1. It was the first major open-air concert I’d ever attended. Ang daming tao! (There were so many people.) There were naysayers who said Kris wouldn’t be able to attract a crowd, but boy, those naysayers should’ve been there. Praise God it didn’t rain.

2. The crowd seemed strangely subdued. After each number of any of the featured artists, there would be wild applause, but they died down pretty quickly. I’ll bet that won’t happen at Super Junior. Those fans are crazy. (Don’t worry, kasama ako jan.)

3. Alejandro Manzano of Boyce Avenue has a truly terrific voice. It held well, especially during the sing-alongs. My wife crushed on every single member of the band. Except the fourth dude who drummed, because the camera didn’t get him well. I’ll bet if it did, she’d probably crush on him too.

4. Throwing teddy bears into the crowd. Nice touch, Boyce Avenue.

5. Jabbawockeez. HOT HOT HOT. My body was aching just watching them dance. Favorite routine of the night: Masculinity skit and romance segment with lady of the night.

6. Lady of the night = noona. No, wait, ahjumma. Tsk tsk. I guess the Jabbas can’t see very well with those masks on.

7. Channel [V] VJs generally good. Did their best to warm up the crowd. Georgina is so beautiful. I would’ve screamed her name, but my wife was beside me and she knows kung fu (and a lot of other oriental words).

8. “Audience participation” featured professional singer Chris Cayzer. Namangha ang buong audience sa galing ng boses at sa cuteness ng mukha.

9. I love Kris Allen. I really, really do. His audience rapport is terrific, and he just glows with such energy. Terrific job on Red Guitar, Live Like We’re Dying, Before We Come Undone, The truth, Heartless, and, of course, Ain’t No Sunshine. Worth every centavo we didn’t pay for. (Thanks again, Ro!)

10. I was really happy for this girl who flew in from Malaysia. She sang Live Like We’re Dying and won a free signed CD from Kris. She was then selected later on to dance with him onstage, and before she left the stage, she asked for a hug and got it. Some people have all the luck.

Once again, praise God for blessings. I got Silver tickets from a dear friend. Let’s believe for Backstreet Boys tickets next, shall we? :D

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This year is for You, Lord! We’re gonna do amazing things together!

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Carrie Underwood has sold over ten million copies of her first two albums, and has established herself as a country superstar. She hosts the Country Music Association Awards on November 11 with Brad Paisley. Mark Bright, who produced her sophomore set, Carnival Ride, returns to produce.

Brian Mansfield, USA Today’s Idol Chatter music columnist, says a single should be out soon, which is great. (WikiPedia says it will be a track called Cowboy Casanova. Ick, really? An all-out country music song for the first single? So we’re not getting a crossover carrier pop hit like So Small or Jesus Take The Wheel?) Oh well, I still can’t wait to hear whatever Carrie’s coming out with. After the horrific misstep with I Told You So, which ruined Carrie’s perfect streak of four #1′s from Carnival Ride (my bet for a fifth single was The More Boys I Meet, but no one listens to me), anything would sound good.

Woohoo, go, Carrie Underwood!

Via Rickey.

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I’ve never been a Daughtry fan, and I like rock like I like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but No Surprise is surprisingly good. (Reviews for the single have been mixed, but at least more people are open to it than others). Daughtry collaborated with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger for this song, and I think that Kroeger’s influence – you can’t go wrong when you’ve had five #1 songs on the rock charts, talk about street cred – shows clearly with the anthemic chorus, the driving guitars, and the soaring bridge. It sounds like Daughtry, but has shades of Nickelback. I think it bodes well for Daughtry’s career to have a great first single from a sophomore album like this. What do you think? Give it a listen and post your thoughts in the comments.

Listen to No Surprise by Daughtry
No Surprise Lyrics after the jump.

NO SURPRISE Lyrics
Daughtry

I’ve practiced this for hours, gone round and round
And now I think that I’ve got it all down
And as I say it louder, I love how it sounds
Cause I’m not taking the easy way out
Not wrappin’ this in ribbons
Shouldn’t have to give a reason why

It’s no surprise I won’t be here tomorrow
I can’t believe that I stayed till today
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we’ll find this was no surprise

It came out like a river once I let it out
When I thought that I wouldn’t know how
Held onto it forever, just pushing it down
Felt so good to let go of it now
Not wrapping this in ribbons
Shouldn’t have to give a reason why

It’s no surprise I won’t be here tomorrow
I can’t believe that I stayed till today
There’s nothing here in this heart left to borrow
There’s nothing here in this soul left to say

