Another day, another record deal for Katharine McPhee. The American Idol Season 5 runner-up released her self-titled pop/R&B debut album with RCA Records almost immediately after Idol, her second album Unbroken was more targeted to Adult Contemporary and was released under Verve Forecast along with her first Christmas album Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You. Of course, the latter two albums more than underperformed, but that's no surprise with absolutely rubbish promotion. RCA didn't do any better and the only reason that disc even sold more than 200, 000 copies should be credited to McPhee herself.
Of course, talent reigns, and she could finally get her big break after announcement came today that Kat signed a new solo record deal with Columbia Records after Columbia won a bidding war to land the rights to McPhee's new show Smash. But for McPhee to be a hit, Smash needs to live up to it's name. It currently has a lot of promise, but that could go either way.
Just one thing, Kat? Please return to pop. If you ever want to return to the Hot 100 please do not do show tunes on your Columbia record.
Nevertheless, if you previously missed out the trailer for Smash, you can check it out below.
After wrongly losing out to Taylor Hicks on the 5th season of American Idol, Katharine McPhee put out a pop/R&B debut album which I thought was completely flawless and timeless. I actually still listen to songs from that '07 CD till this day. It had so many amazing songs like Everywhere I Go, Neglected, Dangerous, Open Toes, Not Ur Girl, and it's two singles Over It and Love Story. But the album flopped due to RCA's terrible way of promoting her, but was quickly picked up again by Adult Contemporary label Verve Forecast, where she released two Hot AC albums Unbroken and her first Christmas album Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You to varying degress of success.
I still am a great fan of McPhee, so imagine my excitement when I found out she landed a role on NBC's new show Smash. She had previous acting gigs on The House Bunny and Community, but none had McPhee sing and act - Glee style. Well it appears Smash is doing just that. The plot is about McPhee going up against an experienced veteran played by Megan Hilty vying for a lead role in a Broadway musical.
I'm not expecting Smash to be as big as Glee, but I hope it helps McPhee return to the spotlight and.. Maybe it's too much to ask, return to pop/R&B and get back on the charts.
Katharine McPhee - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas live @ Early Show
She's certainly hardworking. Katharine McPhee didn't even give herself a break this holiday season, plugging her Christmas album everywhere. Nevertheless, McPhee sang Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas incredibly sweetly on CBS' Early Show. But she needs a new stylist. ASAP. I am not a fan of that loungey-esque look for her, she's much better than that. Oh yes, Happy Boxing Day!
Katharine McPhee - Jingle Bells live on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno
Instead of performing her sombre ballad it's Not Christmas Without You, spreading some Christmas cheer was Katharine McPhee, singing her upbeat version of the holiday classic Jingle Bells. However, she looked a lot like a lounge singer at the start. And I need '07 McPhee back. Sure, sure this is better artistically but I need the commercial Katharine McPhee back so bad.
Katharine McPhee - It's Not Christmas Without You [Music Video Premiere]
I've been dying for this video to be released and now it's finally here. Looking like something she could've done back in 2007, Katharine McPhee's video for It's Not Christmas Without You harks back to the days of '07, when her pop/R&B flavoured album was doing pretty well (in its first week). First off, the hair is officially back, and she's showing skin in the video. That's very old McPhee of her. But as usual, McPhee sings bloody well and it's a really nice song to listen to, even if it's not Christmasssy.
Katharine McPhee - Jingle Bells + Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas live @ Boston Holiday Lights!
American Idol alum Katharine McPhee has been doing the promotional rounds for her Christmas release Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You playing gigs throughout the nation. She performed her snazzy rendition of Jingle Bells in Boston recently, followed by Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. You can check out the latter below and the former above. It's nice to see the crowd so enthusiastic towards McPhee.
Katharine McPhee - It's Not Christmas Without You + Interview
Doing some much needed promotion for her Christmas album, Katharine McPhee hit the FOX Red Eye Show in New York to perform It's Not Christmas Without You, her co-penned original Christmas song on the Christmas album Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You. She performed the song effortlessly and it was yet another fantastic vocal from the gorgeous brunette. Of course, McPhee also did an interview with them and it's the most comfortable I've seen her since her interview with Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2008. And in 2007 on the same show.
Big News: 3 tracks streaming on Katharine McPhee's Facebook!
