Jordin Sparks is set to sing during the “Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular” show in New York, NBC said Monday.
Also slated to perform at the event, which is to be televised on NBC, are Kenny Chesney, Natasha Bedingfield and Katharine McPhee.
Natalie Morales, NBC’s “Today” national correspondent, and Tiki Barber, “Today” correspondent and “Football Night in America” studio analyst, are to preside over the Independence Day festivities.
“Macy’s 2008 Fourth of July Fireworks will kick off a season of special events nationwide celebrating Macy’s 150th Birthday. The nation’s biggest fireworks show begins with a resounding musical fanfare accompanied by a dazzling pyrotechnic salute to the world’s largest store,” Robin Hall, Macy’s Fireworks executive producer, said in a statement. “Macy’s Fireworks is always rated the No. 1 show in America by the American Pyrotechnic Association, and we’re convinced the 2008 show will be no exception.”
The vocal ailment that has silenced “American Idol” champion Jordin Sparks will take discipline to overcome, a New York doctor says.
Sparks, 18, dropped off the Alicia Keyes tour due to what a spokesman at 19 Recordings/Jive Records described as acute vocal cord hemorrhaging.
“Sparks has been going nonstop over the past two years, and now she’s going through the normal course of learning how to manage and care for her voice,” the spokesman told Tuesday’s New York Post.
The same ailment nearly ended Frank Sinatra’s career in 1950s, the newspaper noted.
New York vocal cord specialist Dr. Jeffrey Libin said silence is a “non-negotiable” for the young singer.
“You have to cancel (concerts), I don’t care if you’re singing the national anthem at Madison Square Garden,” Libin told the Post. “If you have vocal cord hemorrhaging and it’s caught early, the great majority will resolve completely.”
Vocal problems have forced Jordin Sparks to temporarily withdraw from Alicia Keys’ tour and cancel all performances for the rest of the month, a representative for the “American Idol” champ said Monday.
“All of her April activities have been postponed or canceled so she can take care of her voice properly,” 19/Jive Records spokeswoman Wendy Washington told The Associated Press.
The 18-year-old singer, whose hits include “Tattoo” and “No Air,” was scheduled to be the opening act on Keys’ tour, which kicked off over the weekend in Hampton, Va. Washington said in addition to missing the tour’s first month, Sparks was forced to cancel a planned performance at the Earth Day Network & Green Apple Festival concert in Washington, D.C.
Washington said Sparks is expected to rejoin Keys’ tour in May.
“Jordin Sparks is on vocal rest and is expected to make a full and complete recovery,” according to a statement from 19/Jive Records. “Sparks has been going nonstop over the past two years and now she’s going through the normal course of learning how to manage and care for her voice.”
Sparks was the youngest winner of “American Idol” when she won the talent competition last year. She released her self-titled debut album late last year.
Rock icon Alice Cooper and “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks participated in the dedication of the site where a new teen music center will be built.
When completed, the $7 million center known as The Rock will feature a multiuse concert hall, recording studio, sound rooms, coffee house, and indoor basketball courts and rock-climbing walls.
The center at Arizona’s Grand Canyon University was designed to provide a safe, productive place to socialize and make music, the university said in a statement.
Cooper is a long-time contributor to Grand Canyon University, supports scholarships and received an honorary doctorate there, while Sparks, whose grandmother is a GCU alumnus, designated The Rock as one of the charities to which she would donate a portion of her winnings.
Both performers are Phoenix natives.
“With Grand Canyon University’s support, we are fulfilling a vision we’ve had for several years — to provide teens and children with a central place to learn, have fun, and explore their creativity in a supportive environment,” Cooper said in a statement. “I hope that in years to come, The Rock will be the first of many such teen centers in Arizona and around the country.”
Jordin Sparks’ self-titled debut album has debuted at No. 10 on this week’s The Billboard 200 album sales chart after selling only 119,000 copies during its initial week of release, according to Nielsen Soundscan data for the week ending November 25.
The American Idol sixth-season champ’s debut album sales numbers represent the lowest first-week debut album sales of any former Idol winner. “Jordin Sparks’” No. 10 ranking also ranks as the lowest initial Billboard 200 chart placement for any former Idol winner’s debut album, according to Billboard.
