I’ve always loved Jordin Sparks’s song “No Air” and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that she had done a duet with it with David Archuleta. As great as the original is, Chris Brown can’t follow Jordin around for all her performances, and besides ever since he assaulted Rihanna he’s not exactly the most popular guy in the world.

While hosting a special three-day event at the Edec roc Renaissance Miami Beach, Jordin did a few performances but it was “No Air” that impressed me. I wish the sound quality on the video was a bit better so we could really hear it but I love it! Archie did a great job singing with Jordin – his voice is perfect for it!

I don’t how true this is but I’ve read that he didn’t have a lot of advance notice and thus didn’t have much rehearsal time but you can’t even tell!

I’d love to hear Jordin Sparks and David Archuleta collaborate again in the future!

This year the New Orleans Saints walked away the big winners at the 44th Superbowl, but before they took to the field Carrie Underwood sang the national anthem.

I think this was the first time I ever heard Carrie singing a bad note in all the times I’ve heard her perform. Most of the song was good but she hit a couple of bad notes right near the end. I have to add that I love Carrie, she’s one of my favorite Idol contestants and I would have voted for her that season if I was able to (I’m Canadian). I also have all of her albums and I think she’s a fabulous singer regardless of the national anthem.

It’s something that I’ve heard happen before, those places are so big and wide open and it’s really hard to hear yourself so she just went off a bit. Overall though, I do think Carrie did a good job most of the way through. I also love what she was wearing!

What did you think of Carrie Underwood’s national anthem?

American Idol hopeful Nicci Nix may have charmed judges with her cute demeanor, her apparent innocence, and her Italian accent but it seems a lot of that has been exaggerated. It turns out that Nicci is no stranger to reality television after all.

TMZ has dug up a lot of information about this contestant. Nicci was adorable in an awkward way but how real was her act? For one thing, Nicci appeared on Fear Factor under the name Nicci Palmeri and said she was from California. She’s also been on Making the Band, Next, and Date My Mom.

Check out the video clip of Nicci as “Nicole” on Making the Band here and then the clip of her on Fear Factor over here.

Hmmm. You’d think by now that people who try out for reality shows would realize that people WILL look them up online and try to figure out who they are! I wonder how far Nicci will make it in Hollywood before the truth comes out.

As I mentioned yesterday, American Idol’s last audition round was actually a little recap showing up some of the highlights that we hadn’t gotten to see the first time in each of the seven audition cities. Here are some highlights of the highlights.

Jessica Furney managed to charm Simon Cowell with his own song well enough to get sent through to Hollywood:

I’m still not sure how Victoria Beckham felt to discover that she is Stephanie Fisher’s fashion icon considering Stephanie’s outfit was as bad as her singing.

I loved Didi Benami’s rendition of “Hey Jude” so much that I had to revisit it. I thought she did a great arrangement.

I still think we should all remember the name Aaron Kelly. Unless he screws up really badly during the Hollywood rounds I think he’s going to be a major contender. He’s young, he has a great voice, a humble background, and he’s a good looking kid. He just might have every young girl in the U.S. dialing the house phone with one hand and text voting with the other.

I can’t wait for Hollywood!

Tonight’s episode of the American Idol auditions covered all seven cities showing us some of the very best – and very worst! – hopefuls that we didn’t get to see in previous episodes.

For instance, we got to hear Jessica Furney who swore she wasn’t sucking up when she chose to sing “Footprints in the Sand” which was co-written by Simon Cowell. Luckily she had a really good, clear voice and got a yes across the board!

We were also introduced to Amanda Schectman who had a rather nice voice, but I found myself phasing out while she sang. I guess I wasn’t alone because all the judges said that she can sing but she has a lack of connection with her audience. She promised to work on it and got four yes votes.

Read More – American Idol Season 9 Audition recap

After last night’s auditions in Denver I wanted to kick off with Mark Labriola who was such a huge surprise. I don’t think anyone expected him to actually be any good and he ended up being fantastic.

I’m a sucker for genuinely emotional people too, so I was moved by his tears outside after he made it, talking about how he thought his dreams were over until he got there.

Read More – Video Clips from American Idol 9 Denver Auditions

It was our second-to-last audition night tonight as American Idol hit Denver, Colorado. We were once again joined by guest judge Victoria Beckham and although I had my doubts at first I really do like her. She gets a bit annoying going on about someone’s look because that shouldn’t be the focus but considering her own interests it makes sense.

The night didn’t seem like it would start well when we were introduced to Mark Labriola who said he’s often mistaken for Jack Black. It appeared it would go downhill when Simon asked Mark to tell them something interesting about him and he answered, “I like cheese.” It got worse when he launched into a long tale about how his mother took him from his father at the age of four with the two of them on the run for six years, ending up in Maui until his father found him. It was all a little ridiculous and dramatic so I was pleasantly surprised when he sang “Tempted” and proved to have a great voice with a very nice voice. He got four yes votes and sailed on through to Hollywood.

Read More – American Idol Season 9 Denver Auditions

Back when Jeanne covered all things Idol here at Idol Stalker she wrote up an excellent American Idol quiz to test your knowledge about every single season. It appeared on Parade.com.

I was recently contacted and asked if I could add four new questions pertaining to season eight so I’ve done that and now you can go take the Idol Quiz and see how good your memory is.

Come back and let me know how you did!

Image: Michael Becker / FOX

Last night at the 2010 Grammy Awards two American Idol alumni took to the stage at the same time and the result was, well, spectacular to say the least. Both Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson were part of a special Grammy tribute to Michael Jackson and they both blew me away.

Along with Celine Dion, Usher, and Smokey Robinson, Carrie and Jennifer sang Michael’s planet-conscious “Earth Song” with Michael singing on another track. The entire thing was great but (and I realize I may be biased) honestly I thought that Jennifer and Carrie did the best job. Both of them were so powerful, it was incredible.

The only downside to the whole performance is that the producers decided for some reason that it would be great to do the Michael Jackson tribute in 3D. This would have been great except I imagine most people at home (like myself) did not actually have any 3D glasses. As a result we were stuck watching a distracting red and green distorted image; sometimes even the singers themselves ended up being blurred. I think it was a huge mistake but the sound was wonderful.

I would definitely love to see another Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson joint performance in the future because they sound amazing together.

This year American Idol is bringing back “Idol Gives Back” after last year’s hiatus (word was the recession was so bad that they didn’t feel right asking viewers to part with their money). I’m so glad they’re doing it again because I really enjoy it and it’s always such a great cause.

Season five finalist Elliott Yamin is taking Kara DioGuardi to Angola to film a segment for “Idol Gives Back”. Elliot is going to show Kara around while also presenting a raised funds for Malaria No More.

Elliott told Idol Tracker, “This is very special to me. It’s a chance to go over there and show how Malaria No More, Exxon-Mobil and ‘Idol Gives Back’ are collectively putting that money to work and tangibly show that we’re able to make a difference.”

I like that they’ll be showing viewers what their donations did to help out. Elliott and Kara head out to Angola on February 16th, and we will get to see the “Idol Gives Back” special on April 21st.