Taylor Hicks

Cirque du Soleil's "Michael Jackson ONE" officially opens on Saturday. Whether you’re looking for a family-friendly getaway or a raucous party, Vegas is the place to be this Memorial Day weekend. Headlining the holiday is the official launch of Cirque du Soleil’s newest creation, “Michael Jackson ONE,” at Mandalay Bay on Saturday. The show brings the music and spirit of the King of Pop together with stunning dance, acrobatic and video displays. Cirque du Soleil‘s seven other Las Vegas spectaculars also have performances this weekend, and Las Vegas’ enormous array of regular shows — magicians, musical headliners, comics, adult shows and productions —will be out in full force. Want to keep the real meaning of Memorial Day in mind? The Scintas wear their patriotism on their sleeves at their brand new show at The D. The family act is a high-energy tour through memories and music. Taylor Hicks performs at Napoleon's at Paris Las Vegas on Tuesday and weekly on Monday - Tuesday and Thursday - Saturday. Or stay a couple more days (The work will be there when you get back!) and see American Idol winner and Alabama son Taylor Hicks at Napoleon’s at Paris Las Vegas on Tuesday. His rendition of Bill Gentry’s elegy “Nineteen” will remind you what Memorial Day is all about. If you want to keep things light, a trifecta of guest comedy greats grace the weekend docket. Flame-haired, spitfire comedic actress and Grammy Award winner Kathy Griffin performs Saturday and Ron White, the cigar-smoking, scotch-drinking funny man, will put on two shows, Saturday and Sunday, at the Terry Fator Theater at Mirage. Kathy Griffin performs Saturday at 10 p.m. at the Mirage. Chris Tucker, best known for his role as Detective James Carter in the “Rush Hour” film series, will play The Pearl at the Palms at 8 p.m. on Sunday. International artists are also on the lineup this Memorial Day. British punk icon Billy Idol plays The Pearl on Saturday, and Australian soft rock duo Air Supply sends out its serenades at The Orleans on Sunday. Plus, Canadian country music legend Shania Twain will return to her second home, The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, for shows Saturday and Sunday. If it’s beats and lyrics you want, Las Vegas is serving up a host of sounds for Memorial Day weekend. The “Kings Of The Mic,” tour headlined by LL Cool J, hits The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel on Friday. R&B king R. Kelly will give a one-night-only performance at Planet Hollywood on Saturday, joined by Ashanti and 2 Chainz. Bell Biv DeVoe, the hip-hop and R&B offshoot of New Edition, will perform an outdoor concert at Mandalay Bay Beach on Sunday night. The EDM scene will center on all-star nighclub and pool party performances all weekend long. Check out this run-down of where to find your favorite artists during this star-studded holiday weekend in Sin City. FRIDAY Tao Beach will host DJ Five and Eric D-Lux this weekend. Pool parties: Wiz Khalifa Ditch Fridays at Palms Pool  DJ Five Tao Beach at Venetian Nightclubs: DJ Skratchy Lavo at Palazzo Nas and Eric D-Lux Tao at Venetian Wale The Bank at Bellagio Future 1 OAK at The Mirage DJ Jazzy Jeff, Mark Stylz and Exodus will celebrate the holiday 55 stories above the Las Vegas Strip, with shows at Moon at Palms.  DJ Jazzy Jeff Moon at Palms  Benny Black and Presto ONE Ghostbar at Palms SATURDAY Pool parties: Sky Blu of LMFAO Liquid at Aria (Continues Saturday night at The Bank at Bellagio) Big Sean Ditch Weekend at Palms Pool Eric D-Lux Tao Beach at Venetian Nightclubs: Future, Snoop Dogg and Flo Rida will grace the red carpet and the stage at The Mirage's 1 OAK nightclub. Snoop Dogg (aka Snoop Lion) 1 OAk at Mirage Vice Tao at Venetian (Continues  Sunday at Tao and in Neon Vice Sundays at Lavo) Sky Blu of LMFAO The Bank at Bellagio J. Cole Haze at Aria Mark Stylz and Exodus Moon at Palms Gusto Lavo at Palazzo SUNDAY Pool parties: Diddy Rehab at Hard

