danny gokey

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High Jump, Low Debut

Posted by John on March 10, 2010
Posted in: charts, singles. Tagged: , , , . 8 Comments

– How is this for making a statement? Taio Cruz’s “Break Your Heart” will jump from #53 to #1 on tomorrow’s Hot 100 chart, marking the highest jump into the top spot ever for a brand new artist. This bodes very well for Taio’s success here, and while it sounds a bit like the Akon School of Hit Singles, it still is a bit of freshness at the top of the pop charts compared to what has been there recently. According to Universal’s website, a release date will be determined in the next couple of weeks, but you have to imagine a slightly-retooled version of Rokstarr will come sooner than later. Now let’s see if Taio’s duet with Ke$ha “Dirty Picture” starts picking up airplay. There is no way that track will not end up on the US release of his album. However, whether the full-length can be a hit is a different matter…

– When is a #11 album debut considered a failure? When it is the debut CD from Jason Derulo, who has already scored two top 10 hits with “Whatcha Say” and “In My Head”. Shouldn’t that translate to at least a top 10 CD debut? I would not have bet against it, but Jason just misses this week’s top 10, coming at #11 with 42,000 units sold. Some might call this a flop, but it could actually be worse. Jay Sean’s All or Nothing debuted at a lowly #39 upon its release, despite having a similar track record on the singles side of things. Adding insult to injury, Derulo’s total was bested by the likes of Danny Gokey, whose debut CD moved 65K units. Sad, but true.

“It’s Only” Lame

Posted by John on November 6, 2009
Posted in: american idol, videos, youtube. Tagged: . 6 Comments

Gokey AudtionsSo Kris, Adam, and Alison have all dropped their first singles, which meant that Danny Gokey’s first offering couldn’t be too far behind. Courtesy of MJ’s Blog, here is “It’s Only”:

If you want to see a perfect example of someone that is so desperate for fame that they will latch on to anything that seems to resonate with the public, here’s your man. The song itself is calculated religious country at its worst, and makes “Jesus Take the Wheel” sound downright transcendent. The “whoa ah ohhh”s at the end of each chorus are just bizarre, and the desperation of trying to find a niche on the first try is palpable. Only adding to my disappointment is the fact that one of my favorite country groups, Lady Antebellum, had a hand in this by writing this drivel.

If you think that I was waiting for a flop, you might be right. I am not a fan, and his prominence in the early going was one factor that caused me to abandon ship this year. Having said that, if Gokey had come out with something stellar, I would have been the first to admit I was wrong. No surprises today, though. This is the calculated lameness that I expected from a contestant who seemed hell-bent on making it big, even on the back of his wife’s memory. Danny’s got his fans, and I am sure I will catch some grief for this, but I don’t claim to be the voice of the people, so to each their own. I am just not hopping on this crazy train.

Idols In Trouble

Posted by John on February 19, 2009
Posted in: american idol, commentary. Tagged: , , , , , . 4 Comments

You can take that title multiple ways, but they all fit. The show’s in trouble, the contestants are in trouble, the whole thing’s a cluster. Where do I start? (Maybe by stating that there are spoilers here. Don’t read if you don’t want results.)

ai8_36grp1_tatianadeltoro– How about America’s Next Top Drama Queen, Tatiana! If VH1 can hand out the title of Best Week Ever, then maybe we should award the Worst Week Ever to Ms. Del Toro. Despite the fact that she had moments of brilliance on Tuesday night (mixed in with moments of mediocrity), the judges who supposedly put her through to this round were completely SHOCKED that she could sing. She’s delusional enough to work around that, though. Tonight, on the other hand, was just downright cruel. American Idol truly slipped to a new low, as the producers held Tatiana out for the final judgment against Danny Gokey, who most have already pegged to make it to the top 2. The news had to be broken to her at some point, but the true cruelty was in following her emotional breakdown all through Danny’s repeat performance of “Hero”. It was just downright evil. Speaking of evil…

– Danny Gokey lost a LOT of points tonight. Anyone notice how smug and impatient he was while waiting for his coronation? He couldn’t have shown more contempt for Ryan if he had held a gun to Seacrest’s head and demanded to know the winner. Sorry, Danny, but there’s no editing of packages at this point of the game. The American public gets to see you, warts and all. On top of that, his closing performance of “Hero” was (to quote Simon from a few weeks ago) indulgent. Something changed between Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and I definitely don’t like it.

Michael Sarver– America gets the whole picture. While there was talk that Anoop Desai was destined for Top 12 greatness, a buzz was also building for Michael (formerly Jeremy) Sarver. The fact that the vote was so close between the two of them shows that folks took into account the full history of their performances, because if the viewers hadn’t taken that into account, Ricky Braddy should have easily had Michael’s spot in the top 3. Chances are good that both Desai and Braddy will be back for the Wildcard round.

anna-marie-boskovich-01-2009-01-27– You only get one shot. Jackie Tohn, Anne Marie Boskovich, and Brian Keith…it’s been nice knowing you. Anne Marie might make it back to the Wildcard round, but all three took major falls from contenders to also-rans based on one performance. And let’s not even get into the rest of the ladies. The guys really do have the upper hand this year, with the exception of Alexis Grace, who was miles away from her female counterparts.