‘American Idol’ notes: Kellie Pickler, Adam Lambert, Taylor Hicks, and more
Since the main purpose of “American Idol” notes is highlight what many former contestants from the show are doing with their music careers, let’s start things off a little bit by talking about some music hopefully coming up in the near future from one of the most-underrated artists to ever come out of the show: Kellie Pickler. Her last album “100 Proof” was a great example of pure country and great songwriting, but she still ended up undergoing a record-label change over the past year following some disappointing sales.
Luckily, Kellie is getting back on her horse (not to use a country music pun) and announced in a new post on Facebook this weekend that she is hard at work already on some new tunes that will certainly appeal to her dedicated fanbase:
“To everyone who asked about new music -> I am working religiously on this new album. It will not be too much longer before I am ready to share the first single with y’all. There is NO other place I wanna be than country radio so I want to make sure this next album is RIGHT, not RUSHED.
“But don’t y’all worry…I’m ‘keepin’ it country’. ;-)”
The latter statement is especially nice to hear when you look at how many female country artists as of late (Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift being two examples) have created albums that bring with them a little bit more of a mainstream sound.
How to celebrate Adam’s birthday – We already known one way in which Adam Lambert chose to celebrate his 31st birthday recently in Los Angeles; and now, we’re hearing a little bit more about what he wants some of his fans to do to ring in the occasion.
Adam has traditionally worked over the years to turn his birthday into an opportunity to gibe back, and for 2013 he is asking fans interested in giving a donation to visit the We Are Family Foundation, a group designed to help support and encourage young people about the world around them. You can find out more details about how you can give at the link above, and Adam will be honored with the Unity Award at the We Are Family 2012 Celebration Gala 2.0 on January 31 (two days after his actual birthday).
The end of this lawsuit – We hope that we don’t have to talk much more about the allegations made against “American Idol” that the show is racist, but for the time being we thought we’d add a pair of quotes from some former contestants to the ones that have already been released denying that the show or its producers act in any way to try and embarrass African-American contestants with a criminal history.
The following two quotes come to us courtesy of TMZ:
Taylor Hicks – “American Idol is for everyone. All walks of life go through the show. Not once did I see the show discriminate towards anyone. It’s all about the votes.”
Melinda Doolittle – “It is shocking to see such allegations. In my experience on the show, the ‘Idol’ team strives to champion everyone, regardless of race. However, each contestant is explicitly told that the withholding of information that may compromise the show or artist, can and will result in immediate disqualification.”
Personally, we find Melinda’s statement to be the one that may hold the most significance here given that this is exactly what many of the plaintiffs for this lawsuit failed to do.
Photo: Fox