“Jordin Sparks’” 119,000 sales figure “shattered” the poorest-performing first-week sales record of the Idol winner debut album that previously held the dubious honor. “Free Yourself,” the 2004 debut album of American Idol third-season winner Fantasia Barrino, debuted at No. 8 on The Billboard 200 and sold 240,000 first-week copies when it was released in the same Thanksgiving week sales period that Sparks’ album hit stores this year.
“A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream),” the debut album of sixth-season American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis, is scheduled for release on December 4.
Nearly three months after her crowning, sixth-season American Idol champion Jordin Sparks has officially signed a recording contract.
The 17-year-old Glendale, AZ native will cut her debut album with 19 Recordings/Jive Records. Jive is part of the Zomba Label Group, a division of Sony BMG. 19 Recordings is part of 19 Entertainment, the company founded by Idol creator Simon Fuller.
“We’re thrilled to welcome the partnership with 19 Recordings and Jordin Sparks as the first Idol winner to make her home at Jive,” said Barry Weiss, CEO and president of Zomba. “Her poise, her amazing vocal ability, her relentless optimism has been apparent to millions of fans all around the world. We’re honored to have this burgeoning worldwide superstar on Jive Records.”
Jive is scheduled to launch Sparks’ first single “Tattoo” on August 27 for radio airplay, with plans to drop her debut album in November.
“Jordin is a terrific young singer who has found a great home at Jive,” said Sony BMG chairman Clive Davis. “[Weiss] and his successful team know how to patiently nurture career artists, and Jordin Sparks hints of a legacy and longevity waiting to be fulfilled.”
Sparks can currently be seen performing on Idol 6’s summer tour, which is scheduled to come to an end September 22 in Manchester, NH. In addition, she’s also scheduled to appear on Fox’s The Teen Choice Awards on August 26.
American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and finalists Blake Lewis and Melinda Doolittle join superstar Martina McBride on the live broadcast of the “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks® Spectacular.” Jordin, Blake and Melinda will perform one song together in tribute to the Nation’s 231st birthday. Check your local listings to find out where and when.
Then, only two days later, they join the other Top 10 Idols on tour. Find out more about the American Idols Tour.
It’s shaping up to be a busy summer for recently crowned sixth-season “American Idol” champion Jordin Sparks, who’ll be juggling preparations for her debut album with her participation on the Fox mega-hit’s 2007 summer concert tour, Reality TV World informs.
“Nothing can prepare you for what happens afterwards,” Sparks told “Entertainment Tonight” on Tuesday about life following her Idol win.
“I still can’t believe it is actually happening. It has been great. I asked for it, and I am so glad I got it,” she added.
Beginning next week, the 17-year-old Glendale, AZ-native will embark on the show’s American Idol 2007 concert tour that will span 56 dates and 35 states over the course of two-and-a-half months.
Flights between tour locations and Los Angeles will be the norm for Sparks this summer, and while she’s confident her stamina won’t fail her, she’s hoping the same can be said for her talent that won over the Idol audience.
A new rumor has come out. “American Idol” champ Jordin Sparks and runner-up Blake Lewis might have a little romance going there. They have denied it time and again of course but AOL’s Celebrity website TMZ.Com still dares to go there in a report from the newsroom on Friday.
They note that the unlikely but kinda of cute would be couple Jordin and Blake have been looking awfully cozy in the afterglow of their “American Idol” glory, The National Ledger informs.
The website report notes that a TMZ spy spotted the “Idol” finalists “holding hands” while shopping at a Fry’s Electronics store near Los Angeles. The report claims that the spy dished that they did what couples do, they wandered around the store, unmolested, and seemed “happy” together.
Despite hundreds of reports to the contrary, “American Idol” Jordin Sparks wasn’t born on Staten Island, according to the Staten Island Advance.
On Dec. 22, 1989, Jodi Wiedmann gave birth to a healthy baby girl at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix.
“I can definitely confirm that Jordin and I were at St. Joe’s in Phoenix on the morning of Dec. 22, 1989!” Ms. Sparks’ mother said.
When the New York Post reported in April that Ms. Sparks was an Island native, they had it wrong, as did subsequent reports in papers from Virginia to Singapore, Staten Island Advance informs.
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ocal problems have forced Jordin Sparks to temporarily withdraw from Alicia Keys’ tour and cancel all performances for the rest of the month, a representative for the “American Idol” champ said Monday.
