Via www.reuters.com

Credit: Reuters/Jason Redmond

(Reuters) - Former "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert pushed his fellow "Idol" alum off the top spot of the Billboard 200 chart on Wednesday to score his first No. 1 album with "Trespassing."

Lambert's second studio album sold 77,000 copies in its first week, a significantly lower debut than Underwood's "Blown Away" debut two weeks ago, which sold 267,000 copies to score the top spot on the chart.

"Blown Away" fell to No. 3 this week, behind Adele's juggernaut "21," which added a further 63,000 copies to its phenomenal sales record this week.

Lambert joins six other former "Idol" contestants who have topped the album chart -- Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry and Scotty McCreery.

Comedy rockers Tenacious D, comprising actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass, made an impressive debut at No. 5 with their third studio album "Rize of the Fenix," selling 44,000. Baltimore atmospheric pop band Beach House scored their highest debut to date with their fourth studio album "Bloom" at No. 7.

Fox's musical TV show "Glee" made its lowest chart debut to date, as their season 3 finale's "Graduation Album" sold 39,000 copies and clocked in at No. 8.

Newcomer Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen broke Gotye's long-running streak at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart with her infectious single "Call Me Maybe," which she performed at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" featuring Kimbra fell to No. 2, while the rest of the top five was rounded out by Maroon 5's "Payphone" featuring Wiz Khalifa, Nicki Minaj's "Starships" and fun.'s "We Are Young," featuring Janelle Monae, in that order.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Via www.gmanetwork.com

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

After a record-breaking 132.3 million votes cast by viewers Wednesday (PHL time), Phillip Phillips was named on Thursday (PHL time) the new “American Idol.”

The guitar-playing Phillips, 21, from Leesburg, Georgia, has consistently done well in the competition, and bested 16-year-old Jessica Sanchez, a Filipino-Mexican-American who grew up in Chula Vista, California.

Phillips was favored to win by some quarters, saying he fits the “White Guy With Guitar” type that has characterized recent winners of “American Idol,” among them David Cook, Kris Allen, and Lee DeWyze.

Earlier on the show Thursday (PHL time), Sanchez said, “I’m thrilled” when host Ryan Seacrest asked them how she felt. Phillips said, “I’m excited,” and said he had about nine hours of sleep.

The top 12 finalists sang “Runaway Baby” by Bruno Mars. Later, the women finalists sang with Chaka Khan the R&B icon's hits such as “Through the Fire” and “I’m Every Woman.”
The male finalists, meanwhile, sang with Neil Diamond hits like “Sweet Caroline," and later, a string of Bee Gees songs in honor of Robin Gibb, who recently passed away.

Via www.reuters.com

Jessica Sanchez 

By Jill Serjeant

(Reuters) - Jessica Sanchez, the teen with the big voice, chose power ballads while Phillip Phillips went with an indie vibe as the two diverse "American Idol" finalists sang on Tuesday for the hearts and votes of America.

Sanchez, 16, bidding to become the youngest ever winner of America's most-watched TV show, was deemed ahead after performing songs made famous by Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.

But it was acoustic guitar-playing Phillips who brought all three judges to their feet at the end of the performance finale.

Via music.yahoo.com

From the special Sunday San Diego episode's manly locale on the USS Midway aircraft carrier, to its soundtrack of the manly Top Gun theme "Danger Zone," to its increased amount of Steven Tyler swearing, to its first audition featuring a modern-day Vargas girl in a teensy-weensy red white & blue bikini, to its final audition by a manly mechanic named "Wolf" who covered CCR and Johnny Cash, it was obvious that "American Idol" producers were hoping to hook male viewers who'd stuck around after Sunday afternoon's NFL playoff game. And the tactic just might have worked.

Once again, this was an episode heavy on impressive singers, some of which may have roped in a few new fans. And among those impressive singers was one who probably had some longtime Fox viewers, male and female alike, feeling all nostalgic, as Jim Carrey's 24-year-old daughter, Jane Carrey, tried out in front of Jim's old "In Living Color" Fly Girl castmate, Jennifer Lopez. ("I was 2 when you were on TV together," Jane told J.Lo; Jennifer, surprisingly uninsulted, gave her a golden ticket anyway.) Wow, the daughter of the Truman Show star on an ACTUAL reality show? How very meta! And also, what great television.

Below is a full roundup of who sailed straight from the USS Midway to Hollywood...

Ashley Robles - This girl seemed to be ticking all the boxes here: single-mom back story (she works five jobs, including one as a DJ), a precocious 5-year-old daughter who dreams of being a Fly Girl and loves J.Lo's "On The Floor," a button-cute face and figure, and, most importantly, the ability to actually pull off an ambitious audition song like "I Will Always Love You." Steven told her, "You are gonna be big." I'm kind of surprised that Ashley isn't big already.

