For now, American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks is having to take the back seat on the charts to runner-up, Blake Lewis.

Blake’s single “You Give Love a Bad Name” broke into the top 10 at #9 and Jordin’s “This is My Now” is hovering at #14.

It’ll be interesting to see where they are after summer.

Post from: Idol Stalker

NBC will celebrate America’s 231st birthday with a live broadcast of the “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular.” Of the performers, country music star (and American Idol guest) Martina McBride will open the event and Jordin Sparks, Blake Lewis and Melinda Doolittle will perform a song together to tribute the Nation’s birthday.

The event is America’s largest 4th of July fireworks extravaganza and will feature 35,000 shells which will be set off over New York City.

Cool. Wish I could be there but I’ll just have to watch it on television!

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Post from: Idol Stalker

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Post from: Idol Stalker

Ever wonder what is going on behind the scenes before American Idol airs? Well here’s a glimpse into what happened before the finale.

Blake’s VIP Treatment

Thirty minutes before the show started, Blake Lewis, rockin’ his performance gear, made an appearance in the FOX VIP room in the Kodak Theatre lobby. The room lit up as the finalist was escorted in, looking cool as ice despite having to get onstage and take on Jordin Sparks moments later. Blake, who was all smiles, greeted guests, shaking hands as he made his way around the room.

The Idols

Johnny the warm-up guy led the cheers and jeers at the Kodak Theatre Tuesday night. With the clock counting down to show time, he introduced the top 10 (minus two), sending the crowd into hysterics as Haley Scarnato, Melinda Doolittle, Chris Sligh, Sanjaya Malakar, Phil Stacey (wearing his black and white sailor suit), Gina Glocksen, Brandon Rogers, Stephanie Edwards and Chris Richardson made their way into the room. And this group, who will hit the road for the American Idols Live tour this summer, couldn’t have been a happier, more easy-going bunch.

Brandon, who may have been the most excited of the group, snapped digital photos of everything – including Sanjaya and Haley, who posed together, Haley doing rabbit ears behind Sanjaya’s head. Meanwhile, Chris Richardson and Melinda rocked out, with Richardson’s arm around her, as music played over the sound system, while Chris Sligh, always the loner, still with that signature ‘do, decided to make his way over to greet and congratulate the Lewis family (something all the Idols would do later on).

They should be dancing

When it was time to introduce the judges, band leader Ricky Minor had a little surprise up his sleeve: When Simon Cowell came out wearing, rather than his signature tight tee, a discoed-out black suit with a white shirt unbuttoned down to his “cleavage” (as Ryan Seacrest would later joke), Minor and band played “You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees, replacing the lyrics with “It’s Simon Cowell, yeah.”

But, of course, Simon and Randy Jackson were already in their seats, with no sign of Paula Abdul. No problem: Minor and crew had some lyrics for that as well, adding “where’s Paula Abdul? Where’s Paula Abdul?” And, finally, Ryan, who is always on cue and on time, got a little theme too as he made his way onto the stage: “What you doin’ Seacrest, yeah? It’s Ryan Seacrest, yeah!”

Where’s Paula?

With two and a half minutes left to air, there was no sign of Paula anywhere. The audience started chanting “Where’s Paula? Where’s Paula?” With seconds to spare, in she came under the guidance of executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, who brought her out by the hand and let her hug and greet the former Idols before helping her up a step and into her seat. (She’d broken her nose in a nasty fall over the weekend.)

Ryan, Ryan

After Ryan introduced Simon Cowell as “Simon Cleavage” and said on live TV, “So the bitch is okay?” to Paula Abdul after she explained how she’d tripped over her female dog, it was revealed that Ryan’s parents were in the house. “The Seacrest family is here,” said Johnny the warm-up guy. “Big round of applause for Mom and Dad!” Aww … Ryan smiled as he headed over to do his next monologue right next to his folks. But true to form, he didn’t let their presence hold him back, continuing to make often risqué quips on and off screen.

Blockin’ up the scenery

Too bad for the sign-holders in the middle of the orchestra-level seating: Debbie the stage manager warned them before the show started not to hold their signs up too high as they were going to obstruct the cameras. Then, to their dismay, they asked to pass their signs to the ends of their rows so they could be removed. Let that be a warning.

