Photo: Getty

Whether they’re mining for viewers, wanted a fresh opinion or needed a back-up plan in case of Paula Abdul’s inevitable meltdown, American Idol will welcome a fourth judge to the program this year, executive producer Simon Fuller said. Grammy-winning songwriter Kara DioGuardi will sit at the judges’ table as the show goes into its eighth season amidst slumping ratings. DioGuardi is no stranger to the show, having already penned songs for Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee. (more…)

From American Idiot to American Idol: After David Archuleta fired the first salvo with “Crush,” American Idol winner David Cook dropped news about his own debut album, revealing that Green Day’s Idiot producer Rob Cavallo will man the boards. Cook and Cavallo are squeezing studio sessions while Cook fills his obligation to the AI tour, with mid-November still the targeted release date. Cavallo has also worked with artists like My Chemical Romance, Kid Rock, Avril Lavigne and, currently, the Dave Matthews Band. “I think he’s a great producer with the kind of sound that I want,” Cook told EW.com. “And in talking to him, he’s just a good guy. Like the song selection I had on the show, Rob just fit.” Cook has also had writing sessions with Collective Soul’s Ed Roland, hoping to carve out a rock record “that’s true to himself.”

More David Cook:

• David Cook: America’s Accidental Idol

• Video: Behind the Scenes With David Cook

American Idol runner-up David Archuleta premiered his first single “Crush” this morning on New York pop radio station Z100. The track starts out sounding like Chris Brown singing a Max Martin-penned Backstreet ballad before blossoming into a lush chorus reminiscent of JoJo’s “Too Little Too Late.” Ten years ago, this song — which was co-written by onetime Evanescence member Dave Hodges — might have been a hit. Now, it’s something you’d expect from an American Idol silver medalist. Your move, Cook. Archuleta’s debut album is due out later this year on Jive Records. Listen to “Crush,” which will be available as a digital download on September 2nd, here.

UPDATE: The digital release for Archuleta’s single has been moved to August 12th.

• Video: David Cook and David Archuleta Talk Upcoming Albums, American Idol Behind-the-Scenes
• David Archuleta and the Outstretched Hand: The Gallery
• All American Idol

[Photo: Getty]

After finishing in seventh place on this season’s American Idol, country singer Kristy Lee Cook is returning to Arista Nashville, the same label that signed and then dropped her in 1999. The label, along with AI’s 19 Recordings, will release Cook’s first single “15 Minutes of Shame” on August 11th, with an album to follow in the fall. The album will be produced by Brett James, who co-wrote AI champ Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” So why would a record label devote money and studio space to a seventh place finisher when, just last week, season six runner-up Blake Lewis was dropped from his contract? Post-American Idol, contestants seems to fare better with country music than with R&B or rock or whatever genre Lewis was, as evidenced by the massive success of Carrie Underwood and, on a much smaller scale, Kellie Pickler, Bucky Covington and the second season’s Josh Gracin. While none of the latter three ever top the Billboard Top 200, they all had a Top 1 or 2 album on the U.S. Country Albums charts.

The post-American Idol curse continues, as season six runner-up Blake Lewis revealed in an interview that he has already been dropped by his label, Arista. Lewis signed with the label last August and released his debut album Audio Day Dream in December. The album has sold roughly 300,000 copies since and has not charted any singles. In the interview with Maximum Threshold, Lewis expressed that he never really wanted to sign with a major label but that his second place win behind Jordin Sparks required it. It’s been a rough stretch for Idol contestants not named Clarkson, Underwood, Daughtry and Cook: Both Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee, season five’s winner and runner-up, were dropped from their respective labels after eighteen months and season two champ
Ruben Studdard was dropped from J Records for falling “short of expectations.”

• Complete American Idol Coverage at RollingStone.com

[Photo: Getty]

Even in the off-season, American Idol manages to stir up controversy as the musicians’ union filed a lawsuit against the show, claiming the musicians in the AI band were underpaid. The American Federation of Musicians says the hit Fox show violated a collective bargaining agreement by failing to pay musicians royalties for rebroadcasts of episodes. In 2007, the show started using musicians to re-record new music for season highlights, a move that the union was also not informed of. A rep from American Idol has not commented on the suit yet.

The current issue of Rolling Stone features Austin Scaggs’ conversation with David Cook, the American Idol champ who auditioned on a whim. Click below for the complete piece, and click above for a behind-the-scenes look at Cook’s Rolling Stone photo shoot and find out what White Zombie song turned Cook on to rock music, why he admires Dave Grohl and who he wants to work with on his debut LP.

• David Cook: America’s Accidental Idol

[Video: Pete Maiden]

We caught up with newly-crowned American Idol David Cook last week, and were at such a loss for words that all we could do was give him some questions from fans. Click above to find out if the self-proclaimed “word nerd” has met any crossword puzzles he couldn’t solve.

