Ryan Seacrest is hinting that the new American Idol judges have been chosen — who are they? And is Keith Urban still on the panel? Also in today’s Roundup: Candice Glover just debuted a new song while out on tour. And Scotty McCreery is revealing all the inside scoop on his audition — did he really sing a Lady Gaga song?
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Have the New Judges Already Been Chosen?
Production on season 13 is underway, and host Ryan Seacrest stopped by the San Francisco cattle-call auditions and revealed in an interview with FOX 411 that the new judges replacing Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj (and possibly Keith Urban?) have been chosen.
“I was with Keith yesterday,” he said. “We embraced and said to each other, ‘I hope we get to spend a lot of time together.’ … I think, based on what I have heard, the audience that watches American Idol is going to be very excited about the panel that we’ve put together for season 13. It’s a very special season, and I think you’ll see some good chemistry this year.”
It sounds like Ryan doesn’t actually know who will be the new judges or even if Keith Urban is sticking around or not. But he does mention there will be “good chemistry” — how would he know that if he doesn’t know who’s joining the show? It may just be a line he’s throwing out there to assure fans that Idol won’t make the same mistake as they did with season 12’s panel that had no chemistry whatsoever.
Speculation has been brewing all summer about who the new judges will be. At one point, it was being reported former contestants were under consideration, including Jennifer Hudson and Adam Lambert, with one going so far as to say the Oscar winner had signed a deal. But with new executives now in charge of Idol, that possibility seemed to be squashed. But you never know, one of those two names may have signed on the dotted line, and maybe they’ve even decided to keep Keith on board. All we know for sure is that Jennifer Lopez won’t be returning — or maybe she will, you never know what’s going on behind the scenes.
If what Ryan is speaking the truth here — that the new judges have been chosen — I’m surprised the names haven’t been leaked already, though FOX still has plenty of time to do just that.
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Candice Glover Performs New Song “In the Middle”
The season 12 finalists have four stops behind them on the American Idol Live! Tour, having hit the west coast from Washington to Oregon and California. During winner Candice Glover’s set, she performed a new song we can expect to hear on her first album Music Speaks, out October 8. “In the Middle” is an upbeat and catchy number with hints of R&B and reggae. Take a look at Candice debuting the song on the opening night of the tour in Kent, WA (which I was at, by the way, and it was a fantastic tune to hear live):
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The American Idol tour continues for the rest of the July and all of August before wrapping in Nashville, TN, on August 31.
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Scotty McCreery Sings Gaga?
I bet that headline grabbed your attention. Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery just celebrated the three-year anniversary of his Idol audition, and he revealed some inside scoop on Twitter about the process. We all remember his audition — he was the young country crooner who came in and blew everyone away with that deep voice of his. But what you might not know is that he almost wasn’t allowed to sing “Your Man.” Why?
“For the Idol auditions you have to sing a song that is cleared by the show for rights and stuff,” he began. “Your Man wasn’t cleared my audition day. If you sang a song that wasn’t cleared they wouldn’t put your audition on tv, which makes it tough on ur chances of making it far on the show. I told the producer’s I didn’t care, and I was singing Your Man. Miraculously, about 15 mins b4 my audition they told me they got it cleared! If that had not happened, we would’ve never got to hear Stevens crazy line, and who knows if I’d be here today.”
The Steven Tyler “crazy line” he’s talking about is a classic: “Well, hell fire, save matches, f*** a duck and see what hatches!” But this isn’t the best part that Scotty revealed. As I alluded to earlier, he sang a Lady Gaga song.
“Day 2 of the non filmed auditions, they make all the contestants learn a single song … The song everybody in Milwaukee had to learn? Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. … They tell you, you may or may not have to sing it, but its required you know it if they ask you to sing it.”
Everything was going fine so far because he sang “Your Man” followed by “Slow Dancing,” and Scotty had a feeling they would send him through to the next round. But then it happened: “Then they asked me to sing Bad Romance … I started into those rah rah’s and then stopped midway through and told them ‘this aint on my country station back home, I don’t know this.’ They busted out laughing and said they just wanted to hear a country boy sing Lady Gaga.” He has no hard feelings, though, and is able to laugh about it and appreciate the opportunity that has led him to have a successful career in country music.
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(Image courtesy of WENN)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
Jeff Dodge, a graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena.