TV Dads

Ricky Schroder was in the audience with his wife Andrea, daughter Cambrie and sons Holden and Luke, as was Heroes’ Greg Grunberg, with his wife Elizabeth and their sons Jack, Sam and Ben. During one commercial break, Schroder, holding his daughter’s hand, went up to shake hands with and chat with the judges.

Chris Daughtry Comes ‘Home’

Fans have heard the song “Home” all season each time one of the finalists was given their walking papers, but tonight, to the crowd’s delight, former Idol Chris Daughtry gave a live performance of the song that even the judges had to stand up for. Audience members, including Denise Richards and Marlee Matlin, cheered and gave Daughtry and his band a standing ovation.

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Post from: Idol Stalker

Yuck – I hope this isn’t true. Apparently, before the finale, Antonella Barba, Haley Scarnato and Gina Glocksen put messages up on their MySpace pages urging their friends to vote for Jordin Sparks. That is rough! I’m not sure why they would feel it’s appropriate to do to Blake Lewis with whom they must tour this summer. If they were from a different season, maybe, but I don’t think fellow cast-members should do this kind of thing. It just isn’t classy, in my books. Well, Antonella and Haley had already shown us that but I was surprised at Gina.

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Post from: Idol Stalker

So, it was pretty clear that Blake Lewis was uncomfortable singing that final song and he confirmed his displeasure when he said the following about “This is My Now” - “It’s definitely not my style, a song I would never sing if I didn’t have to. And I honestly think they should have had two songs that were tailored to both of us.”

He went on to say this to People magazine: “I’m kind of glad I didn’t win for, like, contractual reasons. I think if you’re first you might have to come back for like three years or something… I’m a child of the ’80s, so it’s definitely going to have very advanced thing to it with more of a melodic jazzy, like Maroon 5, Jamiroquai, but definitely more on the hip-hop and electronic kind of thing.”

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Post from: Idol Stalker

Post from: Idol Stalker

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you deal with having to perform ”This Is My Now”? It seemed so… not you.

BLAKE LEWIS: [When I first heard it] I was like, really? All right. I gotta sing this song, shake hands with it, make friends with it. And hopefully perform it well. It’s definitely not my style. That track would never be on my album.

EW: Did you think about rearranging it?

Blake: They wouldn’t let me do that, because it was the song that won the contest. If it had been a song for me and a song for Jordin, I think that would’ve been a lot different. They could’ve picked two songwriters.

EW: Did you want to speak out?
Blake: I don’t care — it is what it is. You have your good, your bad, and your in-between.

EW: Moving on to the songs that you were allowed to rearrange: How did you decide to remix ”You Give Love a Bad Name”?

Blake: They say ”make it your own,” so from a producer’s standpoint I just remixed a song if I felt like the piece needed it. I’d do that with my own songs, whether I was on Idol or not. After you’ve been singing for a couple years, you want to revamp them and make them fresh. So I just tried to be true to myself and let my creativity take hold.

EW: Do you think that taking those chances mostly helped you or hurt you during the competition?

Blake: I honestly never looked at it that way. I did what they told me. They told me to make a song my own, and that’s all I tried to do. So I don’t think it was taking a chance. See, they contradict themselves a lot, the judges. With ”You Keep Me Hanging On” [during Diana Ross week], I totally revamped it and kept the main ingredients of the song, but they gave me some criticism about that. So you never know — you can’t win, you can’t lose.

EW: So what’s next for you?

Blake: I did some work with Nick already — a song I had written and another that he and Kevin Griffin from Better Than Ezra put together for me and I improvised over — which is like a dream come true. [Producer] BT is my other main inspiration. If we could get together and create a song, I’d be like a kid in a candy store.

EW: One of the highlights of the finale was watching you and Doug E. Fresh together on stage…

Blake: Hip-hop on American Idol, you can’t beat that! The experience has been so amazing, I can’t even explain in words. It’s bittersweet right now, because it’s over. Two seconds before I got on stage, it was like, ”It’s done — this is the last time I’ll step on the Idol stage.” The journey was truly a blessing.

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Now that it’s all said and done, who performed best tonight?

Post from: Idol Stalker

Tonight, Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks will compete to become the next American Idol. Who will prevail? What will they sing? What will they wear? Come back tonight to go through the journey together!

Let the Live-blogging begin! Please excuse the typos, .

