andPOP » Kara DioGuardi

Judges Bench A Hot Spot on American Idol Season 9

Emma Renda — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:44:53 +0000

As American Idol gears up for a new series this fall, its roster of judges is expanding its horizons.

Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne will be the latest stars to sit alongside Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul’s replacement Kara DioGuardi during the last round of auditions in Los Angeles.

Throughout auditions, the show has welcome Victoria Beckham, Shania Twain, Joe Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris, Mary J. Blige and Kristen Chenoweth to have their say.

Abdul abandoned the show in August in a rather abrupt move that many speculated had to do with salary. But in an interview with the New York Daily News, Abdul said the decision was more about pursuing her career (whatever’s left of it.)

“I stand on principle where many people stand on money,” Abdul told TV Guide. “I’m a hard-working artist. I’ve lasted in this business for 23 years. And you can’t do that unless you are good at what you do.”

DioGuardi originally joined the show when Abdul was still sitting, in hopes of balancing out the battle of the sexes on the judge’s bench. Now with Abdul out of the picture, DioGuardi will take on Season 9 on her own but her resume certainly boasts chops that are up to the task.

A songwriter and co-owner of writer mentorship house Arthouse Entertainment, DioGuardi has penned songs for Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Celine Dion and Carrie Underwood. According to AmericanIdol.com, she has released more than 264 songs on mainstream radios stations.

Idol has never had a hard time getting ratings, and this season will mark its ninth on the air. The guest judges are just one tactic the series has adopted to freshen up the program, as well as dozens of guest performances on the show from major music stars like last season’s Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson, Quentin Tarantino, Lady GaGa and many others.

Season 9 won’t air until January 2010.

Mary J. Blige Guest Judge on American Idol

Vanessa Baker — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:29:41 +0000

Mary J. Blige will sit on the American Idol judges’ panel for auditions in Atlanta, Georgia, reports Perez Hilton.

Friday, regular judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi were joined by former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, who helped judge auditions in Boston.

“The judges and production team have been having a lot of fun with Victoria,” said a source for the show. “She’s had a great response so far, and has been really warm with the contestants.”

Season nine of the Fox reality show will premiere in January. Paula Abdul, who has judged alongside Cowell and Jackson since season one, will not be returning to the show.

Paula Abdul May Be Next to Dance with the Stars

Vanessa Baker — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:29:27 +0000

President of ABC Entertainment Stephen McPherson said he would absolutely love to have Paula Abdul as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, reports Perez Hilton.

“We would love to have her on Dancing whether it’s as a contestant, or a participant, judge, etc.,” McPherson said of the former American Idol judge. “I was a little stunned by the decision,” he said about her recent departure from the Fox reality show where she worked for eight seasons. “I think she’s a huge talent. There’s a sensitivity and emotion in her that balances out Idol and we’d love to get a piece of that.”

Abdul has also been offered a spot as a guest judge on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance.

Season nine of American Idol, which will premiere in January, will return to the show’s three-judge format with Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi all resuming their spots at the judges’ table. Ryan Seacrest will remain as host.

Paula Abdul Won’t Be Judging Season 9 Of A. I.

Ilan Mester — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:28:03 +0000

It’s official: Paula Abdul is leaving “American Idol”. The former “Idol” judge tweeted about leaving the popular TV show.

With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to ‘Idol,’” Abdul wrote. “I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day one become an international phenomenon. What I want to say most, is how much I appreciate the undying support and enormous love that you have showered upon me. I do, without any doubt, have the BEST fans in the entire world and I love you all.”

In light of her departure, Fox TV has released a statement. “Paula Abdul has been an important part of the ‘American Idol’ family over the last eight seasons and we are saddened that she has decided not to return to the show,” read the statement. “While Paula will not be continuing with us, she’s a tremendous talent and we wish her the best.”

The show will return to its original three-judge format as Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi are set to return for season nine.

