Wow, wow, and more wow! I am actually speechless…
Okay, not really. What an amazing show! CMT Giants:Reba premiered on Saturday, November 18th, but is being shown several more times this week. It is an absolute TIVO must! These two Kelly Clarkson performances were spectacular, but it was Reba herself who brought the house down with “Fancy” at the end of the night. Even if you think you don’t care for Kelly (what is wrong with you anyway?) you owe it to yourself to check these out.

I have no idea who this Mike Watts guy is - is that bad?  Apparently, he is a old school, punk-rocker type who is very well respected in the music biz and this is a BIG deal for him to record with Kelly Clarkson.  This is from pitchforkmedia.com

Former Minuteman, current Stooge, and all-around inspiring guy Mike Watt’s most recent recording gig made us smile so much that we just had to share it. Watt tells us that over the past two weeks, he spent a couple of days in the studio laying down bass tracks for Kelly Clarkson’s new album. (That would be the follow-up to 2004’s Breakaway–the one with “Since U Been Gone” on it.) He did such a good job of explaining it himself in the emails he sent to Pitchfork that we’ll just let him do what he does best and spiel:

“The producer/engineer David Kahne is an old friend, and that’s why I was asked aboard, though the guitarist and co-songwriter, Jimmy Read the rest of this entry »

Two-time CMA winner Carrie Underwood will be the featured performer for the 10th annual, nationally televised Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game half-time show to officially kick off the annual Salvation Army Red Kettle Christmas fundraising campaign for 2006.

Since 1997, the Red Kettle campaign has been launched each year as part of a special live concert at Texas Stadium during the traditional NFL holiday game, this year pitting the Cowboys against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  As part of this year’s celebration, Ms. Underwood will perform songs from her quadruple platinum album, Some Hearts.

It was announced earlier this week on KellyClarkson.com two-time Grammy winner Kelly Clarkson will be singing the National Anthem prior to kickoff.

If you’ve been wondering what happened to Tamyra Gray, we have some info for you from a popular fan board.  Miss Gray posted on November 8th to update the group on her doings for the last month.

Some highlights: 

**Tamyra has decided to switch management and split from Lisa Braude - with no hard feelings.  She has also decided “to get the music 2gether first and then seek out new management”. She is still recording, but has nothing yet to shard.

**  Tamyra is working on getting her MySpace page up and running.  There is an imposter on her page: “…so the person still frontin’ is not me.”

**  The official date of Tamyra’s wedding was Friday, September 1st not Saturday, September 2nd as had been reported by some.

It’s been nice to see Tamyra on the AI Rewind shows - she really is fantastic.  Glad to see she’s doing well and is getting a handle on the biz - something tells me we haven’t seen the last of Tamyra…not by a long shot.

Singer Reba McEntire was forced to re-think all of her hit songs after hearing them performed by country music’s biggest talents during a tribute to her. The stars performed tunes in her honour for the upcoming Country Music Television’s CMT GIANTS show airing Saturday.  Among those performing were Kelly Clarkson, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, LeAnn Rimes and Wynonna Judd.

McEntire says hearing her colleagues perform her tunes “was odd, yeah, because I’ve been singing them all my life, it seems like.
“Now, for somebody else to come sing those songs, I thought, ‘Gosh, I should have done it like that. I bet the songwriters wished you would have gotten that song first!’ “I told Kelly Clarkson she now owns ‘Why Haven’t I Heard From You’. She sang the fool out of that one. I couldn’t believe how much it was just a different song.”

 

According to her official web site, Kelly Clarkson will perform the National Anthem before the Dallas Cowboys vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL game on Thanksgiving Day.  The game will be aired on FOX.  I wonder who Kelly will be cheering for?  Hmmm…

The Kodak Theatre has been witness to some classic Kelly Clarkson performances and Kelly added another to the list last Thursday at Tony Bennett’s 80th Birthday untelevised fundraiser for The Hole in the Wall charity. 

Introduced by Bruce Willis as a songwriter and two-time Grammy winner, Kelly performed Bennett’s “Because of You” and “It’s Alright With Me.”  Billy Crystal took the podium after her performance and said almost incredulously, “Kelly Clarkson, oh my God! I am so glad I voted for her.  Wow!”  Billy, dude, where have you been?  It wasn’t luck that turned Kelly into a multi-platinum, two-time Grammy-award winning, internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter - the woman can sing!  Billy wasn’t the only one impressed:

“You sang beautifully tonight” - Tony Bennett to Kelly before finale

“But the music from stage was stellar, especially “Because of You” by Clarkson, who more than proved the music-industry insider consensus that she is the “American Idol” who really matters.” - Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer

“…Kelly Clarkson who has a big and gorgeous voice…” - Army Archerd

…and the list goes on.  Kelly continues to win more and more fans with her incredible versatility, talent, and charm.  Watch for country fans to swoon over her performances from the “CMT Giants: Reba” special airing on Saturday, November 18th.  Unfortunately, the Tony Bennett event will not be televised, but you can read Boucher’s review here and watch Kelly’s performances here and here from YouTube.

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for!  Part Three of the Justin Series is up on KatiesOpinion.com! This is absolutely the best of the three part series! 

The show picks up from where we left off last time - in front of the ‘arena’ - Dave and Busters of Philly.  The first challenge is a pool game.  May I just say that they both really suck at pool?  Seriously, I play pool worse than G-Dub tells the truth, but I could totally take either one of them.  Anyway, I won’t spoil the outcome, but during the match, we are treated to Justin’s “Foolish” - which I looooove - and we get to see Katie’s inner stripper do a nice pole-dance-without-the- pole.  Do you think she dances like that to Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”?  If so, DUH!! (watch When I Dance and you’ll get it.) Anyway, at least she’s not talking.  We are treated to two more challenges and then the final showdown in the parking lot.  It ends exactly the way one would expect…the same way it started.  Katie is a likeable goofball who pretends to hate men and she seems to amuse the hell out of Justin.

I liked this one and I loved Justin’s song! Katie is actually growing on me, but I still think that’s it for me and Katie’s Opinion.  Justin was too cool to help out his friends and Katie by appearing on the show and I will be more than happy to watch if he returns.  Good job!

Ryan Seacrest, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee and Clay Aiken are all expected to appear on the American Music Awards broadcast on November 21st. 

Carrie Underwood is nominated for Best Female Artist (Country) and Best Newcomer and is scheduled to perform.  Kelly Clarkson is nominated for two awards, Favorite Female Artist (Rock/Pop) and Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, but no word on whether or not she will be attending.  The awards will be broadcast on ABC.  For more information, visit www.abc.com

 

Has America completely lost their sense of humor?  In a country where George W. Bush is still the President, how could that possibly be?  This firestorm of controversy surrounding Faith Hill’s reaction to Carrie Underwood’s win for Best Female Vocalist of the Year is utterly ridiculous.  Faith Hill is a seasoned professional, a notorious goofball, and by all accounts, an extremely kind and loving woman.  I didn’t see her reaction live - I “read” it on the boards - and I admit to being shocked and incredulous that Faith would behave that way.  When I finally had the chance to see the “incident”, it was SO obvious she was joking, I couldn’t believe it was ever an issue.  

In what has to be the Biggest Bonehead Move of the Year, LeAnn Rimes posted this on her website, only to remove it an hour later:

Ok, I usually keep quiet on topics like this but I feel I need to stand up for my friend, Faith. She was just being honest and emotional like

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