Don’t be surprised when we hate this tomorrow
God knows we tried to find an easier way
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we’ll find this was no surprise

Our favorite place we used to go
The warm embrace that no one knows
The loving look that’s left your eyes
That’s why this comes as no,
As no surprise

If I could see the future and how this plays out
I bet it’s better than where we are now
But after going through this
It’s easier to see the reason why

It’s no surprise I won’t be here tomorrow
I can’t believe that I stayed till today
(stayed till today)
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we’ll find this was no surprise

Our favorite place we used to go
The warm embrace that no one knows
The loving look that’s left your eyes
But I know in time we’ll find this was no surprise

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With his victory the other day, Kris becomes the first-ever American Idol contestant that I’ve ever supported from start to finish. As you can see, I’m a happy camper.

Yet I can’t also help but feel badly for runner-up Adam Lambert, whose undeniable talent and polished sense of personal style won the American public over, but not enough to clinch the victory over the scrappy underdog Allen. Lambert was all but expected to run away with the title of American Idol, and I’m sure his loss was quite a blow, despite the brave face he put up.

I can understand the bitterness of Lambert supporters; I’ve been there. I know what it’s like when a singer who I deem superior loses to one who I deem inferior. Taylor Hicks over Mandisa or Elliott Yamin? Fantasia Barrino over Jennifer Hudson? Jordin Sparks over Melinda Doolittle? To a certain extent, Ricky Braddy could’ve been this year’s American Idol if only on the basis of sheer vocal prowess. Let’s not forget that while American Idol is a singing competition, it is a popularity-based singing competition. As we’ve learned in the past, however, victory in this competition is no indicator of immediate – or long-lasting – success. Ruben Studdard dropped an album, Love Is, a few weeks ago, and the Velvet Teddy Bear’s sales aren’t looking very impressive. Elliott Yamin’s Fight for Love debuted at #26 last week, a far cry from the #3 entry of his self-titled debut. Even Mandisa’s Freedom performed a little less than True Beauty. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We all hope our favorite singers in these competitions do well enough to have solid careers after the show, but we know the industry – and the fans – are fickle and rarely forgiving.

If someone I supported was robbed, it’s only human nature for me to say he was robbed. Adam’s fans are merely voicing out their frustration. Me, I just say, congratulations, Kris, because you have the title, and good luck, too, because you have to deal with that sappy saccharine single. (There are No Boundaries to which Idol producers will sink to milk an inspirational coronation song dry.) Congratulations, Adam, because you don’t necessarily have to deal with that single, but more importantly, many doors have been opened up to you as a result of your exposure on American Idol.

The competition is over. Let’s support our favorite singers and help build them long-lasting careers. That’s what matters now.

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Cathy and I first came across this discussion as a result of what happened with Susan Boyle, whose Britain’s Got Talent performance has taken the online world by storm. In a matter of days, the erstwhile unknown British charity worker was propelled from underdog to odds-takers’ overwhelming favorite to win the competition, with her video now receiving over 12,000,000 hits. (No fast cash payday loans for this lady; she’s unemployed!) When a video goes viral, that’s great news for the video’s subject (and, hopefully, the video director). It is a golden opportunity for a struggling artist to get her/his foot in the door.

However, there’s the flipside: what happens to the artist who doesn’t take the world by storm?

Take Mandisa, for example. My favorite Contemporary Christian female singer’s sophomore album, Freedom, sold 5,000 copies, which was 12% less than the previous week, but good enough for 154th best-selling album in the United States this week. 5,000 copies is nothing to sneeze at, especially given today’s difficult financial climate.

Then there’s Avalon’s Melissa Greene, who recently released her solo debut, Next Step. She noted in her blog that she and Koch Records had released an initial press run of 5,000 copies as well. Mandisa has sold 5,000 in a week; Melissa hopes to sell 5,000 in time! (Meanwhile, Rascal Flatts’ latest album, Unstoppable, debuts at #1, selling 351,000 copies in its first week. To equal that, Mandisa would have to sell 5,000 copies a week for 70 weeks. That’s more than a year and a half.)

Both Mandisa and Greene have great back stories. Both women have terrific voices and well-produced albums. (It’s a well-known fact that 19Entertainment has produced more winners’ debut albums that are lemons than ballpark winners.) Yet, they’ll probably never come close to making the kind of numbers that Paul Potts registered with his debut, or what Boyle will undoubtedly sell when her album is out. 12,000,000 people haven’t tuned in to watch their videos, I’ll tell you that. 12,000,000 people have seen Susan Boyle stun 3,000 people in an auditorium in Scotland.

The world is full of terrific singers who’ll never get their due.

