IdolPhenomena

Today's IdolBirthdays start off by bringing us back to 2008 and American Idol's 7th Season. It is here that we met Joanne Borgella. It was that year she made the Top 24 only to be cut in the first semi-final rounds. Not only is Joanne a singer/songwriter but she is also an actress, a jewelry designer and she is signed to Whilhelmina Models in NYC, Miami and LA. She is also the 2005 winner of Mo'Nique's Fat Chance pageant. Joanne has bee the face of Torrid, Ashley Stewart, Wal-Mart and Kohls department stored and has had ads featured in Seventeen, Essence and InStyle. Today IdolPhenomena would like to wish this incredibly versatile artist a Happy 28th Birthday!!! Check Joanne's Official site dedicated to her jewelry here. You can also check out Joanne's Top 24 performance of I Say A Little Prayer here.


Our next birthday brings us to this years season of American Idol Season 9. Zoya Shpigelman auditioned in Boston, MA where she was said to be a very talented singer with genuine sincerity and purity in her voice. Unfortunately for us she wasn't featured during the Hollywood rounds. Today we would like to wish her a Happy 21st Birthday.

Next we are moving from American Idol to Canadian Idol's 6th Season. It is from that season that we meet finalist Mark Day. It was here in 2008 that Mark made it all the way to the Top 7. At that time Mark was a student in Portugal Cove, NL. Follow this link to see Mark's performance of Alone from the semi-final rounds. Today we would like to wish Mark a Happy 22nd Birthday.


For all the Idol alumni celebrating we would like to wish them the best. We hope that they had days spent with family and close friends.

IdolPhenomena would like to send out the following birthday wishes.
First we would like to wish American Idol Season 8 Contestant Danielle "Danii" Roundtree Happy Birthday. Danii has received numerous awards which include the NAACP ACT-SO gold medal award for vocal performance and composition, the Gold Coast Jazz society top scholarship winner vocal performance, as well as the World Tour scholarship vocal performance top winner. She did the impossible in 2008 by conquering the title of MISS NEW YORK USA 2008, beating out 147 women from all over the great state of New York (The first Black woman to do so in over 10 years.) Danii, was recently featured in the summer of 2008 in her professional acting New York debut in BROADWAY’S RISING STARS 2- an inspiring show that showcased Broadway’s future leading men and women.. Most recently, Danii was chosen as one of the top 100 people out of the 103,000 people who auditioned for the Season 8 of American Idol. She is now working with some of the industry’s top heavy hitters on her debut album. The legendary Clifton "Specialist" Dillon, Angelo Ellerbee, Shomari "Sho" Dillon, Tony "CD" Kelly, Eddison "Electrik" Sainsbury, LaFo Productions, BlockStar Productions, and a host of others. She is also making her mark as a songwriter writing tracks for several signed recording artists. Check out her fan MySpace here.

We would also like to wish American Idol Season 7 Contestant Rachael Wicker-Swayze a Happy Birthday. Rachael is an American Idol top-70 finalist, Dallas Talent Expo winner and former Miss Kansas City and Miss Kansas Starlet, Rachael performs weekly for crowds of 500+ on the Country Music Opry Circuit. Check out her Music MySpace here.

Today we would also like to wish a Happy Belated 20th Birthday to American Idol Season 7 contestant Tonesha Sanders. She's appeared on many other shows like Jenny Jones, Maury and Showtime At The Apollo.

Happy Birthday to all of you we wish you all the best.

In May 2010, Nashville and the state of Tennessee were devastated by historic flooding that caused over $1 billion in damage and killed more than 30 people.

Two weeks later, over 40 Nashville artists and musicians joined together with a production/engineering team and film crew to record the flood relief song “City of Dreams”. All participants and facilities donated their services and all proceeds from the song will benefit the Red Cross.

Check out City of Dreams here.

Baylie Brown of American Idol Season 6 was one of the many Nashville artists to join together check her out in the City of Dreams music video.

Check out JRA's impromptu cover of Airplanes.

Check out Ben's Tuesday Cover Tune for Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me.

So here it the American Idol Season 9 Finale it’s totally one of the RealityTV events a lot of people have been waiting for. I feel like tonight has a ton of hype behind it but will the two-hour finale ultimately live up to that hype?

Tonight’s Finale starts off with Ryan’s basic introductory routine…. And it leads right into the Top 12’s performance of School’s Out. Dressed in their “school uniforms” they are joined on stage by a bunch of school children with their faces painted; and to top it all off Alice Cooper. Am I the only one that finds school children and Alice Cooper on stage together completely and utterly awkward??? Wait is that Orianthi playing the electric guitar. I’m not sure that was the best way to start the night however as disappointing as the whole season has been I wouldn’t have expected anything more.

