Idol News Roundup - 7/9/09

Allison Iraheta talked about the Idol tour for an article on the American Idol website. She described the first two shows as "amazing, fun, and great" and talks about what she does on the tour bus and backstage while waiting for her set. She also revealed that she did not watch the Michael Jackson memorial on the bus "because she thought it was best for her not to, since she knew it would make her very emotional" (Anoop, Adam, Matt and Kris did on the boys' bus, according to some of the boys' Twitter).

Megan Joy interviewed with her hometown newspapers, the Deseret News and the Salt Lake City Tribune in advance of their concert in Salt Lake City on July 14. Megan talked about her caw caws, traveling without her 2-year old son Ryder and how touring is going to help her be able to raise him by herself. She also talked about received mixed messages from the Idol producers and judges. After getting through to Hollywood on the strength of a jazzy "Can't Help Loving That Man", she was told to "steer clear of girls that sounded like me", i.e. Amy Winehouse and Adele but was criticized on the show by the judges for not doing those types of songs.

Also in that same Salt Lake Tribune article as Megan, Danny Gokey says he still has not received a record deal by 19E but is not worried because other music producers have said that they would sign him if 19E passed. Danny again states that he does not want to be a Christian music artist because he wants to be mainstream and not exclude anyone from his "message" of raising awareness of heart disease.

I'm not sure when the interview with Scott MacIntyre took place, but he was pretty secretive with the Riverside Press-Enterprise about the show (as if nearly every song isn't on YouTube already?), not divulging if he and Matt Giraud were doing dueling pianos and saying only that the group numbers are "not going to be cheesy". It's no wonder this article is pretty damn short.

Adam Lambert offers up his thoughts on Michael Jackson for Rolling Stone. An excerpt:

When we had to do our Michael Jackson show this year, I was thinking, "What song should I choose?" They're all so good. It was either "Black or White" or "Thriller," but I wanted to make more of a statement the first time out, and "Black or White" comments on culture and racial harmony in a very eloquent way. It also means a lot of other things. To me, personally, it was it doesn't matter if you're straight or gay, either. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. I loved the sentiment there. What was really cool about Michael is that he straddled a really fine line of race and sexuality. There was something very androgynous about him, and very race neutral. People criticized him for lightening his skin or whatever, but he was like his own race. A lot of people saw it as bad, but it was kind of fascinating. And very original.

Adam was able to watch Michael's dancers rehearse when the Idols shared rehearsal space with them and was told that Michael was interested in meeting with him. Unfortunately, it never happened.

And David Cook talks about his tour, band, his brothers, and watching American Idol in a new way after being on the other side of the fence in an article in the Saginaw News. Cook had this interesting comment about Simon Cowell: "It took me about two weeks to figure out the trick with Simon. You can't take what he says at face value. Take the bluntness out, forget the pain it causes, and you'll find constructive criticism you can use. And if Simon says you sound good, you know you're doing something right."