Music Blog

I really hate to harp on about this but those who know me know of my disgust that she even made the final four after forgetting lyrics to songs in the Beatles week of the competition. And I just realised that that was one long sentance without a single comma!

He's offensive. Flipping the bird is a way to show his offensiveness. Why does Eminem need to be offensive?

It was not the first time Eminem exposed himself that way: in 2001, he also appeared in the Cosmopolitan magazine, where he appeared completely naked except for a stick of dynamite strategically placed on the right place.

Why did Eminem chose nudity as a way of expressing himself?

Some of you may think: probably to attract lots of pretty girls. Maybe true, but you have to look further at Eminem�s way of expressing. He is never afraid to tell you what he likes and what he strongly dislikes. Since the release of the Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem has been mocking the sugarcoated bubblegum pop world represented by artists like Britney Spears.

So are they back together or is this just a case of two ships crashing, er, passing in the night? Lohan's rep is quick to dismiss the lip-lock talk, insisting to People, "They're just friends, but they're happy to see each other." Valderrama, who has recently been linked to Lohan's friend Ashlee Simpson (the singer's flack says there's "nothing romantic" going on), also denies the romance has been rekindled, adding that he's just too darn busy for a girlfriend right now.

GIMME SOME SLACK: In an interview with ESPN’s Sportsnation yesterday, Celts rookie Al Jefferson was asked if he was stranded on a desert island and could only have one food and be with one celebrity woman, what and who would he choose. His answer: Chicken and Ashanti. Sooooo, as a matter of principle, the section I answer all email Q&A’s will now be known as Chicken and Ashanti.

If you missed the American Idol IV Top Eleven Repeat last night, you didn't miss much. Ryan Seacrest did not apologize on behalf of the show's producers or the sub-contracted technician hired to put up the telephone numbers who made us all tune in for an hour on Wednesday night, as well as Tuesday's performances.

One thing is for certain: American Idol loves drama. It certainly has only helped their ratings.

More than 31 million votes were cast for this year's Top Eleven American Idol contestants.

For every scandal that has struck the show, it has attracted a bigger American Idol audience.

Fortunately, for American Idol, FOX, 19 Entertainment and the eleven AI IV finalists did not have CSI to go up against tonight.

Fortunately for FOX, the Oklahoma State vs. Arizona game ended moments before American Idol proclaimed their Top Ten contestants. (Congratulations to Lute Olson and his Arizona team for making it into this year's Elite Eight.)

But first ... here are the answers to the questions we asked in yesterday's post regarding American Idol's numbers snafu:

1) What will host Ryan Seacrest say by way of explanation to the 30 million viewers who dedicated their Tuesday night to American Idol, and now have to do it all over again?

American Idol's main message: "Oops!"

American Idol producers insist they had no intention of forcing a "re-vote."

There were no new performances last night. American Idol fans were simply presented with the tape of the previous night's performance.

My pal Randall from Hong Kong emails me:

"Hey Tian! Avril Lavigne was recently promoting in Hong Kong for an one-night show. She obviously had help from someone with a magic marker. Thought you'd be interested to see it. Cheers."

The phrase 日本最高 on Ms. Lavigne was correctly written, but for a WRONG country.

日本 = Japan
最 = most, extremely, exceedingly
高 = high, tall; lofty, elevated

It is translated as "Japan is the best".

I tell ya, this American Idol thing is really heating up. Last week’s first vote out show was pretty tough to watch, but I must say I’m pretty pumped up about tomorrow night’s version. My girl had a tough night, but she’ll be back. I don’t know what I’ll do if she sings a Shania song.

Well, with re-runs of the Ashlee Simpson Show occupying a large portion of time slots on MTV I thought I’d take a second to talk about the phenomena of public personality and redemption. We all remember the SNL and Orange Bowl incidents, but few know about the other incidents on her recent tour.

Singer Avril Lavigne will cross her home and native land this summer, performing in 15 cities from Victoria to Halifax.

Veteran pop star Boy George claims the Scissor Sisters' failure to attract a huge following in the band's native America is down to homophobic record buyers.

Though she's only 20 years old, Ashlee Simpson has garnered nearly as much fame and criticism as most singers twice her age.

