Carly Hennessy — Ultimate High — on sale on iTunes and Amazon

Friday, January 18, 2008, 08:45 AM | American Idol 7, Carly Smithson
Tags: Carly Hennessy

Carly Hennessy

As it stands now, if the hard-core American Idol fans have their way, Carly Hennessy’s chances of becoming the next American Idol are almost zero. Her presence on the show is creating more controversy even before she sang her first note. The buzz started with the blogs and forums, and now the mainstream press is chiming in. I’m already a bit worried that she may not even be chosen for the Top 24. The judges have not chosen the Top 24 yet, but American Idol is monitoring everything right now, fan reactions specially. We’ll see what people have to say next week. At best, she is the “controversy” factor this year, as well as another one of the patented shockers, but we’ll never know.

I’m personally fine with these so-called semi-pros (the other “controversy” this year), but I think the fan backlash may be hard to overcome once they discover (from an easy Google search no less) that a major record label had invested $2.2 million in promoting Carly Hennessy in 2001 — she recorded a CD and even made a video. (What? Taylor Hicks never filmed a video and he won American Idol, and Carly Hennessy already has one? The injustice!) The fact that Fox knows that people will eventually find out about this leads me to believe that someone else is the chosen one — but again, I just may be giving Idol too much credit. Ah yes, should I be towing the Idol-franchise line or not? I’m torn.

Anyway, I heard that Carly Hennessy was a big B during Hollywood Week, but that the judges LOVED her. She could be the biggest villain this show has ever seen… I can’t wait.

Buy Carly Hennessy’s album:

Carly Hennessy — Ultimate High (on Amazon)
Carly Hennessy – Ultimate High (on iTunes)
I’m Gonna Blow Your Mind (on iTunes)

Carly Hennessy

8 Comments for Carly Hennessy — Ultimate High — on sale on iTunes and Amazon

1

Well, it personally really bothers me that she already got a record deal. This show is about finding talent that can sell records, and obviously she can’t (I heard she only sold 300 albums). Instead of giving her a second chance, how about finding someone who didn’t have the opportunity to have a multimillion dollar record deal.

We already know that the initial audition process is as fake, scripted, and manipulative as humanly possible. I can suspend my disbelief, although I think it’s really unfair for all the talented people who lose a spot because the producers wanted to see a fat guy in a bikini instead. But to let this girl audition, and then to pimp her no less, makes me sick to the point that I don’t want to watch the show anymore.

DJ Ryce on January 17, 2008 at 11:39 pm
2

For me, the ’semi-pro vs amateur’ debate is the most over-rated debate since the season 2 finale. Carly is not the first, nor the last person to have had some professional experience prior to appearing on Idol. While I am not looking to have Brittney make a comeback via Idol, having someone I heard of, whether they have been under contract previously or not, sing well and get my attention is what I am looking for.

Most of the contestants to date have had some sort of experience, be it local touring bands, opening for bigger stars, etc. No matter the idol releases, Carrie was not a farmgirl sitting around chatting with the farm animals before Idol came along. She was part of a band that opened for some top ‘Country’ names.

A bigger question for me is how there are so many people willing to vote for their favorite Idol yet far less willing to go out and buy their music. If there are 30+ million people watching AI each week, why can’t the winner and suggested choice of at least 15 million, sell 1 million? Have we really gotten to the point of just voting for the best of the perceived choices, or for someone we really like? Is this the place where the AI experiment has truly failed?

richie on January 18, 2008 at 1:17 pm
3

I agree richie, but this year the purists have potent ammunition since $2.2 million had been invested in Carly Hennessy already. Isn’t that MORE than the actual American Idol conract? Fans will obviously be bothered by that picture.

At any rate, I don’t mind having her. The more controversy the better. She’s hit the ground running with buzz and she’s not even on the show yet.

Rickey on January 18, 2008 at 1:23 pm
4

Rickey, having long heard the rumor the ‘Irish girl with curly hair,’ before anyone gets all bent out of shape, don’t we need to hear her sing live? That, combined with the fact that being a front-runner this early has certainly spelled out doom [for everyone but Carrie Underwood] makes me think people are putting the cart before the horse. And the amount of money invested in her means little, for numbers are just numbers, at least to me. Studios can blow money stupidly with misplaced judgment calls on producers and the like as easily as anyone else can.

richie on January 18, 2008 at 2:27 pm
5

Hmm…we’ll see how she performs under the lights and the media scrutiny. If she pulls a Britney or Amy Winehouse, she’s a goner.

Chicago-48 on January 18, 2008 at 5:20 pm
6

DJ Ryce ~ You make a great point – although I have said elsewhere that I care less about a contestant’s history and more about their future, I say that to mean that I want the winner of this season to sell records and if she was a bomb before what’s to say she won’t be a bomb again? Especially if she’s not very nice during Hollywood. America’s not going to vote for someone unlikeable, no matter how talented s/he is.

Daisy on January 18, 2008 at 7:05 pm
7

Re: Richie

I’m well aware that many of our past idols have had experience (Constantine, Chris Daughtry, Blake Lewis, etc). I don’t have a problem with some contestants having more performing experience than others. In fact, I would be highly suspicious of a contestant who hasn’t expressed any prior interest in pursuing music.

But this is different than having performed at local clubs, singing leads in a school play, or even recording a demo CD. People like that are a dime a dozen, and the fact is, most of them never end up “making it big.”

Carly was signed by a well-known record company and produced an album. Isn’t that sort of the grand prize on AI? In effect, this girl has already won. It would be like having Justin Guarini and Taylor Hicks re-audition after being dropped from their labels. I don’t think anybody wants to see any has-beens on a show that claims to “discover” America’s NEXT great pop star.

DJ Ryce on January 20, 2008 at 10:21 am
8

Oh wow. I actually bought her single I’m Gonna Blow Your Mind a while back. I was like 12 when it came out ( I’m 17 now). Back in the day when they actually sold singles in the US. I used to buy them a lot. In any case I didn’t like it and I threw it away.

Lionsgate on January 20, 2008 at 12:20 pm