Chris Daughtry in Life Magazine

Allie @ Gone Hollywood  | Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Daughtry’s album ranks #1 in the US.

You’re on a U.S. tour with your band. What can’t you leave home without?
A picture of my wife [Deanna], my computer, razors for my head, a Bible . . . and I obviously have to get the clothes right.

Do you have any preshow rituals?
Normally I do push-ups. I’ve been told that when you get the blood flowing through your body, you have more energy to sing better.

How many pushups can you do?
I don’t know. I just do three or four sets of 30. Who knows, it may even make me look better onstage.

What made a rocker like you want to get married at age 20?
I felt like I didn’t need to look anymore, that this was the person I was supposed to be with. If you know that, then you just go with it.

Do your kids (Hannah, 10, and Griffin, 8) like to rock out?
Absolutely. My daughter loves Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Then surely you could introduce her.
There are so many singers my daughter wants to use me for—Hilary Duff, everybody in High School Musical, Hannah Montana. You name it, she’s all over it.

source

Tags | Gossip, Hunks, Music, Notables Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Hilary Duff, Kelly Clarkson

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Links To Hollywood - #15

Allie @ Gone Hollywood  | Monday, January 22, 2007

Justin Denies Responsibility - A Socialites Life

Lindsay Lohan leaves rehab - for an AA Meeting that is - Celebrity Smack

Lily Allen - Discovered and Downloaded - Popbytes

More on Keeley Hazell and her sex tape - Bumpshack

Naomi Campbell is the Ambassador of Beating Down Illegals - Dlisted

Eva Longoria’s Almost Naked Arena Photo Shoot - Hollywood Tuna

Somebody should tell Beyonce about Hi Res Pics - IDontLikeYouInThatWay

Britney’s hair is unraveling from her scalp - Pink is the new Blog

An Emmanuelle Chriqui Quickie - Popoholic

Pictures of Brad & Angelina’s New Orleans Home - Pop On The Pop

Grey’s Anatomy’s Justin Chambers finally speaks - Monica Monroe Gossip

It’s So Not Over for Chris Daughtry - Popsugar

Tags | Gossip, Hotties, Hunks, Links To Hollywood, Music, Notables, Television American Idol, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce Knowles, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Chris Daughtry, Eva Longoria, Gossip, Grey's Anatomy, Justin Timberlake, Keeley Hazell, Lindsay Lohan, Naomi Campbell, Pink, Sex

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• The Amboy Times linked with Blogiversary One Open Trackback...
• Right Voices linked with Hillary Sees Herself As The Second Coming Of Margaret Thatcher?...

Reality TV Award Winners - List

Allie @ Gone Hollywood  | Sunday, December 31, 2006

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Taylor Hicks Wins American Idol

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood  | Thursday, May 25, 2006

Taylor Hicks has won the fifth installment of “American Idol.”

Taylor Hicks, the mop-topped manic dancer who wooed TV audiences with his raw singing style and boisterous personality, was named the new “American Idol” Wednesday in a pop star-filled finale that included Prince and Mary J. Blige. Hicks, 29, of Birmingham, Ala., became the latest in a string of Southern and Midwestern contestants to win the Fox talent contest after collecting more viewer votes than runner-up Katharine McPhee, 22, of Los Angeles.

Hicks leaned over, overcome by host Ryan Seacrest’s announcement. “Soul Patrol!” he shouted, acknowledging his avid fans by their nickname. “I’m living the American dream,” he added as he closed out the show with a performance of “Do I Make You Proud.”

It was Katharine vs. Taylor, McPheever vs. the Soul Patrol, with a recording contract and the fifth “Idol” title up for grabs. More than 63 million votes were cast, “more than any president in the history of our country has received,” Seacrest said. Fans picked the raw sound and footloose moves of Hicks, who made his mark on Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City” on Tuesday’s show. The sultry McPhee’s well-trained voice was shown to perfection on the standard “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Last season’s victor, Carrie Underwood of Checotah, Okla., opened the finale, joining Hicks and McPhee on “I Made it Through the Rain” and later soloing on “Don’t Forget to Remember Me.” On Tuesday, Underwood won two trophies at the Academy of Country Music Awards, underscoring how much an “Idol” victory can mean. She was named top new female artist and won best single for “Jesus Take the Wheel.”