One of the night's few surprises came with a short version of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which turned into an a cappella call-and-response playtime with the audience. There also was a sense of genuine camaraderie when the band brought up vocalist Josh Fischel of support band Bargain Music for a song.

I found this great Beatles' album cover at Tony Fletcher's iJamming. There are two interesting details I should point out:

1. Notice all the band member's eyes? They have been changed to make them look more "Asianized" (and in John Lennon's case, more stoned).

2. The phonetic translation of the band name "beatles", actually means "diheveled hair" in Chinese.

There are different versions and volumes, depending on the console, but all of them use a microphone for a hilarious karaoke experience. You can either entertain (or punish) your friends by going straight karaoke, or play the game's challenge modes, which are amazingly well done. Sing well (meaning you've timed the words perfectly and haven't been too loud or too quiet), and you win over the crowd and unlock new levels. Sing poorly, and you'll get drowned with boos. Very American Idol-ish, and great fun for a party of kids or adults. You can even compete online with Xbox and download new songs, which, depending on the version, range from classics like New York, New York and Love Shack to more current faves from Avril Lavigne, Hoobastank and Michelle Branch.

I heard a rumor that the cover of Mariah Carey's new album was actually shot for less than $5K. Well sort of. Apparently, there was a previous photo shoot for the cover and the record label spent a fortune on it, hiring one of the best photographers money can buy! But after reviewing the results, they decided to sack the photos. Since they had blown the budget, they had to lure another photographer, but all they had was money for his expenses, i.e. airbrushing! Not surprisingly, the photographer they lured was the same guy who shot Beyonce's last LP. Hello.

Most of us remember her as the pop act who got caught lip-synching on "Saturday Night Live." Lip-synching is the dance pop equivalent of steroids and as such is not that big a deal for a pop act. The trouble is her Daddy manager positioned her, the "other sister," as a rock act. Although it was smart to contrast her newly dark Jan Brady with popular sister Jessica as Marcia, positioning Ashlee Simpson as a rock act was not. Unfortunately for Simpson, rock acts are still expected to have some integrity, especially live.

I've been watching "American Idol" since the days of Justin and Kelly. I fell in love with the show listening to Clay's voice, and yelled at the judges when Fantasia won.

Janet Jackson lost Horne's vote to play her when the pop superstar bared her breast at last year's (2004) Super Bowl, and now the Stormy Weather singer has given her blessing for troubled Houston to step into her shoes.

Four dates on Nelly's just under way U.S. tour have been postponed this weekend in the wake of his sister's death Thursday from complications from leukemia.

The lyrics on Ashlee Simpson's infectiously spunky, chart-topping "Autobiography," the singer says, "are exactly my story up until the point that I was at when I wrote the record. I wanted to say exactly who I was and what I was going through and kind of where I was at that point."

Following the latest round of American Idol, Bo Bice has been installed as favourite with bet365 to win the competition. Paddy Power aren�t as convinced with Bo joint favourite with Carrie Underwood at 7/4.

Meanwhile, Beck is back at the top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks list, where he ends Green Day's run at number one with Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. Beck's new tune E-Pro is his first number one on that chart for over a decade.

Jennifer Lopez and new husband Marc Anthony are said to be expecting, but like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, are waiting to be absolutely sure before making any announcement. Jennifer refuses to share any details of her private life with the public since the romantic debacle she suffered with Ben Affleck. PREDICTION: Say hello to two children by this marriage; say goodbye to the relationship within four years.

"It goes in cycles. Last year we were diva-fied. Of course, half of them didn't work because they hurt their knees or their voices," he said, referring to the last-minute loss of Marcus Amphitheater shows by both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera in 2004 due to injury.

Ashlee Simpson will step up to the mike tonight at the Benedum.

Jennifer Lopez is selling her $11 million (GBP6 million) mansion on Miami Beach because it reminds her of former love Ben Affleck.

Singers often just dip a toe into the kiddie pool, like Avril Lavigne recording "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" theme. But there are rockers who dive in headfirst like the Giants, who have released two kids' albums.

Recent productions by Dylan Sellers include Warner Bros. Pictures' "A Cinderella Story" starring Hilary Duff; and "Agent Cody Banks" and its sequel "Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London."