The music business has been really slow lately, but a couple small but nice things came up today. First, Katharine McPhee, as you know, is releasing her first Christmas record entitled Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You on the 12th October. A couple days ago, Amazon gave us a 30 second clip of each track but now, McPhee has premiered 3 new tracks in full on her Facebook. It's pretty interesting, and Jingle Bells is actually not cheesy and is pretty fun. The only original on the album, Christmas Is Not The Same Without You is a very beautiful ballad that showcases her gorgeous voice, and so does the title track Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You which showcases her pipes. Am liking what I'm hearing so far.
Listen to the three songs: HERE Read a positive review of the album from All Music Guide: HERE
Big News: Take a listen to clips from Katharine McPhee's Christmas record!
After transforming into a platinum blonde for her sophomore album Unbroken, pop songstress Katharine McPhee has decided to return to her brunette roots for her upcoming and first Christmas record Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You which will be released through Verve Forecast Records October 12th. The album will consists of covers of Christmas classics although there will be an original titled It's Not Christmas Without You, a ballad McPhee effortlessly pulls off. Take a listen to clips from the album through Amazon below and hopefully this one will shift some units since it's a Christmas album and everyone shall know what a beautiful singer McPhee is.
Big News: Mariah's Christmas album due in stores November!
Katharine McPhee's not the only one with a Christmas album due this year. R&B/pop diva Mariah Carey has a concrete release date for her second Christmas album, November 10th. The album will be the usual Christmas album fare, covers of classics, originals etc. but guess what? Her iconic Christmas single All I Want For Christmas Is You will be reworked! I hope the new version will be more diva-ish will all the vocal acrobatics. Personally, I think this would be good for Mariah despite the comparisons to her first Christmas album.
Oh, in other random Mariah news, she's apparently in talks to be a judge on the American Idol panel. No, no, no. This will hurt her career. Bring back Kara!
Big News: Katharine McPhee sets a date for "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You"
As you know, the gorgeous Katharine McPhee has been in the studio working on her Christmas record titled Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You and McPhee's Christmas album will include the classics - O Holy Night, Away In A Manger and O Little Town of Bethlehem. The project is produced by Allen Sides and will feature one self-penned song from McPhee herself. The album will be released under Verve Forecast Records with a release date of October 12th set for the album. Who's excited?!
Big News: Katharine McPhee hits the studio to record Christmas album!
Pop singer Katharine McPhee may not have managed to find success with her sophomore album Unbroken that was released under her new label Verve Forcast Records, but she's back in the studio. Not to record any other album though, she's recording her very first Christmas album. The Christmas record is tentatively titled Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You and it will feature one original song written by McPhee herself. She says it's "a ballad, really beautiful melodically." The album is reportedly due out in October so the final tracklisting is not determined yet. Some confirmed tracks include the widely popular Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, A Christmas Song, O'Holy Night and the title track.
Read the official report from her official website: HERE PopEater article: HERE
Katharine McPhee - Say Goodbye [Music Video Premiere]
This is taken from the upcoming movie called I Am which you can read more about here. I only wish the gorgeous Katharine McPhee got more scenes. I like the effect where Katharine is in the trees. Gorgeous.
Big News: Katharine McPhee to record Christmas album!
It seems Mariah Carey isn't the only one recording an album in time for Christmas. It appears AC starlet Katharine McPhee is recording the Christmas album this summer to make it in time. Her label did comtemplate a while but apparently the project has been given the green light as McPhee tweeted out. Of course, the album will come with covers, and you can tweet your requests to @KatharineMcPhee and depending on the number of requests she gets, she'll cover the song.
• American Idol Season 8 winner has had a fantastic chart runner with his debut single Live Like We're Dying which quickly became a Top 20 hit in most territories. Moving on to the next single, The Truth was long rumoured to be Allen's second single off his self-titled major-label debut album. A new version featuring Pat Monahan of Train started streaming on his official website and has since been announced as the official second single released on the 11th of May.
• Daughtry's sophomore album Leave This Town has since gone platinum and are ready to move on to their third single September which has no official release date. Second single Life After You released from Leave This Town has already sold more than 600, 000 copies.
• Katharine McPhee has had a relatively good chart run on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart with first single Had It All from sophomore CD Unbroken. McPhee is now ready to release her second single and its Terrified, a song many have come to know if they are avid American Idol watchers. Didi Benami from Season 9 of American Idol performed Terrified in Hollywood Week to rave reviews, boosting McPhee's digital sales. McPhee has recorded a new version of Terrified with Zachary Levi which is available on iTunes now.
