‘American Idol’ New Year’s notes: Adam Lambert, James Durbin, Phillip Phillips

We’re almost at “American Idol” season (drum roll, please) … so what better way to start off 2013 by talking about some of our favorite contestants? We’ve got a little bit of everything for you today, and we are going to start things off by featuring just how none other than Adam Lambert chose to celebrate the holiday with his band down in Bali, Indonesia.

The video below features Adam basically ringing in the new year in front of a crowd, and he also sings a few bars of “Auld Lang Syne” (even if he, like most other human beings alive, does not know many of the words to the song). Really, this video is representative of what we want to see for all of 2013: fun! This was a tough past twelve months for many of us, and it is always nice to get things started off on a cheerful and positive note.

Celebrate with James Durbin – Do you want to actually hear some music on this January 1? This is where James Durbin comes into play. The season 10 star is going to be doing a show via StageIt at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, and it will be straight from the comfort of his Santa Cruz home. You can buy tickets for the show here.

A message from Phillip Phillips – We’re not really interested in posting one of those “stars share New Year’s wishes” stories (mostly because they are always a dozen or so people all saying the same thing), but we found the reigning champ’s greeting here to be especially poignant in that he recognizes in his post on Twitter that while there were reasons to be happy for 2012, there were also struggles:

“Its been a year that i wont forget. Joy, love, pain, tears, and opportunity. Here’s to 2012!”

If you want to hear our discussion on Adam Lambert’s critique of “Les Miserables” (which is honest and does not spin his words to turn it into a “slam” of the movie), take a look at the story here!

Photo: Fox