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American Idol (Season 8)
The eighth season of ''American Idol'' premiered on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2009. Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson continued to judge the show's contestants, along with Ryan Seacrest as host. The season introduced Kara DioGuardi as the fourth judge on the ''Idol'' panel. It was also Abdul's final season as a judge. Kris Allen, a native of Conway, Arkansas, was announced the winner of the competition on May 20, 2009, defeating runner-up Adam Lambert after nearly 100 million votes were cast. This was the second season where both of the final two contestants had been in the bottom three or two at least once before the finale, with the first being season three. The eighth season saw numerous changes to the format of the show. There were 36 semi-finalists instead of 24, and thirteen finalists instead of twelve, nine contestants chosen by the public and four by the judges in a wild card round. Another addition was the "save," which was us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ryan Seacrest
Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American media personality and producer. He is the co-host of '' Live with Kelly and Ryan'', as well as the host of multiple media shows including ''American Idol'', ''American Top 40'', and '' On Air with Ryan Seacrest''. In 2006, Seacrest became co-host and executive producer of '' Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve''. He stayed on as host and executive producer of the annual show broadcast from Times Square in New York City following Dick Clark's death in 2012. Seacrest began co-hosting ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' on a permanent basis on May 1, 2017. Seacrest received Emmy Award nominations for ''American Idol'' from 2004 to 2013, and again in 2016. He won an Emmy for producing ''Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution'' in 2010 and was nominated again in 2012. In 2018, Seacrest received nominations for ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' in the categories of Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment as well as Outstanding Entertainment Talk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anoop Desai
Anoop Manoj Desai (born December 20, 1986) is an American singer-songwriter and actor best known for his time as a contestant on the eighth season of ''American Idol''. Desai was the first ever 13th finalist on ''American Idol'' and was the second Indian American to advance to the final stages of the show. Biography Early life Desai, an only child, was born in Cary, North Carolina. His family moved to nearby Chapel Hill in 1998. He went to Fuller GT Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina. His parents both work in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. Desai’s father, Manoj Desai, graduated from IIT Kanpur and came to the US in 1977, and his mother, Nalini Desai, studied in a college program in Navsari, Gujarat and earned her doctorate in South Africa, and works in the bio-tech field. He is fluent in Gujarati. In the 1990s, Desai appeared on the WRAL-TV (NC Triangle) television children's show, ''CentralXpress.com'', and played the character "Raj". The show won ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Top 40
''American Top 40'' (previously abbreviated to ''AT40'') is an internationally syndicated, independent song countdown radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs. The program is currently hosted by Ryan Seacrest and presented as an adjunct to his weekday radio program, '' On Air with Ryan Seacrest''. Originally a production of Watermark Inc. (later a division of ABC Radio known as ABC Watermark, now Cumulus Media Networks), ''American Top 40'' is now distributed by Premiere Networks (a division of iHeartMedia). Nearly 500 radio stations in the United States, and several other territories worldwide air ''American Top 40'', making it one of the most listened-to weekly radio programs in the world. It can also be heard on iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and the official ''American Top 40'' applications on mobile smartphones and tablets as well as on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 consoles (via iHeartRadio's console app), and the Armed Forces Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera (; ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Known for her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes, she has been referred to as the " Voice of a Generation". Aguilera rose to stardom with her eponymous debut album, for which she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her works, which incorporate feminism, sexuality, and domestic violence, have generated both critical praise and controversy, for which she is often cited as an influence by other artists. After appearing in television programs, Aguilera signed with RCA Records in 1998. Her debut album spawned three ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles — " Genie in a Bottle", " What a Girl Wants" and " Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)" — and earned her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Established as a bubblegum pop artist, she released her first Spanish recor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leona Lewis
Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved national recognition when she won the third series of '' The X Factor'' in 2006, winning a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music. Her winner's single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This", peaked at number one for four weeks on the UK Singles Chart and broke a world record by reaching 50,000 digital downloads within 30 minutes. In February 2007, Lewis signed a five-album contract in the United States with Clive Davis's record label, J Records. Lewis's success continued with the release of her debut studio album, '' Spirit'' (2007), which was certified 10× platinum in the UK and became the fourth best-selling album of the 2000s and one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history. According to the Official Charts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; (born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican indie label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By the turn of