(Listen to Crush by David Archuleta. You may also read the David Archuleta Crush lyrics on this post. GannsDeen.com does not offer David Archuleta mp3’s for free download or paid downloads. If you like what you hear, please leave a comment in the Comments box. Come back to GannsDeen.com for the latest and best in Christian, country, and pop music.)

David Archuleta’s Crush has got “HIT” written all over it. The American Idol Season Seven runner-up’s first post-Idol single has a chorus that’ll stick to your head like brain candy, melt itself into your brain, and stay there for weeks, if not months, to come.

I’m particular excited because the David Cook-David Archuleta Season Seven tandem is one of the most electric winner-runner-up combos in recent memory. Both Davids will have stellar careers, and with this single, if radio warms up to it - and why shouldn’t it? It’s a great track! - we can expect a long shelf life for Crush.

Key, of course, to the success of David Archuleta’s Crush is Jive/Zomba’s sending him out to promote the heck out of this single. Meet the fans! Meet the fans!

What do you all think? Crush by David Archuleta. Hot or not?

Listen to David Archuleta Crush mp3
Crush David Archuleta lyrics after the jump. Read more

Jennifer Hudson’s Spotlight may be crawling - yeah, crawling, c’mon, J Records, put some muscle into it! - up the Billboard charts, but the Spotlight video from Jennifer Hudson is fierce. I LOVE IT. The song is growing on me - sometimes you force yourself to like a song, haha - and Miz Hudson is lookin’ fine!

Jennifer Hudson’s Spotlight video is off tha hook!

Here’s a Spotlight video interview from ET.

Here’s one of many Jennifer Hudson Spotlight remixes now cropping up on YouTube.

Here is Jennifer Hudson’s Spotlight Billboard chart performance so far:
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs - 33 with a bullet
Billboard Hot Adult R&B Airplay - 15 with a bullet

My Chris Sligh CD has arrived! Yay! Will listen to Running Back to You now and post a review by tomorrow morning at the latest. Thanks, MusiChristian.com; you’re blazing fast!

“Always Be My Baby” by David Cook is arguably the best performance this season on American Idol. I don’t think anyone could’ve taken this Mariah Carey chestnut and turned it on its head so completely and successfully, but David Cook did, and I am blown away.

Thanks to Rickey, here’s a live David Cook Always Be My Baby mp3, taken from his April 17 American Idol performance. I don’t make David Cook mp3s available for download on GannsDeen.com; instead, I encourage you to get the Always Be My Baby mp3 by David Cook from I-Tunes. Update: I’m streaming the David Cook Always Be My Baby studio track mp3 for your consideration. Please purchase a copy from I-Tunes! It’s now #1!

The studio Always Be My Baby version from David Cook

The awesome live Always Be My Baby mp3 performance by David Cook! David Cook for the win!

I haven’t blogged much about this season of American Idol, but I just caught David Cook’s performance of Always Be My Baby and it just blew me away. This competition is suddenly wide open. I am not a fan, but that he could pull off a Mariah Carey chestnut and give it an edge is just beyond me. The string section during the chorus, the power notes towards the end, and the angst-ridden finish just sealed this guy’s ridiculously strong potential. David Cook for the win!

Look at this!

Two of the top four songs played across Christian radio stations in the United States! I’m so happy! Of course, next week, we can expect these to plummet out of the charts, but still, not a bad achievement, no?

Here are seven reasons why Mandisa Hundley is HOT.

7. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for her beliefs. Y’all heard the furor with her saying that she doesn’t intend to perform at gay-targeted events because she doesn’t agree with the gay lifestyle. She also supports Beth Moore, a woman intensely hated by the gay community. People used this against her, calling her closed-minded and a lot of hurtful things. I may not agree with her stand, but I give her some credit for at least trying to be consistent.

6. She made it to the American Idol Top 12 without compromising anything. She sang songs and made them her own. She took chances and stood up for her choices. Best of all, she forgave Simon Cowell.

5. She’s beautiful. I don’t care what the haters say. Mandisa is a big, beautiful black woman with a heart on the inside as beautiful as she is on the outside.

4. She’s topped the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales chart for five weeks. Only the World is the first song - in recent memory - to top this particular chart. Believe it or not, she has more #1’s on Billboard charts than either Bo Bice, Diana DeGarmo, Blake Lewis, or Taylor Hicks.

3. She’s got the voice of an angel. The woman can SANG. If you don’t believe me, check out True Beauty, or her contributions to either Michael W. Smith’s Christmas album, the American Idol Season Five commemorative album, or the Dance Praise compilation.