Jayrah Gibson - Jayrah is an R&B songwriter who was once told he should just stick to penning songs for others because he cannot sing himself. Of course, when Jayrah revealed this, I thought it was all a setup for a classic bad, William Hungian audition. (Oh, "Idol." Eleven seasons in, and you still keep on fooling me. Kudos.) As it turned out, whoever told Jayrah he couldn't sing clearly couldn't hear. Jayrah can sing, quite well, and judging by the snippet he warbled of an original ditty he wrote for J.Lo, "Shake Your Moneymaker," he's not a bad writer, either. Honestly, I liked his "Moneymaker" bit better than his "real" audition, of Musiq Soulchild's "Just Friends," but I enjoyed him all the way through, and as Randy Jackson pointed out, it has been WAY too long since a major R&B star came out of "Idol." It's time for that to change, and maybe Jayrah is the man who can make it happen.

Ali Shields - I can't decide if this geek girl will be tons of fun on the show, or if she'll just be so annoying that I'll be praying for her to get cut on day one of Hollywood Week. (Probably the latter.) Ali's done her goofball-shtick act on national television before: She wrote a song about ex-"Idol" judge Ellen DeGeneres that landed her a cameo on Ellen's talk show, and then Ellen dispatched Ali to be a reporter at the American Music Awards, where Ali used some dorky never-been-kissed sob story to coerce kisses out of sympathetic pop stars like Mike Poesner and Usher. By the time I finished watching Ali's bio reel featuring all of her "Ellen" and AMAs footage, I was already tired of her, and I expected she'd get a kissoff from the judges once she auditioned for "Idol," that she'd be a novelty act at best. I personally preferred her jokey rap of Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now" over her more serious rendition of Corinne Bailey Rae's "Like A Star" (although I found it a little offensive when Randy ordered her to "ghetto dance," and she stuck her booty out like a stripper), but for whatever reason, the judges liked her and put her through. My prediction now is she'll get eliminated early, then she'll be brought back as an "Idol" correspondent for the finale. I have a feeling that was Ali's real agenda from the start, anyway.

Aubree Dieckmyer - Here was one gorgeous girl sure to please male viewers...so gorgeous, in fact, that she kept accidentally saying she was trying out for "America's Next Top Model"! Oops. This made me instantly dislike her, and when she encouraged Steven's icky flirting, that also had me prematurely writing her off as a probable reject. I say "prematurely" because once Aubree started singing...she was great! Her "Feeling Good" audition was actually my favorite of the night; her voice had a truly lovely, fragile quality to it that got me feeling all gooey and goosepimply inside. So not so fast, Tyra Banks: Aubree may be pretty good at smizing at Steven, but if she keeps singing like this, she'll be on "Idol" for a while and won't be signing up for "ANTM" any time soon.

Kyle Crews - This 19-year-old UC Berkeley frat boy claimed to be a ladies' man, but honestly, I think David "Mister Steal-Your-Girl" Leathers Jr. from the Savannah auditions might have a better chance at being an "Idol" heartthrob, even if Kyle did cheesily dedicate Monica's "Angel Of Mine" to J.Lo and serenade her throughout. I just found Kyle to be Wonderbread-bland, and I was shocked--shocked!--when Steven told him he was the "best male voice we've heard so far." Kyle looked as shocked as I was, actually. Maybe all the loud background airplane noise marring the San Diego auditions rendered Steven temporarily deaf or something.

Jane Carrey - The aforementioned daughter of Jim, Jane talked wistfully about living in her famous father's shadow and how difficult it was for her to establish her own identity as a performer. At first I was slightly turned off by this; I mean, after seasons of single parents, widowers, orphans, illness and accident survivors, struggling artists living out of cars (or tents), etc., "My dad is an A-list millionaire actor" didn't seem like a very heartstring-tugging sob story. But then Jane sang, and all was forgiven. Her soulful cover of Bonnie Raitt's "Something To Talk About" showed raw promise, and when she called her dad after she got her golden ticket and he sounded so elated and supportive, it warmed my heart. I was dumb and dumber to doubt this girl. (Heh.)

via pollpigeon.com

Via pep.ph

Prior to accepting TV5's offer to headline the network's newest soap opera, American Idol alumnus and season seven runner-up David Archuleta had visited the Philippines three times.

These visits were very brief, less than 24 hours each, only enough to do concerts, or to promote his albums.


But those short stays were more than enough for the young singer to experience what the country offers.

He readily admits that, from these visits, it's really more fun in the Philippines.


In an interview by PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal) last week, David did not hesitate to relate the reasons why he thinks the Philippines is more fun.

For one, he says, the fans are warmer here than anywhere else.


"I feel very comfortable with just the people," says the 21-year-old
matinee idol. "I feel that fans are very warm here. That's why I feel
that it would be a comfortable experience here."



He adds, "For me, the number one thing about any place is people.
That's what interests me, and what I remember the most anywhere I go.

"Especially here, I feel comfortable here, the people here are very
friendly, and they're very supportive as well.



"I could safely say that I always have a blast when I come to the
Philippines, so it's always fun to me when I come to the Philippines."



Asked to name Filipino things that excite him whenever he's in the country, David was quick to mention the food, the tourist spots, and the unforgettable experiences.


The food that David pleasantly remembers and has tasted in his past visits are tokwa't baboy, sisig, and papaitan.



"They're all good," he says with delight.



During his short stint, this time, in the country, David hopes to visit the best tourist spots, but he's concerned that he just won't have the time.