Auditions for the next season of American Idol, will be held at the United Center in Chicago on June 22nd.

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Are you the next folksy singer/songwriter Kris Allen? Or are you the new zeitgeist-capturing vocalist Adam Lambert? The choice is yours!! Maybe you could be the next unique artist that the judges are looking for.. Well, heads up coz “American Idol” has just announced season nine auditions dates! It start in Boston in just a couple of weeks (yes, this June already!), going on to Atlanta, Los Angeles, Orlando, Denver, Chicago and Dallas after that. Here’s the complete “American Idol” audition schedule, according to Fox. They spend 3 days in each city, with the first two days ‘registration’ and the last day ‘audition.’

-Boston Gillette Stadium: 6/12/09 to 6/14/09
-Atlanta Georgia Dome: 6/16/09 to 6/18/09
-Los Angeles Rose Bowl: 6/28/09 to 6/30/09
-Orlando Arena: 7/07/09 to 7/09/09
-Denver Mile High: 7/12/09 to 7/14/09
-Chicago: Dates to be announced
-Dallas: Dates to be announced

What are you waiting for? Practice your vocal cords, polish your dance moves, and strut as if you’re the next “American Idol”! Who knows, maybe I’ll be blogging about you come January 2010!

This week it was revealed that some AT&T employees went to Arkansas parties the night of the American Idol finale and taught the people there how to “power text”. The problem: American Idol prohibits “power voting” by text or phone, and has internal safeguards against the practice. While anyone in the United States could phone in votes, only AT&T customers were allowed to text. And according to reports two of the 20 phones sent to “Kris Allen” parties in Arkansas were capable of sending multiple votes by so-called “power texting.” However, a person with knowledge of the voting results, said Kris Allen won by a large enough margin that a handful of voters with two “power texting” phones could not have swayed the outcome.

According to AT&T, “a few local AT&T employees” were invited to attend local viewing parties in Arkansas for the “American Idol” finale, parties the company said were similar to other, “countless” ones held in “homes, bars and other public places” nationwide. AT&T said in its statement: “Caught up in the enthusiasm of rooting for their hometown contestant, they brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.” In a joint statement, Fox and producer FremantleMedia said the results were “fair, accurate and verified” by an independent, third-party monitor to protect the integrity of the voting process. “In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol.“

Early in the finals, Simon Cowell chided the new American Idol champ for bringing out his wife so early in the game. Apparently, the acerbic judge thought Kris Allen’s fans will stop voting for him as he is not available anymore. And the truth is, even Kris’ wife thought the same, LOL! That was how supportive Katy Allen was to her singer hubby! ^_^ According to Kris Allen, “I did the music scene in Arkansas, which isn’t that big, and it didn’t work out and I almost gave up. My wife has been the support ever. I seriously almost gave up a lot and she was just like you have to keep going. She believed in me more than I believed in myself.” And look where he is now! The saying “Behind every man’s success is a woman.” is definitely true! =)

And according to Kris Allen, the one thing he is really looking forward to getting back to is being a husband. He said to Katy after winning American Idol, “Ah, we can be married.” He then explained to reporters backstage after the finale: “We haven’t been able to be married for the last nine months. She’s amazing. She’s just the coolest chick in the world. Hopefully, me and my wife will get to spend some more time together.” Kris Allen also says they definitely know their lives will change with the win. He reveals, “She’s been out here during the whole thing and been going through all this [as well] so we’ve kind of been getting ourselves ready for everything. Things are definitely going to change, but we’re really strong and she’s really cool so [I’m sure] everything’s going to be fine.”

Yesiree! The visually impaired should have had a showcase performance like the other 9 American Idol finalists had. Unfortunately, Scott MacIntyre’s planned duet with fellow contestant Matt Giraud was scrapped just hours before Wednesday’s finale. He blogged in his MySpace page:

“We had two gorgeous grand pianos facing each other on stage, the piano curves fit together like shoes in a shoebox, and close-up camera shots of our fingers and faces … as we sang in turn through Billy Joel’s ‘Tell Her About It’ and dueled it out in a tear-it-up piano solo section. According to some of the producers who witnessed our rehearsal, it was the most exciting and memorable number of the entire Finale show. I have the original Finale flow sheet right here showing the piano duel immediately after Kris Allen and Keith Urban.”

WOW! It does indeed sound exciting! So what happened? Scott MacIntyre revealed, “Out of the blue about 9:30 AM [we] found out the duet had been cut and the decision was final … ‘American Idol’ had originally invited Billy Joel himself to perform with us, but he was unable to make it in the end; and because our duet was the only duet not involving another celebrity, it was the first thing to be cut when the show was condensed.” Awww, that’s just too bad! As with Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, Scott MacIntyre has die-hard fans and I’m sure they are disappointed with the scrapped performance. What happened American Idol??

Popularity, success and money are all fine but the latest champion of American Idol says he just wants respect in the music industry. Kris Allen told reporters in a conference call last Friday, “The only thing that I really want to do is just be respected in the music industry. And whether that means selling albums or winning Grammys or people just liking your music, that’s what I really want to do.” When Kris Allen won American Idol, he was guaranteed a record contract with 19 Recordings and its affiliated labels. He said he planned to release a CD soon after the US nationwide summer tour of this year’s top 10 Idol contestants.

Aside from the guaranteed album, Kris Allen will also star in a Disney commercial shouting the famous phrase “I’m going to Disney World!” =) He’ll also sing “When You Wish Upon A Star”. The American Idol tie-in relates to the “Idol” attraction that opened at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida this year. Disney licensed the rights to create the attraction, which allows allow guests to audition and perform before a live studio audience, from “Idol” co-producers 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia. Now, you can be Kris Allen or any Idol contestant you love!