This was posted Friday, May 3, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Remember season 12 winner Candice Glover?
She is coming to Atlanta's City Winery on March 15. (Buy tickets here.) This is her second performance here in recent times. She performed on the West End at the Wren's Nest last year.
I spoke with her earlier this week. She won the year "Idol" had Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey at each other's throats while the producers gave "Idol" by the far the weakest male singers in the show's history. This did lead the way to Glover's win but she was quickly forgotten as "The Voice" came in and began to systemically steer viewers away from "Idol," eventually killing it last year.
She released her first album but it went nowhere. She liked it well enough but it wasn't her creative vision. For a time, Glover was out of music completely. Nonetheless, she has no regrets about doing "Idol." "I wouldn't trade anything about being on the show," she said.
Now she's back in and has complete creative control with an independent release, she said. This time, the song will be more R&B and jazz inflected than pop.
Since her time on the show, social media has become even bigger. She said fans encourage her on line when she feels down. Right now, she releases music on Soundcloud.
She said she has struggled to remain true to her self and block out all the outside commentary. She said she gets her inspiration from Drake. "When I feel discouraged or not doing as well as I could be, I just shut out the world and meditate to myself. It's not as serious as people make it."
She got a few moments of airtime on the "Idol" series finale and met up with some of her season 12 friends including runner up Kree Harrison and No. 4 finisher Amber Holcomb. She also got to hang out with some of the other winners, including Ruben Studdard, Fantasia and the previous female winner Jordin Sparks from season six.
Glover has also decided to spend more time in Atlanta, she said, splitting time here and her hometown of Beaufont, S.C. She likes that Atlanta is a big city but there are enough small-town elements to keep her happy. She also gets to hang with Melanie Amaro, season one "X Factor" winner, who she said now lives at least part time in Atlanta.
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Who is the most eligible bachelor according to readers of Out magazine? Adam Lambert!
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
For at least the fourth time, an "American Idol" finalist has taken over as lead singer of a well-known band. Quiet Riot recently named season 10's James Durbin as lead singer. He replaced Seann Nicols.
The band went through three other vocalists before Nicols: Mark Huff, Scott Vokoun and Jizzy Pearl.
Original lead singer Kevin DuBrow died of a cocaine overdose in 2007. The band reunited in 2010.
Quiet Riot's biggest hit was "Cum on Feel the Noize," which went top five in 1983.
At least two other "Idols" have done the same thing as Durbin :
Bo Bice, who now lives in Covington, has spent the past couple of years as the lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Adam Lambert has been the lead singer of Queen in recent years and is touring this year. (No Atlanta date unfortunately.)
And as an aside, former members of Evanescence in 2009 formed the band We Are The Fallen with Carly Smithson as lead. It doesn't appear that the band has been active recently.
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Anoop Desai from season eight of "American Idol" has been off the radar for a long time. He just posted an essay on Billboard.com about the proposed Muslim ban under his now artistic name "Totem."
The bio that describes him totally ignores his time on "Idol." Clearly, he felt that was holding him back so he's gone semi incognito.
Here's a segment of his essay:
The gift of my Indian heritage is something that I cherish, but the man I am is a cultural being of my place and time. To imagine a world where I didn't grow up listening to Boyz II Men, Oasis and Michael Jackson is to imagine a fundamentally different me. Who would I be if, instead of basketball and football, I was watching cricket? Would my friends know me if I preferred naan to biscuits? These things may seem trivial, but they are the building blocks of who we are and what we're made of. It would ruin my life not to be a North Carolinian, or an American. To think that our President is now taking away that possibility from millions of people—starving, war-weary people that look like me—is sickening. We can get automatic weapons without a background check, but these people can't find peace even after a background check?
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Carrie Underwood's home in Oklahoma got damaged by a tornado. It sounded minor, based on her Tweet:
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Nobody will ever accuse RadarOnline of being super reliable but they think Ryan Seacrest is truly trying to nab Nick Cannon's spot on "America's Got Talent." That wouldn't be a shocking move though the Simon/Ryan combo might be to evocative of "American Idol" for NBC's tastes. Then again, NBC is actually interested in a revival of "Idol" so who knows?
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Fantasia is in Atlanta this Saturday night opening for Charlie Wilson at Philips Arena. Johnny Gill is part of the lineup, too. The concert appears to be close to sold out.
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A Dalton Rapattoni/ David Cook mash up of their 'Idol" performances of "Eleanor Rigby." Who sang it better? I've definitely partial to Cook.
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