• UK pop princess Pixie Lott recently released the music video for Turn It Up, the fifth single from platinum-selling debut album of the same name. A new mix for Turn It Up can be heard in the music video, which gives a sample of the tweaks that might be placed on the US version of the album. The single Turn It Up will be available June 7th.
• To be released on the 17th of May, UK's pride Alexandra Burke will release her current single All Night Long. Burke has had a string of successes all over Europe, doing promotional work for her debut album Overcome and her singles like Bad Boys. Burke too has also been working on a US version of her album.
It's has been a relatively slow week for new music these few days so I decided to post some recent live performances. Enjoy!
Pixie Lott performed her latest single Gravity from her platinum-selling debut album Turn It Up acoustic on the Alan Titchmarsh Show. Gravity has become her fourth consecutive Top 20 hit in the UK.
Katharine McPhee's song Terrified got a huge push after American Idol contestant covered it during Hollywood Week, gaining rave reviews from the judges and helping McPhee to sell close to 41, 000 downloads for Terrified. McPhee herself has also been working, performing it at the Jay Leno Show and the Bonnie Hunt Show. The performance above is at the Bonnie Hunt Show.
As said before, Katharine McPhee has been promoting her latest album Unbroken and performing different songs from the album all over. She visited the Wendy Williams Show to perform the soul-stirring ballad Say Goodbye.
Selena Gomez And The Scene is trying to break through in the UK and has been performing Naturally on popular UK shows. Whether she can break into the UK remains to be seen, but Disney should be a very reliable and powerful marketing tool. Her debut album Kiss & Tell will be released on the 19th of April.
This has been confirmed by one of UK's radio stations that My Love will be Pixie Lott's new single released in June in the UK. Pixie hasn't confirmed this herself.
Best Album of Jan/Feb 2010: Katharine McPhee - Unbroken
Katharine McPhee's sophomore album Unbroken is January and February's best album. Leading the pack with a handy 71% of the total number of votes cast, it seems Unbroken managed to be the best album of January/February even though she went up against the likes of pop's new princess Ke$ha and one third of the Jonas Brothers Nock Jonas and his new band's debut album. Start voting in the poll for March's best album!
Big News: Album of The Month for January/February 2010!
So as I mentioned before, the album of the month will be releases from January to February, albeit it's still not a lot. American Idol Season 5 alum Katharine McPhee released Unbroken on the 5th of January, the same day Animal by Ke$ha was released. These two ladies will be going against Nick Jonas and his band, who released Who I Am in February and debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Vote now!
Ke$ha's domination TiK ToK doesn't stop this week as she remains at the summit of the Hot 100, holding Lady Gaga's Bad Romance off the top spot, standing at #2 this week. Rihanna's latest single Hard climbs up one spot to #8 this week. Orianthi's single According To You climbs yet again, moving up to #21 this week. Selena Gomez and The Scene's newest single seems to be doing well on the charts, placing at #29 this week, a new highest for the band. Months after Michael Buble's Crazy Love topped the Billboard 200 albums chart, his single Haven't Met You Yet is making its way up the Hot 100, rounding out the top 40 this week. OneRepublic's All The Right Moves is also moving up the charts, rounding out the top 50 this week. Adam Lambert's Whataya Want From Me seems to be doing better than his debut single, peaking at #55 this week. Miley Cyrus' second single When I Look At You from her EP The Time Of Our Lives debuts at #88 this week.
Vampire Weekend's Contra takes the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week, pushing last week's #1 (Ke$ha - Animal) into #3, beaten by Susan Boyle who remains at #2. Kris Allen sees album increase sales as his self-titled album rises to #84. Katharine McPhee falls to #107 from #27 last week as album sales drop nearly 67%.
We review the latest in 21st century. Mostly we do pop, but it doesn't really matter, along with new music premieres, video premieres, album premieres. If the links don't work, please notify me in the cbox right below and I will post a new link in the cbox. Thanks.
Artist Of The Month. (November 2011)
The Power Rangers of British pop, The Saturdays, are returning this year with a more mature sound and image, with the girlband taking a stab at the pop/dance wave with their fourth album On Your Radar's first single Notorious being a total flip in direction in their sound, and was noticeably more clubby compared to their previous singles and albums. They then took things a level further with the complete rave-tastic All Fired Up, which is without a doubt their best single release, not surprising since the track was produced by production powerhouse Xenomania, the machine behind pretty much all of Girls Aloud's discography. The pop five-piece are charging forward with the Christmassy ballad My Heart Takes Over before their album On Your Radar drops November 21st!
