Blog: Idolator

This week was all about singing competitions —  Candice Glover   won  American Idol  while Randy Jackson  announced he'll be leaving the show , while  Christina Aguilera  and Cee-Lo Green  announced plans to reclaim their judge's seats  on  The Voice. In the world of LP drama,  Demi Lovato 's new album ,  Demi,  was met with mixed reviews — while Daft Punk  mania reached an all-time high as the French house duo released a live stream of Random Access Memories [...]

We're just a day away from watching Kanye West properly debut new material on the season finale of Saturday Night Live on May 18. No more Vine videos or shaky Hudson Mohawke footage . But first, the man who claims he's no celebrity has the very celebrity-like duty of appearing in a string of SNL promos along with host Ben Affleck and cast-member Fred Armisen . For the first one of the bunch, Yeezy is wearing a giant bandage on his forehead, [...]

The Billboard Music Awards  are doled out based on chart success, sales and touring performance, so you have to respect that they're the one awards show that's at least up front about this whole spectacle being about money and not art. But because they're based on readily available numbers, you know what you're getting. That makes the BBMAs perhaps the most unnecessary of music awards shows (all of which are unnecessary on some level). However! The Billboard Awards are also great because when you're using the charts as the metric for quality, then you only hob-knob with the [...]

By now, you've likely already read the big news that Candice Glover was crowned winner of season 122s American Idol , with fellow finalist Kree Harrison placing as runner-up after America voted on their Wednesday night finale performances . The two-hour finale came exactly four months after this season kicked off with new judges, Mariah Carey , Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban . It's been an eventful season, and not just on stage. Spats between panelists Mariah and Nicki typified almost every episode, and [...]

Did You Hear?  :: Lady Gaga is back on her feet and out of her golden wheelchair . And she's back on social media, too. The signer posted the above photo, along with the message, "It is a dangerous place where we put ART, but sacred where we make it." [ Little Monsters ] :: Demi Lovato has a five-year plan, in that she wants to be a mom in five years. "At the end of the day, yes, I want to be a musician and I have a [...]

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please welcome American Idol Season 6 contestant/guest contributor Chris Richardson , who not only live-tweeted the Idol finale from the audience for us (see a roundup of his tweets below), but also summed up the spectacle with the following recap. American Idol definitely pulls out the stops with special guests and flashy performances. A lot of excitement was built around two girls being up for the big award , from the red carpet [...]

Season 12 of American Idol premiered on January 16, and four months later to the day, Candice Glover was crowned the winner. The 23-year-old Beaufort, South Carolina native's smooth, soulful vocals helped propel her to being a favorite among this year's Idol pack early on, and her performances were more often than not praised week after week by judges Randy Jackson , Mariah Carey , Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban . Last week saw the elimination of third-place contestant Angie Miller , [...]

Robin Thicke 's got a stone-cold hit on his hands with "Blurred Lines," thanks in no small part to the relaxed raciness of the music video. And his appearance on The Voice . Oh, and having Pharrell and T.I. on the track certainly helps, too. But also, it's just a really good song! And doesn't it make you feel warm and fuzzy inside when an actual good song is successful?! Anyway, Thicke brought Pharrell along for a performance of the single on The Ellen DeGeneres Show [...]

Class is in session, and now it’s time to sit up straight and get an education! And in the case of  Pop School , it’s artists who are teaching you a lesson on their classic hits. Start taking notes! Kandi   penned some absolutely monster hits around the turn of the millennium — and while  Destiny's Child 's "Bug a Boo" wasn't her biggest (she gave the group their first Hot 100 #1 single with "Bills, Bills Bills," but "Bug a Boo" failed to match that song's chart success, peaking at #33), it [...]

Because one party is never enough and everyone knows that the fun only begins at the after party, Ciara  has released a remix for her steamy single "Body Party," featuring rapper/boyfriend  Future and platonic friend  B.o.B. What's special about this after party you might ask? Well, the beat is a bit snappier, and Future's cyborg crooning is no longer relegated to the background. As for B.o.B., he turns out a turnt up closing verse.  Join CiCi's remixed party below. [...]

• Ciara Official - Body Party Remix ft. Future and B.O.B.

Bruno Mars covers this week's Entertainment Weekly for the mag's summer music preview issue. In keeping with the "jungle" aspect of the singer's  Moonshine Jungle World Tour (which starts in June) , he's accompanied by a black leopard. As for what we can expect from his tour? "I don't think I would feel too comfortable like, wearing a harness," he joked to EW . "I want the music and the sound to be rockin', more important than the visual effects and tricks or whatnot. I don't want to get lost in that. I've [...]