Up next was Kris Allen my least favorite of all the winners but please for the love of all things good someone needed to shut Ryan’s mic off. It totally ran into the intro of Kris’ performance. How unfortunate. This was followed by Siobhan Magnus and Aaron Kelly singing How Dee is Your Love featuring the BeeGees. Does anyone else think that Robin Gibb is totally what Aaron is going to look like in let’s say 40yrs??? – Ooo a David Hasslehoff sighting in the audience… I feel so lame for announcing this-LOL. Big Mike Takes It to the Streets with Michael McDonald. So I’m sitting here asking myself is it bad that I don’t know who Michael McDonald is??? What would ever poses the producers to have Dane Cook at the finale I will never know. However his “Simon Says” song was totally priceless and to see people like Normand Gentle, Tatiana or Christina Tolisano (Star Wars Girl) and the Brittenum Twins at the end of it totally unneeded and that Ian guy with his ‘tude totally ruined it. But my fav insult in the song was by far is, “You came across like a background singer for a background singer.” –LOL

Next the Top 6 Girls take the stage with their version of Beautiful. And yes Lacey was absolutely beautiful tonight and both her and Paige’s vocals were amazing. Oh yeah Katie totally rocked all of her solos she is amazing… and was totally my pick to win;-). The move from Beautiful to Fighter ala Christina Aguilera was amazing. But God only knows what was going on stage while Christina was singing. I didn’t know whether to think she was singing or having some weird musical spasm. But she was still amazing as ever. She definitely showed the contestants how things should be done.Whoever chose these songs must be smokin’ something … a song about collect calls really… at least that what I got out of it-LOL. Maneater with Hall and Oates… fabulous.

Now after waiting what a whole hour Crystal takes the stage with Alanis Morisette. She is absolutely shinning tonight. And I totally feel extra 90s for all the musical choices. Carrie Underwood follows up with her single Undo It. She is definitely the most amazing of all the Idol winners . I love how Kris Allen thinks he’s a car salesman ;-). My Wish totally awkward weird car video thing…. This awkward thing was followed another awkward thing… Brett Michaels and Casey James performing Every Rose Has Its Thorns…. Weird. Lee DeWyze takes the stage with Chicago. Defnitely chose some good correspondents with Janell Wheeler and Matt Rogers. I feel like my night was officially complete when General Larry Platt took the stage with his dancers but nothing prepared me for William Hung getting in on the Pants on the Ground experience…. OMG. Oh Paula you talk way to long. Your rambling makes me want to sleep however I miss it because it makes absolutely no sense. Next I would say the most emotional point in the show second to the announcement of the winner was the Tribute to Simon Cowell. Several of the past winners and finalist sang together we are one. Tonight the stage welcomed past winners Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia, Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks, Taylor Hicks, and Kris Allen. As well as past finalists like; Kimberly Caldwell, Mikahlah Gordon, Anoop Desai, Jason Castro, Melinda Doolittle, Kristy Lee Cook, Constantine Maroulis, Bo Bice, Elliot Yamin, Blake Lewis, Ace Young, Michael Johns, Justin Guarini, David Archuleta, Diana DeGarmo, Matt Giraud, Chris Richardson, Alison Iraheta and Some Blonde I Don’t Remember-LOL.

After the commercial the Top 12 minus Lee& Crystal segway into a Janet Jackson performance of her single Nothing. This is followed by a Lee & Crystal performance along with Joe Cocker of I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends. And finally after that performance what we’ve been waiting for two hours and 5 minutes to hear. Lee DeWyze is announced as this year’s winner. Personally I am not surprised I was hoping though for this to be a “girl’s year” however there’s always next year. Beautiful Day was a really good song choice for his winning single. And yet I am still partial to those new songs that have been the winners single in the past. Like No Boundaries, A Moment Like This and Flying Without Wings. But overall Lee totally deserved to win he has grown so much throughout the course of this contest. I personally can’t wait to see what the future has to offer him. I already have one of his Pre-Idol albums and I think it’s amazing so I can only imagine what he can produce with the connections this experience will provide him with. Oh yeah you can check out Crystal and Lee’s Official sites which were released today. Also watch the IdolPhenomena Blog for updates on your favorite finalists and contestants from each Idol Season.

In about 30Mins from now they will start the finale show; reflecting on lasts night’s performances their both stars in their own right. They’ve come so far and we’ve enjoyed watching them weekly. Whether it be watching Lee’s growth week –to-week or admiring Crystal’s consistency. Each contestant I feel deserves to win because each in my opinion is truly artist. They both have a lot to offer the public and the music industry. Since about the Top 5 part of the season I’ve had my mind set on a Lee/Bowersox finale. Before this point I did have some other thoughts but now I don’t feel they matter. There are both confirmed performances and rumors that have been surrounding tonight’s finale for the past week. One thing I know for certain is that I am excited to see the Top 12 reunited on that stage. I can’t wait to see their performance. I know there are tons of Idol alumni at that show tonight and as a fan… of the show for a long time I wish I was there doing what I love to do; which is meeting them and seeing where Idol has led them in their career today. But unfortunately I will be one of the many people watching from home – But that’s okay too. So with that said I know I have been failing to do my regular posting which is not affiliated with the current running AI show however as we go into the summer…. I promise to bring that stuff back to the IdolPhenomena blog as well as all those rumors/spoilers about next year’s up can coming season of American Idol Season 10. On another note from me here at the blog I wish Lee, Crystal, the Top 12 and all of the guest performers good luck for a great show… break a leg. ;-)