[Video: Jennifer Hsu]

“I always wanted to sing because I wanted to touch people, and I’ve never lost that,” American Idol’s third-place finisher Syesha Mercado told Rock Daily last week when she stopped by our office. “I was able to do that with American Idol, and that’s the most important thing for me as an artist.”

But the season was not without its hardships for Mercado. “There were weeks when I got discouraged and I was like, ‘I shouldn’t be here. Everything is telling me I shouldn’t be here,’” Mercado, the season’s top female, confessed. Oft-criticized by the judges for not distinguishing herself from Whitney, Fantasia and the other big-voiced divas whose songs she performed, Mercado often found herself in the bottom three. “We’re singing cover songs, and I’m not going to sing like Fantasia. I’m not going to emote like Fantasia and I’m not going to sing like Whitney Houston,” she says. “And I don’t expect people to expect me to sing like them.” Mercado admits she felt comparisons were made on her performances more than other contestants, but emphasizes any criticism only made her stronger.

While other contestants freely spoke about their families and life outside Idol, Mercado was careful to keep her private life private — (more…)

One week into his tenure as the American Idol and David Cook is already shattering Billboard records. Cook had 11 songs debut in the Hot 100 singles chart. To put things in perspective, the last time an artist had this many songs on the Hot 100, it was April 11, 1964 and the band was the Beatles. By placing 14 tracks on the Hot Digital Songs chart, he also breaks that list’s previous record held by Miley Cyrus. Leading the way is first single “The Time of My Life,” which scored number one on the digital charts thanks to 236,000 downloads while placing third on the Hot 100 (a chart based on both sales and airplay). Other charting Cook tracks include his covers of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “The World I Know.” Idol runner-up David Archuleta also enjoyed a solid week, scoring three songs on both charts, lead by his cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

[Photo: Becker/Getty]

Former American Idol hopeful and newly signed Warner Bros. artist Josiah Leming has lobbed some shots at the show that rejected him but certainly contributed to his record deal. “The fact is, it’s glorified karaoke — they pick people with pretty faces and the pretty voices, and they don’t let them write their own songs,” Leming, who will forever be known by Idol fans as the emo kid who was living in his car, told MTV. “And therefore, it lacks passion, it lacks emotion and it lacks the things that set an artist off from being good to being great. So that’s my feeling on it.” Leming’s own album is written and waiting to be recorded, with producers Nick Launey (who’s worked with Gang of Four and Talking Heads) and David Kosten (the man behind Faultline) taking the reigns.

Despite a season-long ratings drop, last night’s season-ending episode of American Idol kept pace with last season’s finale as 31.7 million viewers tuned in to watch the final round of Archuleta vs. Cook. Meanwhile, David Cook is already enjoying his victory lap on iTunes where his first post-Idol single “The Time of My Life” has already rocketed to the number one position on their Top Songs list. Collective Soul have a debt to pay to Cook as their “The World I Know,” the last song Cook performed on Tuesday night, is also charting. In other post-finale news, the details of the Jordin Sparks-endorsed DisneyWorld attraction “The American Idol Experience” have surfaced. Opening in January 2009, it will allow participants to perform in mock auditions, with each day’s best singer winning a “Dream Ticket” that will allow them to audition for Idol without having to wait in lines.

[Photo: Becker]

Donna Martin graduates! We mean, David Cook won American Idol! It could easily have been 1993 last night on a finale that featured Davids Cook and Archuleta wearing matching wallet chains, Seal, a George Michael medley, a Bryan Adams appearance, and a coronation song straight from the Goo Goo Dolls‘ playbook. Highlights included onetime Idol hopeful Mikalah Gordon’s interview with Cook’s music teacher (”I feel good!” she shouted) and Cook’s beard-off with ZZ Top`. Did we think Cook was going to pull out the victory after taking some risks Tuesday night? Not exactly. But Idol viewers voted for change Tuesday night (Archuleta is clearly the Hillary Clinton of Idol, is he not?). For the last time this season, here are the finale’s best moments in five quick clips:

5. Archuleta and Cook’s dueling Risky Business Guitar Hero ads: didn’t you think the second one was going to end with Chris Hanson in a kitchen?
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David Cook was named season seven’s American Idol victor after a two-hour finale packed with advertising tie-ins and appearances by Seal, Donna Summer, Bryan Adams, ZZ Top, Graham Nash, Jonas Brothers, a digital Gladys Knight, OneRepublic, former Idols Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks, as well as George Michael (who performed a sober “Praying for Time” after the final twelve ran through a medley of his hits). According to Idol, 97.5 million votes were cast for the two Davids, with Cook pulling ahead by a margin of 56 to 44 percent. For our full recap of tonight’s show, come back tomorrow for the final Idol Countdown of the season.

[Photo: Becker/Fox]

For the full breakdown of last night’s shockingly undramatic final competition episode of American Idol, check out our live blog. For a recap of David Archuleta and David Cook’s three performances, the show’s big whoopsies and the worst boxing metaphors ever, watch these quick clips.

5. Ladies and gentlemen, your likely next American Idol, David Archuleta.
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