the millennium, he made a successful crossover into the mainstream English-language market. He signed a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for US$68 million with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope Records to release English albums. In 2010, Iglesias parted with Interscope Records and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Republic Records, to release bilingual albums. In 2015, he parted ways with Universal Music Group after being there for over a decade. He signed with Sony Music and his subsequent albums were to be released by Sony Music Latin in Spanish and RCA Records in English. Iglesias is one of the best-selling Latin music artists with estimated sales of over 70&n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productions and television series, Spears signed with Jive Records in 1997 at age fifteen. Her first two studio albums, '' ...Baby One More Time'' (1999) and '' Oops!... I Did It Again'' (2000), are among the best-selling albums of all time and made Spears the best-selling teenage artist of all time. With first-week sales of over 1.3 million copies, ''Oops!... I Did It Again'' held the record for the fastest-selling album by a female artist in the United States for fifteen years. Spears adopted a more mature and provocative style for her albums '' Britney'' (2001) and '' In the Zone'' (2003), and starred in the 2002 film ''Crossroads''. Spears was executive producer of her fifth studio album '' Blackout'' (2007), often referred to as her b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilary Duff
Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including seven Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, four Teen Choice Awards and two Young Artist Awards. She began her acting career at a young age, quickly being labeled a teen idol, as the title character of the television series, ''Lizzie McGuire'' (2001–2004), and in the film based on the series, ''The Lizzie McGuire Movie'' (2003). Thereafter, she appeared in numerous mainstream films such as ''Cadet Kelly'' (2002), ''Agent Cody Banks'' (2003), '' Cheaper by the Dozen'' (2003) and ''A Cinderella Story'' (2004). She later appeared in independent films playing a wider range of adult-themed roles, such as '' War, Inc.'' (2008), ''According to Greta'' (2009), and ''The Haunting of Sharon Tate'' (2019), inspired by the real-life Tate–LaBianca murders. From 2015 to 2021, Duff starred as Kelsey Peters in TV Land’s longest-running original series '' Younger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her music has incorporated genres such as pop, rock, R&B, gospel, and classical music. Born into a large family in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in her home country with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s. She first gained international recognition by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland. After learning to speak English, she signed on to Epic Records in the United States. In 1990, Dion released her debut English-language album, '' Unison'', establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world. Her recordings since have been mainly in English and French alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Idol (season 7)
The seventh season of ''American Idol'', the annual reality show and singing competition, began on January 15, 2008, and concluded on May 21, 2008. Ryan Seacrest continued to host the show with Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson returning as judges. David Cook was announced the winner of the competition on May 21, 2008, defeating runner-up David Archuleta by a margin of roughly 12 million votes out of over 97 million, which was at that time the highest recorded vote total in the show's history. The split was 56 to 44%. The seventh season was the first season during which neither the winner nor the runner-up was ever in the bottom group during any week before the finale on May 21, 2008. It was also the second season during which both the winner and the runner-up were male contestants, with the second season being the first. Changes from past seasons Prior to the start of the seventh season, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe admitted that the sixth season had placed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Darnell
Michael H. Darnell (born 1962) is an American television executive and former child actor. He is currently the president of unscripted and alternative television at Warner Bros. He spent nearly 19 years at the FOX network as president of alternative entertainment, overseeing the network's reality television division during the genre's rise. In 2017, Preston Beckman, a former FOX executive who writes under the pseudonym The Masked Scheduler, called Darnell "the king of reality TV and one of the more interesting, offbeat characters ever to occupy an executive suite."' Early life and career Mike Darnell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Eileen and Doyle E. Darnell. His father was a policeman, and Darnell was raised and attended public school in Philly's Northeast section. When he was 10, a talent manager saw him singing at a Police Athletic League event and encouraged him to do commercials. When he was 12, his family moved to California, where he eventually appeared in, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hung
William Hing Cheung Hung (; born January 13, 1983) is a Hong Kong motivational speaker and former singer who gained fame in 2004 as a result of his unsuccessful audition singing Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the television series ''American Idol''. At the time of his audition, Hung was a civil engineering student at UC Berkeley. After his spirited audition to be the next ''American Idol'', he won the support of many fans, ironically, based on his perceived lack of musical talent. Hung voluntarily left university to pursue a music career. His recording career was marked by negative critical reaction. He brought his own career as a musician to an end when in 2011 he accepted a job opportunity as a technical crime analyst for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and decided to pursue law enforcement. Since then, Hung has reflected positively on his pop music career. Personal life Hung is a 73rd generation descendant of Confucius. Afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
