Melody Plant

Singer Katharine McPhee shows off her bikini bod on the cover of the February 2010 issue of Shape magazine. The 25-year old American Idol alum, who’s been open about her struggle with bulimia, told the magazine that she’s become more forgiving of her body. She talked about refusing to obsess about her weight and living a healthy life, saying “At my last physical, the nurse took my vitals and said, ‘Wow, you must be taking care of yourself! Your blood pressure is perfect. You’re very healthy.’ Hearing her say that made me feel better than seeing an ‘ideal’ number on the scale.”

Adam Lambert was recently featured as a guest on Fuse’s interview Show ‘On the Record’ this past Monday. The American Idol alum talked about his new album cover, his experiences in junior high school and coming out of the closet. The 27-year old singer said “It’s funny …This whole thing, talking about coming out. I don’t even think about it anymore until all of this started happening with my career. And it’s interesting now, because I am open and visible. I suppose it is important to talk about it, but the past eight or nine years of my life I haven’t thought twice about it, it’s just who I am.”

Shania Twain is back to work but she’s not making new music just yet. The country singer is acting as a journalist! As she prepares to guest judge American Idol auditions this month, Shania Twain will also host Canada’s ‘The Current’ radio show and interview Queen Rania of Jordan to discuss the royal’s global charity for underprivileged youth called 1Goal. I love the varied interests! I wish Shania Twain the best of luck! Whenever she decides to revive her music career, I am definitely sticking around as a big fan. If not, I don’t really think she’s going to stay away from the spotlight for very long.

And with a flash, another American Idol alum is officially off of the market. Season 7 contestant Jason Castro got married to his longtime friend and girlfriend of two years, Mandy Mayhall, in Dallas this past Saturday. The dreadlocked singer popped the question to his lady love on Halloween of last year at a tailgate part in Oklahoma while the couple was dressed as Belle and the Beast from Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’. That’s so cute! And congratulations to the happy couple! I wonder if they plan on having any kids any time soon. If you’re able to find a picture of Mandy, you can tell that they’re going to have really cute babies together.

Everyone knows that Adam Lambert is gay and even if the singer didn’t come out to say it, everyone would think just as well with some of the styles that he pulled off during his stint on American Idol. Adam recently spoke about androgyny though, saying “I mean, I kind of went for shock value on Idol. Did you guys not see me with rhinestones around my eyes and platform glitter boots on the finale? I kind of thought I had stepped it up and bought myself that leeway…It’s been a while since a very visible male performer has publicly experimented with androgyny. It’s just not current anymore. I’m trying to make it current again. I’ve always been attracted to that. That’s my thing!” Trust me, you’re not visibly male.

Simon Cowell has confirmed that British hit reality talent show The X Factor will soon be heading to the US. The perennial talent show judge said “I think the show will go to America. It has to go to America. There has to be an American version of the show. To not make The X Factor in the biggest market in the world would be crazy.” If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what The X Factor is, the show launched in the UK back in 2004 to search for the hottest new singers. The show is actually what brought us the lovely Leona Lewis.

Allison Iraheta, who placed fourth in the last season of American Idol, might want to start checking out a couple of colleges and other venues of life because the music business might not be for her after all. According to reports, the singer’s debut album ‘Just Like You’ brought in piss poor numbers, only managing to sell about 25,000 to 30,000 in its first week of sales. It was totally expected but it’s a burn nonetheless. They can chalk it up to being up against heavy hitters like Lady Gaga, Susan Boyle and fellow Idol alum Adam Lambert but then again, if you can’t handle the competition, that usually means that you aren’t any.

Carrie Underwood has dated some pretty hot guys in the last couple of years. So when it came time to find someone new, a member of her band suggested her current boyfriend Mike Fisher. The American Idol alum was a little picky though. The singer explained to Ellen DeGeneres on her show that at first glance, Carrie wasn’t too interested in the hockey player. She was wary about how a long distance relationship would work and she was put off by the fact that some of Mike’s teeth weren’t his own. Carrie also denied rumors that she was moving in with Mike, saying that the person she’s going to move in with will be her husband. There’s no saying that Mike will end up as her hubby though.

Despite reports that Carrie Underwood accepted boyfriend NHL player Mike Fisher’s invitation for the country singer to live with him in Canada, she said that it didn’t happen at all. The American Idol alum cleared up the rumor on her official fan club site, saying “I read something recently that a certain someone and I were moving in together. This is beyond not true…just another example of people making stuff up out of thin air! …Neither one of us would ever do that. I would never live with my boyfriend…not my style.” I guess that Carrie isn’t a fan of living in sin.

It’s not like anyone else could have taken the title from him but Adam Lambert has been honored in the new issue of Out magazine as the Breakout of the Year and he tells the magazine that he’s doing the best that he can when it comes to his career and fame. The singer talked about being a performer and taking on American Idol, saying “I’ve lived in L.A. for eight years. It’s about making a good TV show. I just wanted to be really careful that it didn’t turn into a fucking pageant. I can sing my face off. All this other stuff is part of a personality, a persona.”

Adam Lambert’s debut single ‘For Your Entertainment’ has failed to get some legs and isn’t selling very well on iTunes at all. As of Monday morning, the American Idol alum’s song was only at number 76 after already being on the iTunes chart for a week. That doesn’t bode well for the singer’s album release next week. I wonder where he went wrong with it. I like the song just fine. Has all the hype surrounding him fizzled out already? Or has my liking of the song just some preconception because I really wished for him to succeed.

