The Unofficial Danny Gokey FanSite |  |
- Daughtry Arena Tour Announced
- La Toya London in "The Color Purple"
- Happy Birthday, Paris Bennett!
- Carrie Underwood Creates Hometown Foundation
- Jordin Sparks to Join Britney Spears on Tour
- Kris Allen: The ultimate interview, Part Four
| Posted: 23 Aug 2009 10:46 PM PDT Daughtry will be touring the country this fall and winter to promote their new album, Leave This Town. The 36-date arena tour will start in Topeka, Kansas on October 19 and will end this leg of the tour on December 20 in Evansville, Indiana. This summer, Daughtry went on a 13 city club tour across the United States. Meanwhile, Leave This Town debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and more than a half million copies were sold in five weeks. The album’s first single, “No Surprise,” tops No. 1 on the Hot A/C chart this week and is Daughtry’s fourth #1 hit. On Daughtry’s official website, Chris Daughtry said, “We dreamed about how it would feel playing these songs to packed arenas, and we’re excited to get our change. We have a great show planned and can’t wait to hit the road to share it with our fans.” Daughtry fans can locate tour and ticket information online at http://www.daughtryofficial.com/us/tour. Here is the confirmed tour routing with on sale dates: Tickets On Sale: Saturday, August 22
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| La Toya London in "The Color Purple" Posted: 23 Aug 2009 10:46 PM PDT Season 3’s fourth place finalist, La Toya London, has starred in the national touring production of The Color Purple since 2006. La Toya plays the part of Nettie, whereas fellow Season 3 finalist/winner Fantasia Barrino starred as Celie in the Broadway run of the show. While on tour with The Color Purple in Houston this week,La Toya opened up in an interview with The Houston Chronicle. She mentioned that the reason why so many Idols turn to a career in musical theater is because “We get to do what we love, make good money doing it, and stay active. We’re all singers. But we want to be entertainers as well. We take a stab at theater. It’s something to do while whatever else you’re trying to do (is in the works).” In the interview, La Toya also mentioned that she tries to watch American Idol as often as possible. After her run with The Color Purple has finsihed, La Toya hopes to put out another album. She released Love & Life in 2005, and has been writing songs and prepping for her next album. View photos of La Toya on American Idol’s third season.
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| Happy Birthday, Paris Bennett! Posted: 23 Aug 2009 10:46 PM PDT Season 5’s fifth place finisher, Paris Bennett, was just a teen when she made it onto the show. Paris is currently signed to her uncle’s recordlabel, 306 Entertainment. In 2007, Paris released an album titled Princess P, which is the name that Ryan Seacrest gave her during her run on American Idol. In 2008, Paris released a holiday album, A Royal Christmas, which included standards and original tracks. Currently, Paris is working on her second studio album which she plans on releasing soon. This album won’t be as R&B oriented as her previous album. Instead, it will have a classic jazz feel to it. On October 6, 2008, Paris had a baby girl named Egypt. This May, Paris walked the red carpet with fellow American Idol alumni at the Season 8 finale. This weekend, to celebrate Paris’ golden birthday (she’s turning 21 on the 21st), Paris has organized a birthday bash that will run from Thursday through Sunday. Happy Birthday, Paris! View Paris’ transformation in our Transformation Gallery.
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| Carrie Underwood Creates Hometown Foundation Posted: 23 Aug 2009 10:46 PM PDT Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood has established a newly created fund to help with causes in her hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma. The organization is known as Checotah Animal, Town, and School Foundation, or C.A.T.S. Foundation. Established this year, the C.A.T.S. Foundation will help with general causes, needs, and services in the area of Checotah to directly impact the community. Private resources will fund the assistance. Information on the C.A.T.S. Foundation’s first donation to the Checotah community will be announced soon. Carrie said, “My hometown is extremely supportive of me and I feel blessed to be able to create something as a way of giving back; to say thank you.” This September, Carrie will be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. Read more about this special honor, here. Other charities and foundations Carrie has been involved with are PETA, Humane Society of the United States, Do Something, and Stand Up to Cancer. View Carrie’s transformation in our Transformation Gallery.
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| Jordin Sparks to Join Britney Spears on Tour Posted: 23 Aug 2009 10:46 PM PDT Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks will join “The Circus Starring Britney Spears” as a special guest on the second leg of the North American tour. Jordin will perform in some cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, and Las Vegas. Jordin is stepping in to replace Ciara, and Kristinia DeBarge will join the tour for all dates as the opening act. Meanwhile, Jordin collects her fourth consecutive top 10 on the Pop Songs/Mainstream Top 40 airplay chart, as her hit single “Battlefield” climbs from 11-8. This title track off her sophomore album follows a trio of top 10s off her self-titled debut album which include “Tattoo” (#5), “No Air” (#2), and “One Step at a Time” (#3). This success makes Jordin the first Idol alumnus to storm the chart with four career-opening top 10s, even passing Season 5 finalist Chris Daughtry, whose band Daughtry had three hits that cracked the top 10 including “It’s Not Over” (#1), “Home” (#3), and “Over You” (#4). Their fourth single, “Feels LIke Tonight,” came close but peaked at #12. Jordin has been on the road with the Jonas Brothers this summer. She talks about her busy life in her MyIdol blog. We caught up with Jordin earlier this summer to find out about life since winning Idol, “Battlefield,” and more.Read the exclusive interview.
