Oh Ellen Part Two

Last week, I blogged that Ellen DeGeneres was close to a failure on her first week of live American Idol shows. But I did give her an out.

I said:

To be fair to Ellen DeGeneres, it’s only been two shows. But it hasn’t been a great start.

And it wasn’t.

But this isn’t the most successful television show for the last ten years for nothing. All it took was a change in the judge order and Ellen went from terribly unprepared and unable to riff with the judges to exactly what makes her so successful. She was funny, charming, and almost fit in perfectly.

Last week, Ellen was in the lead judge slot though she didn’t talk first every time. But she looked like a deer in headlights. She doesn’t have the musical knowledge to say anything critical about the actual singing. So it was idiotic to have her lead in the criticism.

This week was very different. Randy Jackson was moved into the first slot, Ellen the second, and my wife Kara DioGuardi was followed by Simon. I still don’t think it’s the best order, as I think Ellen would be perfect right before Simon. Randy and Kara could get music nerd on us, Ellen could piggy back on what they say and then tell a joke, and then Simon could hit clean up like a ‘roided out Mark McGwire.

But it seems that they want Kara to play the old Paula Abdul cat and mouse game with Simon, which doesn’t work as well because Kara is married (to me). She won’t flirt with Simon like Paula would. But I guess it wouldn’t be believable for Simon to flirt with Ellen, though Ellen would play it up for laughs really well. I think they need to figure out how to hit on that dynamic before Simon leaves.

I commend the producers for understanding how bad the shows were last week and in being proactive enough to switch it around. It made for such a better week of shows (even if the talent is still lacking any kind of star power whatsoever). Ellen is still BS’ing her way through the musical critiques, but that’s what comics do best anyway.

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Elliott Yamin Uses Twitter To Break News About Chile Earthquake

Late Friday evening or early Saturday morning based on where you live, news broke about a big earthquake that hit Chile, measuring at over 8.0. But before CNN could report it, I found out through an unlikely source. American Idol alumnus, Elliott Yamin was in Chile and after a series of tweets in which he seemed to have had an uneventful evening (many which have since been deleted), he wrote this:

Huge earthquake just now in Chile!!….I swear I thought this was the end of my life!!!!!

It just goes to show how Twitter has become one of the defining sources of real-time information. A report coming from Chile wasn’t the first source of the news. It was a semi-famous person with a decent Twitter following who was actually in the earthquake.

Yamin became an actual news correspondent. His brother was relaying him information from CNN that mentioned a tsunami warning, but those in Chile didn’t hear that same warning and Yamin tweeted that the army was telling them to stick around. Later in the day, he went on ABC and NBC to talk about the earthquake.

Follow Yamin on Twitter for the latest information. His latest tweets have asked for prayers for the victims of the earthquake.

Photo of Yamin shared through creative commons (3.0 unported)

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I’ll Bet You Think This Song Is About You

CNN is reporting tonight that Carly Simon’s big secret — the subject of the standard You’re So Vain– is David.

She’s just not saying David’s last name yet.

And maybe the best part of the entire issue is that Simon reveals the clue is when she whispers the name “David”, which is heard when played in reverse just before the bridge on a new version of the song.  So even if The Beatles didn’t kill Paul and leave clues in their music, at least one artist says she has added a clue in reverse.

All of this has prompted London newspaper The Sun to report that David is mogul David Geffen.  The tabloid’s sleuthing says that Carly was jealous about Geffen bringing Joni Mitchell to his startup label in the

Eh.  Maybe.

Knowing the lyrics, I would say that’s a stretch.  But it ain’t Warren (Beatty) or Mick (Jagger), so I guess either proved their vanity when claiming the song was about them.

What do you think?   Who else could David be?   Showbiz411 debunks the entire David issue and claims the guy is still Warren.  I always thought so.

Your turn.

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American Idol Top 12 picks – Pick and Win!

Of course it’s too early to make picks when you’re still at 20 contestants. That’s the fun. And GG and I will surely take to the airwaves again and handicap the actual American Idol top 12 when they’re announced.

For now, here is who I’m going with (remember that I had Joe Munoz in there at the beginning of the season)

Add your top 12 picks as a response here.  I buy the person who gets the most correct a $25 Amazon gift certificate.  If it’s a tie, we pick a name from the people who tied with the most correct.  Contest ends March 2, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. eastern time.

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Oh Ellen

Paula Abdul has to be smiling right about now. Replace the girl who was forever ours with a comedian slash daytime talk show host on the biggest show on American TV which is also about music? How dare they?

To be fair to Ellen DeGeneres, it’s only been two shows. But it hasn’t been a great start.

I will give her and the American Idol producers credit though. She was much better on her second show than she was on her first. She had a deer in headlights look the first time she had to give her criticism to a contestant without getting to hear what Kara, Simon, or Randy said first. And it was very awkward for those of us watching at home.

In a sense, it’s almost poetic that she gets to try and sharpen her judging skills on these Top 24 Idol shows because some of the singers are just as bad at their audition as she is at hers.

By night two, there were tricks used that allowed her to do a little bit better. If she had to lead the criticism, she added just a few quick thoughts, allowed everyone else to speak, and then wrapped it up, taking most of their thoughts and summing them up. It wasn’t necessary at all, but I guess it helped her reach her speaking quota.