Other pairings of contestants and stars included Paris Bennett and Al Jarreau; McPhee and Meat Loaf; Chris Daughtry and Live; Elliott Yamin and Blige; Hicks and Toni Braxton, and the dozen finalists with Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick. Prince was a surprise final performer, taking the stage for two songs, including “Satisfied” — and without an “Idol” contestant alongside. Asked backstage if he had any advice for contestants, Meat Loaf replied: “If you want to do this, you’re gonna go up and down, and up and down, and people are going to love you and hate you … Just stick with it,” he said.

With two hours to fill the show also tossed in some comedy. Contestant Kellie Pickler was seen trying gourmet dining and dumping her escargot — snail — under her chair, while “Golden Idols” were awarded to also-rans who flopped in their auditions. Second-season runner-up Clay Aiken, with a slick new look, performed a “duet” on “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” with his alter ego, a wannabe “American Idol” contestant who evoked the originally geeky Aiken.

Hicks and McPhee weren’t as odd a finals pairing as second-second finalists Ruben Studdard and Aiken, but close. McPhee was the first Los Angeles native to make it big on “American Idol.” With a singer-vocal coach mom behind her and a starlet’s beauty, McPhee looked and sounded groomed for success. Hicks, whose thatch of prematurely gray hair helped him stand out from the pack, had barely survived the first audition at which judge Simon Cowell warned he didn’t have a chance of advancing in the contest. McPhee attended the prestigious Boston Conservatory for a semester; Hicks has been a fixture on honky-tonk stages. McPhee skillfully played to the cameras, all calculated seduction; Hicks stomped across the set, with Cowell once comparing him to a drunken dad at a wedding.

The finale closed out a relatively tame contest compared to seasons past, when jammed phone lines, technical glitches and annoyingly untalented singers drew complaints from fans. Last year, judge Paula Abdul denied an ex-competitor’s claims of an affair in 2003. This season’s biggest jolt came when rocker Chris Daughtry of McLeansville, N.C., was voted out before the finale. Many observers had predicted he would win the contest after routinely drawing praise from the judges and online support.

Despite the lack of offstage drama, or because of it, this edition of “American Idol” was the most-watched yet. Compared to last year, the show was up 14 percent in total viewers with an average weekly audience of 30.3 million — impressive growth for an established program. The Tuesday and Wednesday episodes routinely ranked as the top-rated TV shows, drawing 28 million or more viewers. The series also is seen via delayed broadcast or satellite delivery in more than 150 other countries.

I’m amazed the show has continued to get more popular after five seasons.

Tags | Gossip Affair, American Idol, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken, Gossip, Katharine McPhee, Paula Abdul, Prince, Ryan Seacrest, Taylor Hicks

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The Politics of “American Idol” Voting

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood  | Saturday, May 13, 2006

John Podhoretz has a fascinating piece on the parallel voting dynamics between “American Idol” and U.S. presidential elections. He argues that the surprise loss of Chris Daughtry to the uneven Katharine McPhee is perfectly understandable if one understands how people vote.

If you want to understand “Idol,” you need to understand American politics. And if you want to understand the workings of American politics, “Idol” isn’t a bad introduction to the way political coalitions are formed and elections are won.

After the “American Idol” field narrows to 12 finalists, the show kicks one contestant off every week - the one who gets the lowest number of votes. The number of votes seems to remain remarkably constant (this year, somewhere north of 40 million) week to week. This indicates the same people continue to vote each week. It also means that the people who voted for the contestant who was kicked off go ahead and just choose somebody new to vote for.

This is a direct parallel to the presidential primary process. In the early primaries, candidates who do poorly usually drop out of the race, leaving those who would have supported them in other states high and dry. Those supporters then have to pick somebody else among the surviving candidates to vote for. This winnowing process allows the most appealing candidates to pick up steam by adding new voters to their cadre of supporters. And as they do so, the field continues to be winnowed, until finally there are only one or two candidates left standing. The single-issue candidate, the flash-in-the-pan, the guy who has one fantastic debate - they may all have their moments, but in the end, the candidate with the most broad-based appeal will usually win.