American Idol Judge Says ‘I Do’

Vanessa Baker — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:29:40 +0000

Kara DioGuardi, the newest judge on American Idol, married general contractor Mike McCuddy Sunday in Prospect Harbor, Maine, E! Online reports. Approximately 30 guests attended the ceremony, held at the United Methodist Church.

“I feel great,” DioGuardi told In Touch Weekly. “What was most unbelievable about the experience was when I looked out at the church and saw all these people that were so important to me and Mike, who were there for us. It was pretty powerful. I was very emotional and I’m not somebody who breaks down and cries.”

The 38-year-old bride wore a strapless, mermaid-style dress by Vera Wang. She met McCuddy – four years her junior – when he built a house next door to her family in New England. They got engaged in December while vacationing in Mexico.

No One’s Replacing Paula Abdul

Ilan Mester — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:39:27 +0000

Paula Abdul’s contract with “American Idol” may be up by the end of this season, but that doesn’t mean anyone will be replacing her, including “Idol’s” new judge Kara DioGuardi.

“I don’t think anyone [can],” Abdul said to “Nightline” in an interview scheduled to air Thursday on ABC. “First of all, Kara says, ‘I could never replace you.’ ”

According to Abdul, she didn’t have much of a say regarding the addition of a fourth judge. “I just got out of the hospital this past August. I had three days to pack and go on the road [for 'Idol' auditions]. I found out on the way to the airport,” she told “Nightlife.”

Abdul also admitted that “Idol” may not be in her future. “Whenever there is change, it’s not about replacing anybody, it’s about possibly moving on,” said Abdul.

But she did share her enthusiasm about being on “American Idol”. “I love the show, I do. I love what I do on the show, and I’m loving it more this season than ever. It’s taken me awhile to get comfortable in my own skin with the show”.

Platinum Weird: Making History

andPOP Staff — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:01:52 +0000

When the mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” came out in 1984, it blurred the lines between fiction and reality in music. Though the film was fictional, and the band’s members were actors, it spawned a whole world of very real music: albums, videos, even concerts.

Platinum Weird has done just the opposite of the faux metal-heads from the ’80s. Instead of starting with a fake story and creating a real band, they’ve started with the band and created a fake story.

As the myth has it, Platinum Weird was formed in 1974 when Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame) teamed with a mysterious singer named Erin Grace. However, after only a few performances, Grace disappeared, leaving behind a half-finished record and an emotionally wrecked Stewart. The band was all but forgotten. Then, 30 years later, songwriter Kara DioGuardi met a neighbour in New York who would become a musical mentor to her. When she met Stewart in 2004, he played an old Platinum Weird song for her; DioGuardi already knew the words, having learned it from the neighbour — the long-lost Erin Grace.

Unfortunately, it’s a big stretch of reality — an elaborate marketing campaign for Stewart and DioGuardi’s debut album as Platinum Weird (a group they formed in 2004 while collaborating on tracks for The Pussycat Dolls).

“Normally, labels or people launching something, they’ll go the traditional route,” explains Stewart by phone from Los Angeles. “‘We’ll take ads here, and we’ll do this, and we’ll make this video and we’ll place them in all the normal channels.’ And I’ve never been like that — I’ve always been a bit eccentric or quirky.”

It’s not exactly like Stewart — or even Spinal Tap, for that matter — was the first to create a fake back-story to enhance their musical efforts. David Jones took on a new persona when he became David Bowie; Bob Dylan said he was Woody Guthrie’s son.

“Creating this mythology is just as valid as those,” says Stewart. “But they were all created in print or word-of-mouth. Now we’re living in a world with all these mediums, whether it’s YouTube and the Internet and TV and radio and everything.”

To that end, Stewart definitely took advantage of modern technology. Several websites began popping up earlier this year (some run by Interscope Records, others by Eurythmics fans) dedicated to the remembrance of “’70s band” Platinum Weird.

Stewart even worked with the label to produce a VH1 “Behind the Music” documentary about the band. It features appearances by the likes of Elton John, Mick Jagger, and Lindsay Lohan, each of whom recounts their varied encounters with Platinum Weird (for example, Lohan says she first heard about the band when she dug up one of their vintage t-shirts).