Ryan asks if Paula’s nose is alright (she broke it during an effort to avoid stepping on her dog, Tulip) and after Paula said that her dog was fine, Ryan said “so the bitch is okay.” Wow.

Both Blake and Jordin auditioned in Seattle, the city that Simon said was the worst they had ever seen in terms of potential contestants. They show Blake’s audition, the judges’ commentary and a quick word from Blake about how much he realized he wanted to win as soon as he stepped on to the stage (unlike Chris Sligh, I guess). They then talk about Jordin’s journey to the top 2. So, I guess if both of them came out of Seattle, Simon could not have been right about it being the worst audition city in history.

—commercial break—

Ryan shows a coin-toss that determined who would sing first. It’s Blake lewis. He offered the opportunity to Jordin who said no, so Blake said he would go first.

Blake sings Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name.” He sounds great and his intro actually went better than it did last time. He got the timing down right. He’s beatboxing like a man on a mission. He’s working the stage but he loses a bit of contact with the mouth so his voice cuts out for a second but IT’s BETTER THAN THE FIRST TIME!!! Randy said the beatboxing was hot but the singing was just okay. Paula gives him a 10. Simon says that he’s the most entertaining and, although his singing got a little flat in the middle, it doesn’t matter because he was great. Randy looks like he’s wearing an outfit from the Michael Jackson collection.

Jordin sings Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter.” It sounds good but she’s got to stop the yodelling at the start of every sentence. She’s definitely trying her best. I did not like some of the notes towards the end of the song but the crowd seemed to love it. I guess I’m hearing a different person. Randy said it wasn’t that entertaining but that her voice was stellar. Paula echoed the sentiment. Simon says it was younger choice for her but that she sounded shreiky and that he thought Blake won round 1. Paula said it was a tie. Randy said he performance part went to Blake but that the singing went to Jordin. I did not like it.

—commercial break—

Blake says that he asked for drums every Christmas of his childhood and never got them. He heard someone beatboxing and thought he could do it and when he tried it out his father thought it was a drumset!

Blake sings Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” and it is iffy. He is trying and it is good that he is trying to show his versatility but this song requires strong vocals and I’m not sure he is pulling it off. He is, however, showing his falsetto abillities. Randy liked it and said he likes it when Blake sings naturally. Paula liked it. Simon said it was good but that he wouldn’t have chosen that song for the final because it doesn’t make much of an impact. Blake says that he has never seen an Idol finale but that he is having fun and that the fans are amazing.

—commercial break—

Jordin talks about how she is doing her dream and that she first started competing when she was 12 years old.

Jordin sings Martina McBride’s “Broken Wing” as her second song. I never like the beginning of this song because her lower register singing is sketchy sometimes. She finishes the song better than it began which has worked all season to make people forget how it started. She did control her vibrato a lot better than normal which made it sound a lot better! Randy said it was great, Paula said it was soaring and Simon said it was good. She seemed happy and I’m happy for her.

—commercial break—

The winners of the songwriters competition. They are from Seattle and it is called “This is My Now.” Blake sings it first. It is a slow song which is not really his strong point but he is doing a good job. These songs are always cheesy, so this performance is cheesy. It’s okay, though. He looked adorable. Randy said it was alright even though it wasn’t his genre. Paula said she thought it was good. Simon thought it was odd because he seemed uncomfortable. He said that we have to judge him based on his first two performances. He did say that there was talent in Seattle.

That song does put him at a major disadvantage. It is clearly more suited to Jordin’s voice than it is to Blake’s.

—commercial break—

Jordin sings “This is My Now” and it starts shaky in my opinion. She is getting better but enough of the yodelling, please! She looks very, very comfortable singing this song. She does a better job singing it than Blake and because of this (and the fact that she is now practically crying) the judges will not mention the bum notes. Randy said that Jordin was the best singer tonight. Paula says that she is an angel and that she has a lot to be proud of. Simon told her that last week, he didn’t think she was good enough to make the finals but is now able to say she was wrong and that she wiped the floor with Blake after that song. The crowd is chanting Jordin over and over and she’s crying.

Ouch. You gotta feel bad for Blake. I don’t know if the runner-up, which he probably will be, should be subjected to public humiliation. I am wondering if the song should be more appropriate to the contestant. How would Jordin sound beat boxing? Ugh, this is why I get frustrated with this show!

Chris Daughtry performs “Home.”

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Post from: Idol Stalker