent’s performance. Mine always had to stay backstage in the green room.
According to the reaction of the judges and the studio audience, tonight’s obvious winner was Adam Lambert. I was not fully convinced. I felt like he was way to theatrical and has yet to show us anything different. He obviously has an amazing voice, range and knows how to work a stage, but I have yet to hear something that would play well at radio from him. He obviously will be around for a long time so I’m looking forward to see if he will do anything unexpected.
On the other hand, I thought that Matt Giraud’s performance of "Human Nature" was a great and showed his commercial viability. And I really enjoyed his piano playing. I see him gaining more and more fans as the season progresses.
It began with an operatic flourish and some well-tempered words from sugar-pop zaide Barry Manilow: Success, said the barrel-voiced balladeer, occurs when preparation meets opportunity. Framing round one of Hollywood Week with that statement set up tonight's episode as one that would offer many dazzling high points, as performers with enough experience and talent to shine step forth to distinguish themselves and advance.
Yet by the time the hour concluded, all we'd seen were a big bouquet of first-audition style a capella snippets. Several contestants stood out as likely to continue, but in the end, it was just like what we saw in all those convention-center tryout rooms across the nation, only with better lighting and a few shots of that big sign in Griffith Park.
Now, I get into the drama of "Idol" as much as anybody (save my colleague, the Rabbi, Richard Rushfield). But since I am a music critic, not a hugs critic or a tears critic or a tender back-story critic, I want to get to the music! There's so little at first, buried under a mountain of public humiliation and glimmering hope. Hollywood Week is where "Idol" finally becomes, as Simon loves to say, a singing contest. But not this year.
I had the opportunity Tuesday afternoon to drop by the rehearsal studios of the American Stars in Concert for the Holidays tour. In an unassuming studio space in Burbank I found Idol giants Kimberley Locke, Diana DeGarmo, Chikezie and David Hernandez running through a rendition of "Mr. Sandman" adapted to the season as Mr. Santa (see videos below).
Leading the performers through their paces was the associate music director of "American Idol," the man who has taken the giants through their songs since season one, Michael Orland. Below are excerpts from my chat with him, followed by my conversation with the Idols themselves.
LAT: How has it been working with this group, whom you knew back when?
Michael Orland: So great to see how far they've come. Kimberley I've worked with recently. She did a cruise and I went along as musical director. Diana is an incredible performer. She was great on the show but she was 16. Now she's 21. She's amazing, so talented.
LAT: So what have you been up to since the finale?
MO: I'm just back from doing the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show, with 18 Rockettes, camels, little people as elves and a
living nativity scene. Right when I got back from Radio City, I did Hollywood Week at the Kodak Theater for season eight. It was fun watching the newbies.
LAT: Can you spot the stars?
MO: I definitely can spot them. I remember in season two I spotted Clay, Ruben, Kimberley and Frenchie Davis out of the crowd. I definitely saw some incredible performers this week. They're all numbers at this point, I don't even remember names, but I definitely saw some incredible singers.
LAT: What advice do you give them?
MO: We tell them, when they come in for Hollywood Week, we've already done Carrie, we've already done Ruben, we've already done Chris Daughtry. Don't copy them. You've gotta be original.