An important facet of author Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book Outliers then comes to mind:  a person can work 10,000 hours to develop the skill necessary to become amazing at what s/he does, s/he can have the resources, be born on the right time, have the right looks, but without that “luck” factor, it’s over. (Actually, the book has so much more than that; it is an interesting read, although I wouldn’t necessarily advise anyone to subscribe fully to what he has to say.)

Susan Boyle didn’t have any of what Gladwell wrote about. She didn’t have privilege, didn’t quite have looks, didn’t have the breaks… or did she? What was it that swept over Susan in her 48th year, that ordained her for critical and hopefully commercial success? Can we say Miss Boyle had a “right place, right time” moment? Was it the hand of God, or fate, or luck, that she had talent, but never had a chance, until in 2009, there so happened to be a TV talent show that didn’t care how a person looked? What afforded her the good fortune that she would be able to audition, and pass, then come onto the show, and as Philip Henscher puts it, thrust everyone into Stendhal syndrome?

At first glance, she would be an outlier!

Of course, this begs the question: what happens if Susan Boyle does not win?

This is Melissa Greene, singing “At Your Feet” from her debut album. Pretty girl, pretty voice. I love her, and wished she would achieve success. But she is not Susan Boyle.

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If our cable company had VH1, I’d tune in to Fantasia’s show. Seriously. The woman may have signed on for reasons more than monetary – not everyone could afford a cash loan – but that doesn’t change the facts that 1) she’s immensely talented; 2) she’s always interesting; and 3) she’s trying to earn a living for herself and her daughter.

Show business is an unforgiving business, and the 15 minutes of fame afforded reality television stars is even more fleeting and temporary than your typical television personality, simply by the nature of the “reality television show.” I like Fantasia. I enjoyed her first single, I Believe, and her latest album, Fantasia, gave us When I See U and Hood Boy (which, despite its lack of poetic merit, is still a pretty catchy song). Bore Me was a pretty good song, too.

I’m just saying, I’d support Fantasia. (Heck, I would support Jennifer Hudson to my dying breath; why not support the woman who won her season?) Here’s hoping her show succeeds.

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I wonder why Sparrow decided to release a video to He Is With You while My Deliverer is still rising up the chart. I hope there wasn’t some kind of mixup with the label. If Christian radio warms up to He Is With You, that may lessen the final chart chances of My Deliverer. Oh well, I trust Sparrow. (Avalon lost Still My God spins! oh no!)

Click after the jump to watch the He Is With You video.

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I have to admit I’m a little concerned by these figures. However, I trust that as My Deliverer continues to pick up on Christian radio, and more people hear about the timeless message of hope on He Is With You and You Wouldn’t Cry (Andrew’s Song), album sales ought to pick up.

If only American Idol had allowed her to sing…!

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Written by Ronnie Freeman, who penned God Speaking, Mandisa’s second single off True Beauty, He Is With You is one of Mandisa’s personal favorites on the album. “No matter if you are a man or a woman or black or white or young or old,” Mandisa says, “God is with you and God loves you and God will never leave you and He will never forsake you.” The fact that He Is With You hits every single situation anyone could imagine will hopefully find people turning to God – and this song – for comfort in times of difficulty.

Don’t take my word for it – give Mandisa’s He Is With You a good listen. I think you’ll agree it’s a great song. Click after the jump to read the lyrics to Mandisa’s He Is With You. If you like what you hear, please go out and buy Freedom. It’ll be one of your favorite CDs for 2009, I promise! :)

HE IS WITH YOU

There’s a time to live
And a time to die
There’s a time to laugh
And a time to cry
There’s a time for war
And a time for peace
There’s a hand to hold
In the worst of these

He is with you when your faith is dead
And you can’t even get out of bed
Or your husband doesn’t kiss you anymore
He is with you when your baby’s gone
And your house is still,
And your heart’s a stone
Cryin’ God, what’d You do that for
He is with you

There’s a time for yes
And a time for no
There’s a time to be angry
And a time to let it go
There is a time to run
And a time to face it
There is love to see you
Through all of this

He is with you in the conference room
When the world is coming down on you
And your wife and kids don’t know you anymore
He is with you in the ICU
When the doctors don’t know what to do
And it scares you to the core
He is with you

We may weep for a time
But joy will come in the morning
The morning light

He is with you when your kids are grown
When there’s too much space
And you feel alone
And you’re worried if you
got it right or wrong
Yes He is with you
when you’ve given up on ever finding your true love
Someone who feels like home
He is with you

When nothing else is left
And you take your final breath
He is with you

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