Lauren from Oz Music Scene alerted me to the fact that Australian Idol judge, Kyle Sandilands, has been fired from his job as a judge on Australian Idol.  This shocking turn of events happened after an on-air stunt went terribly wrong on Kyle’s morning radio show, 2Day FM.  How bad could it possibly be?  Pretty bad…

A 14-year-old girl was strapped to a lie detector and asked on air about her sexual history at the urging of the teen’s mother.  As if that’s not bad enough (you can’t ask a minor about sex, especially on the radio!), the poor girl ended …read more

Australian Idol winner, Guy Sebastian, will be releasing a new album called Like It Like That on October 9, 2009.  I’m really interested in hearing what this new effort sounds like since it will feature John Mayer (one of my favorites!) and was recorded in the United States.
If you aren’t familiar with Guy, you should give him a chance because I think he’s got a great voice and I love his energy.  I found the video for the title track “Like It Like That” so check it out and tell me what you think.

Canadian band, Hedley, is releasing an album for U.S. fans.  The group, which is fronted by former Canadian Idol finalist, Jacob Hoggard, has chosen to put their seven #1 hits from their two double-platinum Canadian releases  (Hedley and and Famous Last Words) along with other songs on the American album which will be released on May 19, 2009 (pre-order now).
There are 12 songs in all.  Here’s the tracklisting:

She’s So Sorry
2 1
Trip
For the Nights I Can’t Remember
Never Too Late
Gunnin
On My Own
Bone Shatter
Old School
Narcissist
Hand Grenade
Dying to Live Again

image: Amazon

Canadian Idol was cancelled and will not be broadcast this summer but former host, Ben Mulroney, has found another job.
Like his American Idol counterpart, Ryan Seacrest, Ben will be hosting a new nationally syndicated radio show called “ETalk20” which will go along with his work as a co-host on the ETalk television program.
The show will start this weekend and will be broadcast in 11 cities across Canada.  Mulroney will talk about entertainment news, do celebrity interviews and do a weekly countdown of Canada’s hit music.  I think this is a great idea!
Here’s a list of the cities/channels:

KOOL FM 107.3 FM …read more

La Nouvelle Star 2009, ça commence ce soir!  France’s version of American Idol kicks off its seventh season today and I don’t know what it is but I always find the French version extremely interesting.  I’ll do my best to find the best videos and share them here.  Of course, there’s never been a winner like Julien Doré for me but that’s what happens when you find a real artist versus someone who just wants to be famous. 
Voici la teasing de la septième saison de Nouvelle Star/watch a teaser for the seventh season of Nouvelle Star:

You can find the …read more

Julien Doré, the 2007 winner of Nouvelle Star (France’s equivalent of American Idol) continues to push the envelope with every performance.
At last month’s NRJ Awards, Julien came out to perform his song “Les Limites” (see the original video here) and clearly mimicked Britney Spears’ 2001 Video Music Awards performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U.”
Watch the performance here.  I adore him for being so unusual.

image: Newscom

Canadian Idol judge, Zack Werner, feels that cancelling the show sends the “worst possible message” and I kind of have to agree with him.  I was always under the impression that the show did incredibly well in ratings and sponsorship. 
Metro News reported that Zack said that he was always aware that the show was “prohibitively expensive” to produce and that it had always been a “hard sell” with Canadian advertisers.  He also talked about the fact that CTV paid $100 million for the Olympics and would have to sell the advertising for that (read more on that in the …read more

Recently, Canadian Idol winners, Brian Melo, Eva Avila and Kalan Porter performed at Toronto’s Eaton centre as part of WarChild’s Busking for Change event.   The charity is dedicated to “providing urgently needed humanitarian assistance to war-affected children around the world” by raising “awareness, support and advocacy for children’s rights everywhere.” 
It’s an entirely worthy cause.  Watch their performances here:
Brian Melo Sings “Emily”

WOW!  It’s official – there will be no Canadian Idol for 2009.  The National Post is reporting that CTV released the following statement: “as a result of the current economic climate, production of Canadian Idol will rest for the 2009 year.”
From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like the show is totally cancelled but it is being put on hold.  I’m really surprised but I’m not out of hope.  The article also pointed out that other Idol shows have taken year-long breaks and come back which was the case in Germany, Russia and the Netherlands.
image: CTV

Former Canadian Idol contestants are featured prominently on the list of nominees for the upcoming 2009 Canadian Radio Awards. 
I wasn’t surprised to see Hedley on the list which is fronted by former Idol finalist, Jacob Hoggard, but I wasn’t expecting to see Carly Rae Jepsen, Jaydee Bixby and Tara Oram.  Good for them!
Here are the categories featuring former Idol contestants as nominees:
MAINSTREAM Adult Contemporary:   Carly Rae Jepsen – "Sunshine on my Shoulders" Julie Crochetiere – "Precious Love" Kreesha Turner – "Don’t Call Me Baby" Lights – …read more