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Wednesday, October 8, 2008
10/9: Kellie Pickler suffered year-long depression
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People magazine apparently is the place for “American Idol” contestants to spill their guts. (Certainly it isn’t me!)
Kellie Pickler, whose latest CD debuted last week at No. 9 with 43,000 copies sold (compared to 79,000 for her first album but not a bad performance nowadays), suffered from a year-long depression, she told People.
[She] suffered severe reactions to anti-depressant pills after struggling with family problems and an emotional breakup from her boyfriend, hockey player Jordin Tootoo.
“Everything in my professional life seemed great,” says the former American Idol contestant, 22. “But in my personal life, I was just crumbling.”
Her dad had gone back to jail and she had to deal with her mom, subject of her song “I Wonder.” Her new boyfriend, Nashville songwriter Kyle Jacobs, had helped her balance her life again.
-Here’s Jennifer Hudson doing “Spotlight” on “Dancing With the Stars”:
-Here’s a roundup of how songs performed this week in Radio & Records on radio:
Jordin Sparks Her single “One Step At a Time” peaked at No. 3 on the Top 40 chart, with Pink’s “So What” supplanting it this week on the “Radio & Records” chart. It’s now at No. 4 and Leona Lewis’ “Better in Time” will supplant it next week. Download chart places the song at 43 with 43K sold and 790K total. “No Air” has now sold 2.51 million copies. Her album sold 5K and 927K total. It’s going to be a slow slog to 1 million.
David Archuleta and his song “Crush” is losing momentum. He only gained 125 extra spings this week and his song slips back to 15 from 14. It’s now sold 633K in downloads and ranks No. 16.
Daughtry with “What About Now” edges up to No. 19 from 21 with a modest gain in airplay as well. He has sold 7K for the week and 4.24 million total.
David Cook and his coronation song “Time of My Life” is dropping slowly, down to 38 from 36. The song is still top 3 on the Q100 countdown list here locally and No. 71 nationally in downloads (933K total sold so far). His new song “Light On” is just starting to get radio airplay but debuts at No. 8 on the download chart, according to Idol Chatter with 109,000 copies sold.
Carrie Underwood breaks into the top 5 as usual with “Just a Dream” at No. 4 on the country chart. It sold 21K on the download chart and 250K total. “Carnival Ride” sold 9K and 2.36 mil total.
Bucky Covington continues to gain airplay but slips back to 17 from 16 with “I’ll Walk.”
Kellie Pickler moves up to No. 25 from 26 with “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful.” It sold 9K and 95K total. Her likely next single (and guaranteed to be a bigger hit) “Best Days of Your Life” sold 8K.
Kristy Lee Cook gutted herself into the top 40 at No. 40 with “15 Minutes of Shame.” Her album in its third week sold just 2,500 copies and 16K total, falling off the Billboard top 200.
Josh Gracin is stuck at 48 with “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)”
Jennifer Hudson (who debuted at No. 2 on the album chart) holds at No. 6 on the urban chart with “Spotlight.” It remains at No. 1 on the urban AC chart. The new album boosted the single’s sales to 38 from 99 and 31K for the week and 177K total.
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10/8: Taylor Hicks to release new indie album in early 2009
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Taylor Hicks, dumped by J Records earlier this year, is set to release a new album via the indie route in February, 2009.
Hicks, going on a national tour of “Grease” to sing “Beauty School Dropout” as Teen Angel starting December 2, will be releasing the still-untitled album through the indie company Artist to Market with an assist from his own label, Modern Whomp Records, to “connect more directly with audiences,” according to [E! online.]http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b32785idolstaylorhicksgoes_indie.html)
Tommy Lee, Dolly Parton and Sinead O’Connor have used Artist to Market.
-Jennifer Hudson sold a very solid 225,000 copies of her album “Spotlight” her first week, more than Jordin Sparks did her first week and quite respectable, according to hitsdailydouble. Billboard and SoundScan report 217,000. She came in No. 2 behind Atlanta’s T.I.
-David Archuleta has signed with Azoff Management but his dad Jeff will be comanager. Azoff also reps the Eagles, Christina Aguilera and Neil Diamond, according to [ew.com]http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/10/david-archuleta.html?xid=rss-hollywoodinsider-20081007-David%20Archuleta%20signs%20with%20Azoff%20Management). 19 Entertainment passed on him, as it did on several other runners up. As MJ noted, 19 Entertainment no longer reps any runners up.
-Elliott Yamin, who sold more than 50,000 copies of his Christmas EP last year at Target, is tilling that field again with “My Kind of Holiday,” which is basically a fatter version of the Target release. And this one’s available everywhere.