2. She fights her weight battle with grace. If you read Idol Eyes, her book on faith, fat, and fame, you’ll find she struggles with weight just like any of us. (Okay, me.) I love how she’s so honest and open with her struggle. It gives all us plus-sized individuals hope.

1. She’s a God-fearing sister. In a world of Britneys and Jamie Lynn Spears, having a woman stand up for her faith and live it out as best she can is a strong testimonial to her faith and her God. I only hope I can raise Nicki to be just as strong as she.

(Um, hey folks at Mandisa’s management, you know what’d be a lovely Christmas gift for a Filipino fan who can’t order her CDs because EMI won’t ship ‘em to the Philippines? A nice signed Christmas Joy EP or a photo, an email, a phone call. Come on, folks, make a Fandisa happy.)

Just like last year’s Ayiesha Woods, my favorite Contemporary Christian act for this year has racked up a Grammy Award nomination for Favorite Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. American Idol finalist Mandisa Hundley has been recognized for her spectacular debut album, True Beauty.

She’s up against some pretty stiff competition: aside from hugely popular band Casting Crowns (The Altar and the Door), she’s also competing against perennial Christian favorite Michael W. Smith (Stand), critically acclaimed hiphop gospel producer Kirk TobyMac (Portable Sounds), and tremendously talented worship leader Israel Houghton and his group, New Breed (Another Level).

It’s a great field - I love all the nominees - but, of course, I hope the men cancel each other out and Mandisa takes home the Grammy. Hahaha! (It was a really tough field, and some of the artists who I thought were deserved the Grammy nomination for favorite pop/contemporary gospel didn’t make it, including Jeremy Camp’s brilliant Beyond Measure, Reliant K’s Five Score and Seven Years Ago, or Chris Tomlin’s See The Morning. I wouldn’t remove anyone from the current Grammy list, so maybe it’s best to keep it this way. Shame, though: Camp really deserved a nod.)

Mandisa’s True Beauty also finishes at #43 on the Top Christian albums chart for the year, while Only the World, True Beauty’s carrier single, is the 17th biggest Christian song of the year and the 18th biggest Christian AC song of the year. In the latter chart, she’s the highest ranked solo female artist; in the former chart, she’s a couple of notches behind Sparrow labelmate Britt Nicole with You.

Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson was given the Herculean task of interpreting Somewhere from West Side Story for Movies Rock!, a television special featuring fresh performances of some of the more well-loved songs from cinema. Prior to J-Hud’s version, the versions of Somewhere I’ve heard include Barbra’s version sung at the end of her 1994 concert tour, and the Natalie Wood version in the film.

I think you’ll find this version a significantly satisfactory version. Woods’ version was a poignant one, given that the just-shot Richard Beymer was dying in her arms; her version was a wistful soliloquy on star-crossed lovers doomed to a tragic end. Streisand reinvented the song to become a celebration of the diversity of man; the lyrics are sufficient to be open to interpretation both ways. I imagine Hudson’s take on Somewhere was closer to Streisand’s, and with her bombastic voice ripping into the song with gusto, there was no doubt she would pull Somewhere off with a spine-tingling, hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck-standing finale that merited a standing ovation from the live audience.

Watch the video and tell me what you think.

American Idol Season Five winner Taylor Hicks is coming to Manila for a series of mall shows in TriNoma and Greenbelt, again courtesy of the folks at the Ayala Malls. Keep posted to this particular blog as I gather up more information about Taylor Hicks’ Philippine tour.

My favorite Contemporary Christian songwriter Matthew West is ready to launch Something to Say, his third studio album, and with it, he’s released the first single, You Are Everything, which you can stream on his official website.

YOU ARE EVERYTHING IS SPECTACULAR! It’s got #1 written all over it! Call your local stations and request You Are Everything by Matthew West, you will not regret it. A power ballad in the same vein of Casting Crowns’ Who Am I, MercyMe’s I Can Only Imagine, and West’s own Only Grace, You Are Everything is an amazing lead-off single, and I have no doubt in my mind that this single will propel West back to #1, where he rightfully belongs.

As if my excitement over You Are Everything weren’t enough, Matthew posts on his blog that he’s written a song for the official soundtrack of The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, the new VeggieTales feature film from Big Idea. The name of the song is The Right Thing, and guess who’s singing it?

MANDISA!

Matthew wrote Only the World for Mandisa (as well as a couple of other tracks on her amazing debut album, True Beauty), and his relationship with the American Idol finalist has apparently gotten to the point that they collaborate so flawlessly together. Now, she’ll be singing The Right Thing, a song written by Matthew West, on the VeggieTales soundtrack!

Matthew West, Mandisa, and VeggieTales, together?! Oi vey, I’ve died and gone to heaven!