Search Results for: Fireworks

The girls still screamed every time former bar mitzvah singer Justin Guarini flashed his pearly whites, but it was soulful girl-next-door Kelly Clarkson who took home the title of “American Idol” Wednesday night. Coming off her bravura performance on Tuesday, the 20-year-old Burleson, Texas, cocktail waitress brought down the house moments after being crowned the champion of the talent contest. “I can’t believe it’s happening to me,” Clarkson sang, as fireworks rained down behind her during a performance of her soon-to-be-released first single, “A Moment Like This.” A choked-up Clarkson blew a line during her command performance (one of her… Read more »

What were you expecting? A wheelchair, some crutches? Just a few months after a car accident involving singer Scott Stapp derailed Creed’s summer tour, the band is back and, seemingly, no worse for the wear. On the fourth date of the resurrected second leg of their Weathered tour, Creed preached to the converted at a nearly sold-out Polaris Amphitheater on a night when all the flames, fireworks and smoke bombs added heat to the already muggy Midwestern night. The nearly two-hour show was a no-frills affair, with Stapp slowly walking the front of the stage as he belted out one… Read more »

Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, a handful of Hell’s Angels, a gospel choir of 5,000 and a throng of close to 1 million onlookers turned out to help England’s Queen Elizabeth celebrate 50 years on the throne over the weekend at London’s Buckingham Palace. Eric Clapton, Ricky Martin, S Club 7, Spice Girl Emma Bunton, Joe Cocker, Phil Collins, the Corrs, Aretha Franklin, Sir Elton John, Tom Jones, Annie Lennox, Mis-Teeq, Brian Wilson, Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard and Will Young also turned out for the event, which played to a global television audience of millions more over the course… Read more »

In the city of sin, Britney Spears behaved. There was no dissing of Justin Timberlake during the opening night of the second leg of the Dream Within a Dream Tour. No cigarette smoking. No… whatever vice the rumor mills have her doing this week. Things may have changed in Britney’s well-chronicled life since the last time we saw her onstage – and that’s only if you believe the gossip – but there were no signs of it Friday at Mandalay Bay. The 20-year-old headliner was the same pop princess she was at 19. Nearly every part of Spears’ 90-minute show… Read more »

“Let me take you to a place nice and quiet,” Usher sang on “Nice and Slow” halfway through an hour-and-a-half headlining set at Key Arena Wednesday night. “Nice” was all taken care of – and “nasty” got equal time, with Usher playing the roles of both sweet lover and triple-X seducer – but the Key was the furthest thing from quiet. The screams of thousands of lust-crazed female fans surged at every hip thrust and low croon, shaking the arena’s foundations in a way even last year’s 6.8 magnitude quake couldn’t touch. Boasting more outfit changes than Cher, the R&B… Read more »

Two of the bands most responsible for the commercial popularity of melodic punk rock in the 1990s have come together for the coast-to-coast Pop Disaster tour, which touched down Wednesday at the nearly sold-out Forum after two big outdoor shows the previous weekend in Irvine. Both groups approached the show with a workmanlike greatest-hits mentality that was just a tad disappointing. If there was any doubt, Green Day – playing in the middle slot, after Jimmy Eat World – proved it is the better of the two veteran bands with a supertight showcase of its many hits. The San Francisco… Read more »

Some of hip-hop’s biggest names had yet to make their way to the Jackie Gleason Theater a few hours before the Source Hip-Hop Music Awards show was to begin taping late Monday afternoon (August 20). Others had dropped out entirely. Snoop Dogg was scheduled to perform but pulled out at the last minute for undisclosed reasons, and multiple nominee Jay-Z also decided to skip the event. P. Diddy and the Bad Boy Family, like Eminem and D-12, won’t be at Monday’s show but will still be a part of the program, which will air August 28 on UPN. They pre-taped… Read more »

It was heavy metal heaven Saturday at the sun-baked Blockbuster Bowl as an estimated 50,000-plus headbangers took in this year’s 12-hour-long edition of OzzFest, featuring a strong roster of young rock outfits and headlined by the granddaddy of metal bands, Black Sabbath. The main stage, the largest of three, got rolling mid-afternoon with Taproot, Mudvayne and former Ozzy Ozbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde offering varied styles of heavy rock under a blinding sun that pushed temperatures to around 100 degrees. Occupying the middle of the day was Crazy Town, whose members sent numerous shout-outs to the other bands on the bill;… Read more »

During Ozzfest’s stop Thursday in Denver, where the curious and the converted clamored equally for a view at the foot of the stage, Manson introduced two of his favorite themes – religion and government – by blaring an aorta-rumbling choral rendition of “God Bless America” through every one of Mile High Stadium’s aged speakers. Flags blazed on the video screens above the stage; fireworks and fighter jets would not have been out of place. When Manson finally did appear (sporting a flowing black gown and a “Bride of Frankenstein” wig), his hands were outstretched in a gesture that might have… Read more »

LFO, Jon Secada, Aaron Carter and the Monkees will help Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough raise money for his lupus foundation in his hometown of Orlando, Florida, on June 1. Bringing together pop stars from every decade since the ’60s, the concert at Hard Rock Live will also feature performances by Youngstown, Deborah Gibson, the Pointer Sisters and Rascal Flatts. The show is part of a two-day event dubbed Lupus 2001, benefiting the Dorough Lupus Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Dorough and his family after his sister, Caroline Dorough-Cochran, died from the disease in 1998. Dorough will host the concert and… Read more »