Filed under: TV Trace Adkins didn't show much emotion upon being named the winner of 'All-Star Celebrity Apprentice,' but there's little doubt that those representing the American Red Cross were celebrating. By besting magician Penn Jillette, Adkins earned another $250,000 for the charity, bringing his total raised to over $1.5 million. Sunday night's two-hour finale recapped the final ice cream challenge and included cameos by country stars like Billy Ray Cyrus and Thompson Square, 'American Idol' singer Taylor Hicks and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow. Tebow presented a $300,000 donation to Adkins' team, accounting for more than half the money he raised on that night.

I know some of us are pretty fucking jaded, but every few years there’s a performer who grabs a national TV audience’s attention and totally blows their minds with a genre-defying performance that’s as visually stunning as it is musically adventurous. But enough about Taylor Hicks at the Republican National Convention.    Please continue discussing Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead”.

It was the battle of the divas on the American Idol season 12 finale in LA last night, and we're not just talking about contestants Candice Glover and Kree Harrison facing off for the final time. Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey both took the stage to sing during the finale, with Mariah singing a medley of her biggest hits in a formfitting white gown and J Lo energetically performing "Live It Up" alongside Pitbull. Judges Keith Urban and Randy Jackson also got in on the action on stage, making Nicki Minaj the only judge who didn't do a performance of some kind. This all came hot on the heels of persistent rumors that Nicki won't return to Idol next year. J Lo's American Idol show marks the first time she's returned to the program since she stepped down as a judge last year. There have been rumors that Jennifer may return to American Idol, and she said that she might consider making a comeback during an interview at the nuvoTV upfronts in NYC on Wednesday. Jennifer wasn't the only star who made a splash on Idol last night - Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert, and Taylor Hicks all returned to the show that gave them their start. The night ended on an emotional note when Glover was crowned the winner of American Idol. View Slideshow ›