The lovely  Ginny Blackmore  paid a visit to Idolator headquarters last week, and she came bearing gifts — not only a set of macaroons for our editorial team (delicious), but the greatest gift of all: the gift of song. (Bear with me!) After the songstress chatted for awhile about her origins, songwriting career and obsession with turn-of-the-millennium R&B , she turned her attention to performing her debut single, "Bones," a luminously gorgeous and aching ballad. Live, it reveals her powerful vocals and disarming stage presence; there's talent and charm to spare here. (The way she [...]

Britney Spears is scheduled to start recording her new album with will.i.am next week, according to Will himself. The Black Eyed Peas frontman is executive producing the album and told Billboard   before they hit the studio, "We've had these juicy sessions, where we've been bonding, building the trust and comfort. I've never worked like this before — not even the Peas." The multi-hyphenate previously said he planned to have several lunches with Spears to get a sense of the real Britney and "what she's [...]

Daft Punk 's  Random Access Memories has apparently sparked a civil war within the world of dance music. First, the French Robots maligned the current state of EDM , essentially calling it unimaginative. Then Diplo responded with some comical critiques of the duo's new album via Twitter . Now British DJ Fatboy Slim has stepped in to defend the album. On Wednesday, Fatboy Slim told reporters, "I love 'Get Lucky.' I think it's a breath of fresh air after all that EDM, sort of Euro stuff, it's [...]

Well! Fairytale princess  Carly Rae Jepsen  premiered her new single "Take a Picture" last night on  American Idol . Here's the good news: This means that Carly Rae Jepsen has a new single. Here's the bad news: This provides less opportunity for her to promote her objectively flawless track "Tonight I'm Getting Over You," which peaked at the blistering heights of #8 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, so everything is hopeless and there is no joy left in the world. (If it's any consolation, Wikipedia reports that the song "has become a [...]

The 2013 O Music Awards nominations are out. And reading the list will handily remind you that you are one of the olds. Unless you're not one of the olds, in which case, you'll probably hashtag the eff out of these nominations. Because the awards celebrate "the best in digital music," so of course they act like the trendy cousin and drop a bunch of inside jokes that the Grammys and Billboard Music Awards don't get but laugh at anyway. Case in point: there are categories called Our Favorite Musical Cat, Fan Army FTW and Too Much Ass For TV. We [...]

Drake  is throwing a music festival in Toronto this summer, because Canada, right? The 4th annual OVO Fest (named after his October's Very Own label) kicks off August 4 at Toronto's Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, with tickets going on sale this Friday (May 24) at 10am — and now he's fleshing out the line-up, adding  Frank Ocean  and  James Blake  to the roster. (They're both performing on August 4, while Drake will be hitting the stage with "special guests" on August 5. Last year's guests included  Nicki Minaj  and  Snoop Lion , so they'll probably be pretty good this [...]

Kanye West  had quite an evening last night at the Roseland Ballroom, where he performed a 90-minute set as part of the Adult Swim Upfront; halfway through, he went on a lively rant about his role in celebrity culture and the paparazzi (which has probably gotten much worse since The Dawn of Kimye, so sure, it would probably be on my mind, too). "I ain't no muthafuckin celebrity," he reportedly said. "There's one thing about me — I'm a terrible, terrible terrible celebrity. I don't know if you really know there's one thing about me but I'm the [...]

Ah, well. I got my hopes up so high for  Diddy 's starring role on  Downton Abbey  and it turned out that the whole thing was just a big dumb publicity stunt for the mogul's  Funny or Die   video, which was actually pretty funny, but not as funny as actually having Diddy on  Downton Abbey  would have been. But still, well played, Diddy. Well played. The sketch, coming off the heels of the announcement that  Downton Abbey  would have their first black cast member, sees Diddy joining as Lord Wolcott, the [...]

Great news for those of you who have spent the last three years furiously tweeting at  Harry Styles  to come to Brazil: He's coming to Brazil! Yes, the doe-eyed, waxen-faced nymphets of  One Direction  are heading out on a stadium tour (which is pretty nuts that 1D can pack stadiums, and yet ultimately not surprising in the least), which the "Live While We're Young" boy band announced today via a big, splashy social media campaign called "One Big Announcement," and well, it's definitely a good thing for those fans who live in South America and the [...]