“85 per cent of that documentary is absolutely true,” says Stewart, though the Lohan bit is in the other 15 per-cent. “Elton John did sign me, and I’ve been through massive drug things, and I did meet an American girl and we started writing songs.”

Now, Stewart is back to writing songs with another American girl in DioGuardi. And though her name might be new to most music listeners, she certainly isn’t new to the business; songs like Celine Dion’s “Right In Front of You,” Kelly Osbourne’s “Shut Up,” and Enrique Iglesias’ “Escape” were written or co-written by the New York native.

But despite all her experience, it doesn’t mean that fronting a band was an easy challenge for DioGuardi; a few things took some time to get used to.

“Seeing myself on camera, more than anything. Watching the way I move,” she reveals. “Now I feel very used to it, but at first it was difficult. It was sort of getting to know myself in a different way. When I look in the mirror now, I look at different things. It’s made me accept who I am, physically as well as emotionally.”

For Stewart, the project has been a combination of both new and old experiences. His most popular band — Eurythmics, with Annie Lennox — was a male-female duo, just like Platinum Weird.

“Annie and I would always write a song very quickly, in half an hour, and record it,” he says of that collaboration. “And the only other person I’ve ever had that with so quickly is Kara. But everything else is different.”

Still, the one girl that eludes Stewart is the original — the mysterious American from the 1970s, who he hasn’t heard from since she jetted away 30 years ago. However, it seems as though Stewart is trying to recapture this girl with Platinum Weird’s mythology; trying give meaning to their brief relationship. After all, she even inspired the band’s name.

“One time she was in my dark, damp sort of squat in London,” he recounts. “And she said, ‘You’ve got to get something to cover that damp patch on the wall.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that’ll be our platinum album.’ And she said, ‘Oh, now that would be so weird.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, platinum weird.’”

Though the mystery girl did, in fact, disappear without a trace from Stewart’s life, her name wasn’t Erin Grace.

ABC Cancels ‘The One:’ Judge Kara DioGuardi Speaks Out

andPOP Staff — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:45:57 +0000

ABC has abruptly cancelled its American Idol-esque talent competition, “The One: Making of a Music Star,” barely over a week after the series debuted. Its first episode scored the second-lowest rating ever for a premiere on a major American network.

“There were a lot of problems with the publicity of the show,” Kara DioGuardi, one of the show’s talent judges, told andPOP on Friday, just hours after ABC canned the show. “Before I got hired, I thought it was a dance show.”

DioGuardi also says that the debut episode — which often makes or breaks a new show — suffered from crippling sound problems.

“I was listening to things that were not what the American public was listening to, so my comments were off,” she said. “The first show was quite a disaster.”

The hit songwriter — who’s penned tracks like Enrique Iglesias’ “Escape” and Kelly Osbourne’s “Shut Up” — also wasn’t pleased with the way ABC handled the cancellation.

Because of the low ratings, the fact that the show was cancelled was no surprise, but DioGuardi says the show’s contestants, whom she formed close relationships with, were literally left in the dark.

“When ABC cancels a show, the lights start going off 20 minutes later,” she said. “Luckily we had a big party at my house last night. Because otherwise, that would’ve just been so cold.”

ABC posted a message on the show’s official web site, saying, “There are no plans for additional episodes. Thanks to all who participated in and supported The One!”

Though DioGuardi’s career didn’t rely on the show’s success (she’s currently promoting Platinum Weird, her new project with Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart), she knows The One’s contestants aren’t as lucky.

“My heart goes out to the kids,” she said. “My career will go on, my thing goes on. Not them.”

Another person involved with the show who will soon be returning to his regular day job is Canadian host George Stroumboulopoulos — and DioGuardi had nothing but praise for him.

“George did a really good job. You have to imagine, you’ve got two weeks of the show running. The first week is a live show with people who have never done a music based show,” she explained. “You’re going to run into a lot of problems, but the guy rose to the occasion. It’s sad, because you could tell that he was great.”