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| Kris Allen: The ultimate interview, Part Four Posted: 23 Aug 2009 10:46 PM PDT
I don't know if there was a time when I was going to give up music completely. I was going to give up trying so hard, because whether it would be playing at a church or playing at weddings or anything like that, I felt like music would always be a part of who I was, but yeah, I was totally ready. I was going back to college and was going to finish and hopefully get a decent job so me and my wife could have a comfortable life together, which would have been fine. But things worked out this way. I'm really happy. And now you're working on your first album for a major label. What is your vision for this debut release? I think the vision that I have for the first album is so hard to put into words. I know that it's going to be music that people like and something that is hopefully different than maybe people have heard in a while or maybe ever. I hope that it's something that grabs people lyrically-wise, subject matter and even musically as well, but something that's different from what people are doing right now. Are you writing songs for the album? I pushed for that. I wanted to be part of the writing process. I don't know if I can. There's so much going on right now with the tour and all that. But yeah, we've done a lot of co-writing sessions and it's been an experience because you learn from people who have been writing songs for a long time. Are you happy with how it's going so far? The first session I had went well, but the song didn't end up as something I wanted to do on the album. I was intimidated, so I didn't put my two cents in as much as I should have, and then the next one went really well and I got more comfortable. Same thing with the song though. Closer to what I wanted, but not completely there. And then I was with somebody yesterday and it was weird, but it went really well and I think it's getting there. I really do. I'm excited. Before the summer tour started, what was the biggest audience you had played for? I played for 20,000 at the home visit [to Conway, Ark., during top three week on "American Idol"]. That was definitely millions of percent bigger than anything I've ever done and it was very cool to sing in front of that many people. And then I sang at the Wal-Mart shareholders' meeting and I think there were 16,000 people there. I did the national anthem at the Lakers' game. I don't know how many people were there. But before all that stuff, maybe like 200, 300. It's a completely different energy. I had a best friend that I've been playing music with and we always talked about what it would be like to be playing in front of arenas of thousands and thousands of people. When you're singing in front of that many people, the energy they give you is so captivating that you want to give them something to cheer about. I live for that stuff. I feel like I'm a gypsy at heart. I like traveling a lot and especially with people that you become really good friends with over the year. I'm really excited about it.. Your parents were very visible on "Idol" and were clearly giving you a lot of love and support. How important was that to you? They came out for a lot of the shows, which was very supportive and it was nice to have family there. They've been amazing. I went home the other day and everything was the same and that's how they can support me the best, being the same, and it's nice to know that that's going to be there. We didn't see a lot of footage of you in the early part of the season. Do you think that helped you or hurt you? I don't know if it helped me or hurt me, but that's the way I do things, I fly under the radar. All my life, I've never been one to show off, so I don't know if it was a strategy, but it obviously worked. Being on "American Idol" brings incredible fame and celebrity. How does the actual experience compare with what you thought it might be like? I don't know if I ever had any expectations about it. It never crossed my mind. Being a star or being famous was never the intention, so it's definitely weird. People yelling outside of their cars while you're walking down the road. It's one of those things you never expected. It's flattering and very humbling too. It's nice to know that people care about you. It's great. There's no place where you can have privacy anymore – not at an airport or a restaurant … Well, there's probably a couple places, but yeah, when we go somewhere, people usually notice, but people are really nice. Through the missionary work you did when you were younger, you've already been all over the world. Do you enjoy traveling? Love it. I would like to do more stuff like that and the opportunity is bigger now to help people, to go to different places where people are having a hard time. I went to Thailand after the tsunami and helped with that and it's nice to get to know people from different countries, because they're different but they're also the same. And the coolest thing that I learned from all those trips is that I've been to a lot of places where people don't have much and they're so happy to see you and they are always wearing a smile. They'll make their best food for you and put you in their best places, which isn't great by our standards but is amazing by theirs. So it's nice to know that as much as we think we go through as Americans, there are other people around the world that go through way more and are living a better life. So doing that, I've learned about being a real person. – Fred Bronson Photo: Fox Related: Kris Allen: Finding his groove Kris Allen: Showbiz beginnings Adam Lambert: Showbiz beginnings Adam Lambert: Finding his groove Adam Lambert: The "Idol" chapter
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