And this is what explains Chris Daughtry’s stunning loss this week on “American Idol.” He has a distinctive voice and distinctive appeal. The problem is that he never broadened his base very much. If you liked him from the start, you stayed with him - which is why he remained solidly among the top contenders through most of the show’s run. But if you didn’t much like his sound when there were still 9 contestants remaining, you weren’t suddenly going to decide you liked his sound when there were only 4 remaining.

The key to winning “American Idol” isn’t being overwhelmingly popular in the early stages. The key is having a sound that makes it possible for you to pick up votes from people whose favorites have gotten booted off the show. Because if you don’t get those votes, somebody else is going to get them.

That is almost certainly what happened on Wednesday night. Chris Daughtry lost out to Katharine McPhee because the young female singer Paris Bennett was sent home the previous week. If you loved Paris, you probably weren’t going to move into Chris’s camp. It’s likely that the Paris voters went both to McPhee and to underdog Elliot Yamin, the sweet-sounding guy with the odd teeth who is a balladeer like Paris.

Elliot has been gaining strength both because his performances have been good, and because he’s clearly picked up support from the fans of eliminated contestants Paris, Kellie Pickler and Ace Young. So where does this leave the final three in “American Idol”? It’s likely that McPhee will be the odd person out next week, leaving front-runner Taylor Hicks and under-the-radar Elliot left to duke it out for the title. Taylor Hicks has a distinctive sound and style that are clearly very pleasing to millions. But I think he’s a little like Daughtry. If he’s your favorite, he’s been your favorite for a long time - and he needs to be the second favorite for McPhee’s fans to win. But McPhee’s sound is probably closer to Elliot Yamin’s. Thus, according to the logic of coalition-building that is at the heart of both American politics and Fox’s pop-culture phenomenon, Elliot Yamin will be the next “American Idol.”

It’s just good politics.

That makes perfect sense, actually.

Tags | Gossip American Idol, Chris Daughtry, Gossip, Katharine McPhee, Lost, Politics, South Park, Taylor Hicks

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Chris Daughtry Voted Off “Idol,” to Front Fuel on “Extra”

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood  | Thursday, May 11, 2006

Chris Daughtry, widely expected to win this year’s “American Idol” competition, was unceremoniously voted off last night. He’s reportedly going to be added to the band Fuel on tonight’s “Extra.”

People:

In a shocking turn, American Idol frontrunner Chris Daughtry was voted off the show Wednesday night. As the audience gasped and shouted no, host Ryan Seacrest asked a shell-shocked-looking Daughtry, “Surprised?” “A little bit,” he answered. Judge Paula Abdul grew tearful. The other contestants – Elliott Yamin, Katharine McPhee and Taylor Hicks – also looked stunned.

Tuesday night, Daughtry’s rendition of Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” drew unanimous praise from the three judges, prompting Abdul to tell the 26-year-old from McLeansville, N.C.,: “See ya in the finals.”

Especially odd given that McPhee actually forgot the words to her song. Still, there may be a huge upside, according to TMZ:

The multi-platinum rock band Fuel has offered ‘American Idol’s’ Chris Daughtry a gig with the band. TMZ has learned that Fuel will make the offer in an exclusive interview on the television show ‘EXTRA’ tonight.

In a stunning turn of events, Daughtry, who was the odds-on favorite to win the ‘Idol’ competition, was booted last night. Daughtry was on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS FM radio show in Los Angeles this morning, where the ‘A.I.’ host, who is in on the secret, urged the singer to watch ‘EXTRA’ tonight.

Quite a two night turn of events.

Update: Wizbang Pop! and Defamer both wonder whether Fuel is a major band. Well, they’re certainly not the Rolling Stones or Aerosmith; I’ve heard of them.

Meanwhile, Pretend Pundit offers a gender-based theory on why Daughtry lost on “Idol.”

Tags | Gossip American Idol, Chris Daughtry, Elvis Presley, Events, Gossip, Interview, Katharine McPhee, Lost, Paula Abdul, PDA, radio, Rolling Stones, Ryan Seacrest, Taylor Hicks, Television

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