Randy has fans. Fans with friends who grunt on Seacrest. Top Idol is back! My computer lives! I can suffer through two hours of Randy Jackson tributes, brand new Ford Fiestas, and foggy memories of fallen contestants right along with you. And yes, I actually did watch last night. I even took a photo, because I mean, the woman with the gimp foot grunting on Ryan Seacrest was sort of the high point. But Kree Harrison and Candice Glover and the rightful two in the finale, even if I really don’t care who wins. Oh and OF COURSE Sir Anthony Hopkins wouldn’t miss this “spectacle” for all the fava beans & chianti in the world. But I even watched about 20 minutes of the Idol Red Carpet since Jim was doing it. And then a blond woman talked to someone who I thought might have been Psy or Bruno Mars, but it turns out it was Stefano Langone! I totally forgot about him, and that girl Aubrey who is going on this year’s tour, and probably 3/5th of the dudes who were sent home 6 months ago. That Evan Lysacek-a-like Paul Jolley could have stuck around longer I still contend. Alas. Nigel Lythgoe would not give him a guitar. Apparently, the 5 Top 10 guys will be singing with FRANKIE VALLI tonight. Beauty School Dropouts, every last one of them. Just kick them when they’re down. Come on, Jimmy Iovine, you couldn’t even get those two Black Eyed Peas with No Names to harmonize with the lot? Oh American Idol. If only you were still relevant. You’re piping in Don’t Stop Believing on the Idol Red Carpet like its all, 2009 or something. Oh 2009, the enormous high before your steady yet precipitous fall from public consciousness and pop culture. At least everyone is still wearing white. I’m Glad You Came. Yes, yes they are. Even if fewer and fewer of you were showing up every week. It’s really not a good thing when it takes me 35 seconds to remember the name of Burnell Taylor, who was actually pretty good. But the dancers all clad in black, well, this is a nice paying gig so lets give it up to them. The judges walk slowly, not because half of them wear towering stilettos, as this will likely be their final entrance onto the Idol stage in this capacity. We see Taylor Hicks. And Bo Bice. And the most ruthless and manipulative villan in all of American Idol history—Danny Gokey. Idol cannot even decide on the hashtag it wants you to use, switching between #idolfinale and #idoltop2 within about a minute of one another. Shall we count the hashtags tonight? The Band Perry + Janelle Arthur Done These yahoos confuse me. Honky tonk head-banging hipsters with a wannabe milquetoast pageant-queeny Pink singing lead. And their name, I mean, I understand what you’re going for here because its your schtick but it gets at least a quarter-body eye roll from me. But its a good pairing for the erstwhile Miss Arthur, as their performance is a lot of spastic, breathless shouting while darting from one side of the stage to the other urging everyone to put their hands in the air. Also: #TheBandPerryOnIdol. Hashtag count: 3 (13 minutes) I spoke too soon! #IdolSabotage! Investigation Discovery-worthy dramatizations of WHY DID FIVE GUYS GET ELIMINATED IN A ROW?! This is why they were putting Kree Harrison in blazers. Rather than just coping to producer manipulation at keeping any WGWG around past the semi-finals, and stocking the decks with 4 out of 5 being NO QUESTION ABOUT IT gay and non-white, its all blamed on the girls drugging them and stealing blazer style. Kree is all, good luck on The Voice, gentlemen. Frankie Valli + Anything With A Penis Frankie Valli Medley And so this introduces the boys, humiliating them ONE LAST TIME by sticking them with Frankie Valli in some sort of malt shop medley. It even requires them to Walk Like A Man, which isn’t very manly, but it is okay, because there are suit & tie-clad backup dancers suffering through it, too. Curtis Finch, Jr. (Yes, I have to type them into

From Taylor Hicks beating Katharine McPhee and Chris Daughtry to Kris Allen beating Adam Lambert to Ruben Studdard beating Clay Aiken, the history of American Idol is filled with not only bad choices but choices that were overtly wrong at the time. Why does it happen? Well, it all boils down to the same argument judges on the show have been having since the first season.

The crowd at Napoleon’s Lounge hoots and hollers when Taylor Hicks reaches for his harmonica. He holds the little silver instrument on top of his microphone and cups his right hand over his left. When he begins to play, the audience cheers louder, and their shouts and applause follow the ups and downs of the melody Hicks invents. He eggs his fans on, giving them more to shout about as he wails on the harmonica, leaning into the sound and bending down onto his knee as he blazes through the solo. A lot of people in the crowd came to see Hicks because they liked his singing voice and the stage presence he mastered on “American Idol,” when he wasn’t allowed to use an instrument. They weren’t expecting Hicks the multi-instrumentalist, and they thrill to see him put his remarkable energy and talent into forms of music that they’ve never seen him perform. The only thing that tops the crowd’s excitement when Hicks plays harmonica is the childlike delight they exhibit when he shows off his silly stage trick. In the middle of a vocal solo or at the end of a chorus, he rears back on his heels, raises his eyebrows and throws out jazz hands, with a little “Hey!” The audience laughs and laughs. Hicks chuckles too and tells the audience that the trick works every time. The band is still playing. He glances around and then tosses out another “Hey!” just to test the assertion. The crowd laughs again — and cheers and whistles and roots for more. It’s not totally clear why Hicks’ performance is so magnetic. He and his four-man backing band are cramped onto a tiny stage along with an old guitar amp and Hicks’ wood-framed organ. An electronic keyboard is stacked on top of the baby grand piano that occupies most of the space — the one that the very skilled Brian Less shares with the dueling pianists that have made Napoleon’s famous. If you didn’t know Hicks (and you didn’t have to buy a ticket to get into Napoleon’s during his show), you might stumble upon the bar thinking the group was any old lounge act. There are no giant TV screens and no special effects. There isn’t even a curtain to draw to reveal the star of the show. But you’d quickly learn that the humble venue is home to something big. Apart from being a prodigious talent, Hicks is an extraordinary performer. When he was a kid, he studied the visual aspects of artists’ shows. He knew he wanted to be a performer. “But little did I know that the study of the visual presentation of those artists would ultimately lead to my break,” he said. Hicks estimated that success on “American Idol” is 40 percent about the music and 60 percent about the visual performance. When Hicks plays this tiny stage, every audience member can see every gesture he makes — but he said that the venue allows him to focus more on sound than he could before. He calls Napoleon’s his “living room.” “I love it because it’s a great way to work on new music,” he said. “And you’re really not stretching to try to entertain people in the back of an arena or a thousand-seat theater.” The night I saw him play, Hicks said hello to some friends who had slipped in at the back of the house, and he threw together an extra-long set to serenade them, including a tune he said he had never played with the band before. That spirit of spontaneity speaks of Hicks’ experience, his comfort on stage and the instant rapport he forms with the audience. He said that after years of performing live (he said his gray hair helped him get into clubs to play music at age 16 or 17), putting on a show is like second nature. Maybe because he’s so much himself on stage, Hicks doesn’t “turn on” for a performance. Even when he was playing Teen Angel in “Grease” on Broadway in 2008 and on the national tour in 2009, he s