I’m going to pick on something that might be a little unfair, but it has thoroughly annoyed me. She doesn’t speak with any pauses. I know, I’ve seen her before, she does it all the time and it’s one of her quirky charms. But when your job is to criticize, you have to be a little more succinct and to-the-point than she is. Yes, I know, Paula rambled more than anyone else. Randy speaks in slang. But we are used to them. Those are their gimmicks.

Here’s what she told poor Tyler Grady who looked at her like she was speaking a different language:

Ya, I felt that what what’s great about the people that you’re so attracted to is they had so much stage presence and so much charisma and I feel like you’ve got the poses and you’re copying those poses but you’re lacking the charisma and you’re lacking that kind of excitement, you’re kinda just going through all of the motions without really being that person, so I feel like you gotta work on the singing and really not just make those poses, but get into that performance.

The one thing that Ellen has going for her is something that Kara told one of the contestants who failed miserably with his song. Ellen’s likable. Will it be enough for her to make the top 12? Wait, she’s already going to be there. Darn it.

Photo of Ellen shared by Wikipedia and through Creative Commons

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Kanye West’s Coldest Winter – First Look

Goodbye my friend, will I ever love again?

Who knew Kanye West was still releasing videos from his over-one-year-old album 808s & Heartbreak?

This time, it’s for a non-single from what I can tell. Coldest Winter was track eleven on his last album and featured very few lyrics, but was also one of the more emotional songs on the album. The video features the Ice Queen from Narnia running through the forest. Ok, it’s not really the Ice Queen. Check it out.

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Prince And The Revolution From 1984 – Video

Fader linked to Prince and the Revolution rehearsal footage from what looks to be 1984.

The videos come from Pepepurito2’s YouTube channel and if history suggests anything, these videos may not last all that long so watch them while you can.

Here’s the one of Prince and the group rehearsing When Doves Cry:

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We Are The World 25 For Haiti Video

Today, the We Are The World 25 For Haiti music video was released. Lionel Richie was on Oprah Winfrey earlier to talk about it.

According to MTV.com, Richie told Oprah how Michael Jackson would be included in the song and video.

He said:

We have Michael singing that exact part [the chorus] and Janet singing along with him.

Without further ado, here is the video along with a few comments from me underneath:

- Justin Bieber sings Lionel’s intro?

- Is that Nicole “The Terminator” Scherzinger singing next to Jennifer Hudson?

- Putting MJ and Janet together was very classy and cool. I’m proud of how they included him.

- Babs Streisand? Tony Bennett? I guess they had to average out the age because of Bieber and Miley Ray Cyrus.

- I think Enrique Iglesias had a hard time escaping our love.

- I think they should’ve had Jamie Foxx do Brother Ray’s memorable part.

- I get Wyclef being a part of the song, but they should’ve told him to save the “someone please call 911″ voice.

- I thought Stevie Wonder came back for round two, but it was really Adam Levine.

- I’m surprised Pink wasn’t singing in the air and twirling around.

- Lionel: “Hey Usher, see, what we want you to do is do Huey Lewis’ part.” Usher: “Who is Huey Lewis?”

- Thankfully, I didn’t enlarge the video, or else Fergie’s face would’ve made me fall out of my chair. As it was, I only hid my eyes.

- Nicole “The Terminator” Scherzinger gets two parts? Is Lionel gettin’ that?

- Look at Toni Braxton with the 1980s skater hair-cut. Someone un-broke her heart.

- In the case of Lil’ Wayne, this time I approve of the Auto-tune.

- In the case of Akon, I don’t approve of the Auto-tune. Dude can sing a little bit.

- In the case of T-Pain, well, I would’ve rather seen MC Hammer on the track.

- Well, I guess I got my wish with Jamie singing Brother Ray’s part.

- I love that Uncle L, future of the funk, is leading the hip hop section. But um, where’s Kanye? And is that Tyrese with the rappers? Black Ty?

- Ok, there’s Kanye, but what is will.i.am doing standing with Kanye. Dude can’t hold Kanye’s jockstrap in a suit case.

There it is. I thought Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie did a really good job with the song, blending the original with some hip hop, and Wyclef’s Haitian sound.

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American Idol Hollywood Week – Straight Up

The best audition from last night’s American Idol Hollywood Week show was from a guy named Andrew Garcia. He brilliantly flipped an old, ahem, Paula Abdul song and was the highlight of the night.

Unfortunately for him, he had to sing it to new host Ellen DeGeneres rather than Paula herself. Paula might’ve cried large tears if she saw it live.

Here’s Andrew Garcia’s rendition of Paula Abdul’s over 20 year old song, Straight Up:

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Lil Wayne’s Long Goodbye

You don’t have to watch the hour long live stream. God knows I kept fast-forwarding. But as he gets ready for sentencing on last year’s gun charges, Wayne took an hour of his dwindling freedom to light up, talk to his fans and rotate in whoever was wandering by.

There’s no denying Wayne’s appeal or credibility. President Obama name checks him, Billboard is suggesting that Rebirth might sell more than 100,000 units in its debut week and he’s already sitting on 4 Grammys. But last year’s multiple arrests on weapons and drug charges means Wayne is likely going to prison for a time.  Even multimillionaire musicians can’t like prison.  Maybe they like it less.

But a little dental surgery bought him an extra month on the outside.   Apparently prison dentists aren’t as good as the ones in Miami so the dude who smoked a Grammy stage earlier this month has until March before being sentenced.  Which gives President Obama one more time to namecheck him.  Maybe about dental hygiene.

Here is the full hour on Ustream for completists.

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