The track list for Adam Lambert’s debut album ‘For Your Entertainment’ has been released and it has all the makings of a hit considering who the American Idol runner up has collaborated with. The singer collaborates with the likes of Max Martin, Pink, Kara DioGuardi, Lady Gaga, Linda Perry, Ryan Tedder and a slew of other great writers and producers. The track list of the album goes ‘Music Again’, ‘For Your Entertainment’, ‘Whataya Want from Me’, ‘Strut’, ‘Soaked’, ‘Sure Fire Winners’, ‘A Loaded Smile’, ‘If I Had You’, ‘Fever’, ‘Sleepwalker’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘Broken Open’ and ‘Time for Miracles’. I can’t wait to hear it all!

Kelly Clarkson revealed in a new radio interview that she has started working on her 5th studio album and says that it’s going to be really different. The American Idol alum also said that she may not have time to write the whole album as she’s going to be on tour to promote her latest album ‘All I Ever Wanted’ until March 2010. That may be a good thing considering she’s made the mistake before with her disaster of an album ‘My December’. It’s good to have others helping the singer because more often than not, they know what they’re doing.

Adam Lambert shows off his sexy side in the November 2009 issue of Details Magazine. In the interview, the 27-year old singer talked about his American Idol past, kissing women and entertaining, among other things. He talked about AI, saying “There’s a feeling of entitlement [with the fans] because they voted to get us where we are. But you know what? I am responsible for what I created on the show – you voted for what I created, and thank you, but I created it, you didn’t.” On entertaining, Adam said “It’s all fantasy – that’s what entertainment is. I’m here to entertain you, and if my sexuality is apparent and you respond to it, and you’re attracted to it, then great, I’m doing my job.”

Kris Allen performed a special concert for Seton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio last Thursday. The school had won a contest and raised over $5000 for breast cancer research. The 24-year old American Idol champ sang his hit single ‘Live Like We’re Dying’ for the first time live and the singer even did a cover of a Britney Spears classic, ‘…Baby One More Time’. Apparently, the song is Kris’ favorite song to sing in the shower. Interesting. I bet a lot of the fan girls suddenly started imagining him in the shower minus singing the Britney song. Am I right?

After giving birth to David Daniel Otunga Jr. back in August, proud mom Jennifer Hudson can’t stop gushing about her baby boy. In a recent interview, the American Idol alum said “He’s the cutest thing in the world! There are no words for it. He’s the best. It’s just amazing – us discovering each other, me becoming a mom.” And it would seem that the little guy is already into music, calming down when his singer mom plays music for him. Jennifer said “The other night he was having a fit screaming, and someone turns on the music and he just stops and calms down. And I was exactly the same way as a baby. Sometimes when he cries, I try to harmonize!”

Singer Jordin Sparks and the National Milk Mustache “got milk?” Campaign recently partnered up with VH1 Save the Music to launch the ‘Drink Milk for a Change’ program. The 19-year old American Idol champ is on a mission to spark some change by inspiring teens to make a difference. For every Milk Mustache photo created on bodybymilk.com, one dollar will go to support VH1 Save the Music. Go and do it now. We all have to remember that in order for change to happen, we need to start with ourselves. No one is going to do what we want to do except for us.

Ellen DeGeneres opened her daily chat show by answering critics of her upcoming role as a judge on American Idol.

“I’ll tell you right now, how I know I’m going to be a great judge. I’ve spent my whole life being judged. So I know what it’s like,” she told the Ellen audience.

DeGeneres said there had been a lot of “chatter” about her looming role, replacing the wildly popular Paula Abdul for the ninth season, which kicks off in January. She said she would be kind, compassionate, empathetic and truthful. “I will be an honest judge without being mean.”

She also pointed to the changing times, saying the US had its first black president and would also get its “first blonde judge”.

The show then cut to footage of Abdul’s spoof mimicking DeGeneres and her dance moves. Ellen took the joke and said Abdul’s skit inspired a new dance move she had never tried. Critics have suggested the comic actress turned TV host lacks the music credentials for the role.

DeGeneres added: “I’m very excited to be on the show. I knew people would have opinions and I did not want to know what they were because why should I take that stuff in? I try not to watch anything that I think is going to be talking about me. I try not to read anything. Nothing. I don’t even read the back of a cereal box.”

Kelly Clarkson recently joined Jill & Kate in covering Miley Cyrus’ hit song ‘The Climb’. And let me just say this – the original American Idol champ actually sang the song better than the Disney star. The 27-year old singer also wrote a post-VH1 Divas Live blog entry saying “So, Melissa Etheridge is so cool first off, but her voice is absolutely incredible!! I’m so happy I asked her to sing ["Bring Me Some Water"] on the show with me and I’m even more happy that she said yes and I got to perform with her! It was one of my favorite moments of the year…she’s such a class act and rad as can be!” Kelly also wrote about meeting Adele and watching India Arie and Sheryl Crow, two of her favorites, perform live for the first time.

With the exciting news that broke last week that Ellen DeGeneres is going to be the fourth judge on the next season of American Idol, Paula Abdul was said to be very upset at being permanently replaced. A source close to Fox says that Paula, like Ellen, was surprised by the news because she had no warning of the announcement and found out at the same time that the public did. Supposedly, the former judge held out some hope that a last-minute deal could have worked out for her return to the reality TV talent show but it’s become very clear that Fox just wants to move on.
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