Kree Harrison struggled to skreech the notes on her winning single, All Cried Out. That's a pretty good sign of what we'd get if she wins. This means she must win. Not that Candice was much better. And not that either of these two could become legitimate singing stars in today's image obsessed market. But hey, Kree is definitely worse and the show clearly wants Candice to win, so we must inkreese our efforts to help Kree win, because this terrible season deserves it. This is Vote for the Worst's last night of voting ever. So make it count. Vote for Kree Harrison by supervoting at AmericanIdol.com and by dialing 1-866-436-5701, 03, 05, or 07. Check back tomorrow to see if we can celebrate one final VFTW victory or if Candice takes the crown. Who was your favorite VFTW pick ever? Scott Savol Taylor Hicks Sanjaya Malakar Amanda Overmyer Megan Joy Tim Urban Casey Abrams Haley Reinhart Phillip Phillips Zoanette Johnson Lazaro Arbos

We were hoping for “There is No God Gelato” Now that Penn Jillette is going head-to-head with Trace Adkins in the All-Star Celebrity Apprentice finale on Sunday, he had just one task left: Launch an ice cream flavor for Walgreens. So yesterday, Jillette hit the Strip, complete in sparkling white Walgreens outfit, to huck his Vanilla & Chocolate Magic Swirtle flavor, along with Teller, some of the Jubilee! girls, Taylor Hicks, George Wallace, Mac King and the Blue Man Group. If Jillette wins, he’ll score $250,000 from the show for Opportunity Village, while Walgreens has pledged to kick over an additional $100,000 if Jillette moves more Swirtle than whatever slop Adkins is shilling.

Last night on American Idol 2013, Angie Miller was surprisingly eliminated, coming in third place for Season 12. Her elimination was quite a shocker for many, but she isn’t the first one to drop jaws with their arguably untimely departures. Let’s take a look at the Top 5, which now officially includes Angie. (Oh, and we’re not getting into people who lost at the finale. That’s a whole other ballgame) American Idol’s Top 5 Most Shocking Eliminations 1. Chris Daughtry, Season 5. Chris was a fan-favorite, but when home in fourth place behind Elliot Yamin, Katherine McPhee and Taylor Hicks. His elimination was so shocking that it has been referred to nearly every time someone after has been surprisingly sent home. Chris’ popularity continued despite his elimination as he’s been way more successful than the Top 3 from that season combined. 2. Melinda Doolittle, Season 6. Having never been in the bottom prior to her elimination during her season, and receiving ONLY positi