Elsewhere, Vasquez remixes Maroon5's "This Love," Peter Rauhofer updates Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" and Victor Calderone revamps Beyonce's "Naughty Girl."

Jacqueline "Jackie" Donahue, 31, had been diagnosed with leukemia on March 29, 2001. The cancer was in remission for nearly two years before she suffered a relapse, prompting Nelly to arrange a number of bone marrow drives. A match was never found.

Favourite International Artist was awarded to Scissor Sisters and Girls Aloud picked up Favourite Pop Act statuette.

Conspiracy theories that ''American Idol" is rigged were stirred up again yesterday when the Fox network announced that it had displayed onscreen the wrong phone numbers to vote for three contestants during Tuesday night's show.

More details have emerged on Jennifer Lopez's upcoming film projects.

``I never had the experience of working with someone who wasn't exactly like me,'' said Jessica Simpson, 12. ``It was a great experience for Vernon, and it was great for me, too.''

Eight albums sold more than 5 million units in 2004, up from five in 2003. The big sellers were "Confessions" by Usher, Norah Jones' "Feels Like Home," "Encore" by Eminem, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" by U2, "Under My Skin" by Avril Lavigne, "Destiny Fulfilled" by Destiny's Child and "Greatest Hits" albums from Robbie Williams and Shania Twain.

However, some notable outfits outside the night's skin fest included a brown bustier and see-through white peasant skirt, and a candy red punk-meets-posh stole. Rock and pop stars such as Lenny Kravitz, Christina Aguilera, Steven Tyler, Pink and Shania Twain have all worn designs by Junker.

The shake-up at "American Idol" began when the network displayed incorrect numbers for two call-in lines during the Tuesday's broadcast, Grogin said.

"Nirvana: Nevermind -- Classic Album DVD" (Eagle Rock Entertainment) explores the band, the Seattle music scene that would be dubbed "grunge" and the making of the band's classic album "Nevermind." Lead singer Kurt Cobain took his own life, leaving us with drummer Dave Grohl, bassist Krist Novoselic and an assortment of others to talk candidly about the band and how it gained traction.

Now credit card companies are rushing to capture that audience with prepaid cards, featuring celebrities such as rapper Usher and actress Hilary Duff, as well as cartoon characters like Hello Kitty.

Pop beauty Britney Spears has walked away victorious from a court battle with a clothing company over the name of her 2003 album IN THE ZONE.

Studio One, the world’s largest-purpose built recording studio, is equipped as a 350-seat cinema for the festival, which kicked off with a screening of the Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night” on Saturday.

Ashanti didn't have to look too far to find the right woman to play her fussy mother in new video DON'T LET THEM - she picked her own mum.

Overall sales were driven by new UK-signed artists such as Keane, Katie Melua and Scissor Sisters, whose debut album sold almost 1.6 million copies in the UK.

R+b superstar Usher is to follow in the footsteps of Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears by releasing his own self-titled perfume.

Pop beauties Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Lopez are both trying to persuade soccer hunk David Beckham to star in their next music videos.

Metallica fans have launched a new campaign, urging members of the band to ditch their longtime producer Bob Rock.

During the '60s, Short's audience began to shrink. The Beatles and the British Invasion dominated music; suburban flight and urban crime cut into the nightclub business.

An appeals court has upheld dismissal of an Irving man's claims that Fox stole his idea for the hit T-V show "American Idol."

JENNIFER LOPEZ defended her use of animal fur in her clothing line on Australian radio this weekend insisting she knows nothing about how fur is produced.

Amid the wine and revelry of that first evening, Godwin and Verlander wrote their first song, set to the tune of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit. " They performed it at a benefit to build a park in neighboring Moss Beach. The lyrics went something like: This is Moss Beach/ Build a park here/ It's less dangerous/ Get your checkbook.

The same fate does not await the teen who can't afford a ticket to the Avril Lavigne concert, although she is likely to grimace, clutch her chest and gasp, much like a person in the throes of heart failure. Entertainment is a "want."

The campaign began in earnest on Monday night, when Alyssa Milano, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Hilary Duff and her sister Haylie all attended a "PSP-a-porter" fashion show in Hollywood to kick off L.A. Fashion Week. The runway show featured PSP accessories specially designed by fashion world talents such as Diane von Furstenberg.