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Saturday, May 06, 2006

American Idol; Elvis Presley Theme, Taylor Hicks


Behind the Elvis Theme Week on American Idol one only has to look for a man named Robert F.X. Sillerman. He's a Wall Street operator and sort of a 'Donald Trump' of the media business. A little background: he sold a group of radio stations to Westinghouse (now Viacom)in 1989 for $389 million. Less than a decade later he sold more stations to Hicks Muse for $2.1 billion. He had dealings with Clear Channel in 2000 when he sold a company that owned concert venues for a reported $3 billion. A real wheeler dealer.

Sillerman's latest publicly traded corporation is titled CKX. The CK stands for "content is king," while the 'x' is a reference to one of his middle initials. It's unknown what they stand for but I'm leaning towards 'effects' abbreviated, you know, like seen on the cable FX station, or on an SUV made by Infinity Motors. Well it is his little secret. Sillerman made a business deal with Lisa Marie Presley in 2004, then moved to buy the smash-hit TV show American Idol and other properties from a company called 19 Entertainment (19E), which was previously owned by British pop mogul Simon Fuller. So you can see where this is leading...Regarding the business arrangements brokered with Lisa Marie Presley, what the man owns is Elvis Presley Enterprises. EPE generates $40 million in annual revenue from Graceland tours, onsite retailing, and licensing, an apartment complex and the much promoted Heartbreak Hotel. American Idol, Bob Sillerman and 19E create a tangled but understandable money making thread, therefore we have American Idol able to throw an Elvis Presley Theme week and Sillerman able to promote his EPE ventures. Win, Win, for Sillerman and Elvis Presley entertainment from the final four contestants remaining on Idol.

Taylor Hicks and his compatriots will visit Graceland where they will have a tour accompanied by Priscilla Presley. To prepare for the competition this week, insight and guidance will be provided by Tommy Mattola. (I haven't figured that one out yet). I've been reading about the fortunate A.I. fans able to commute or that live in the vicinity, staking out Graceland with the hope of seeing their favorites. Ah, yes, I can just picture myself hanging on the music themed wrought iron entry gates of Graceland... Screaming like a giddy fangirlly freak, "Taylor! Taylor! Tay...!"

Snapping back to a semblance of reality, and back to topic, the overwhelming challenge the contestants will face under this theme is the dreaded 'Karaoke' label. This should pose a real test of their individual artistic abilities. (I'm not just talking about taking an Elvis song like "Burning Love" and giving it the "Creed" alt-rock treatment to 'make it their own', ala the "Live" turn of "Walk the Line," performed by Daughtry.) Definitely a challenging genre, creating lots of speculation and excitement for this crazily popular talent show.

It's a given that Taylor Hicks will have the highest hurdle to jump this week to avoid the dreaded "K" label. Hicks is proving he is not a stupid man, I am confident The Soulman will carefully consider all options. Overall, Taylor has been demonstrating that he is a winner, a champion performer with a heart for success. Like Secretariat, Taylor Hicks "knows how to run a great race", he hasn't won all the Idol races so far, but the ones he has had the other contestants 20 lengths behind, blinded by flying sand. On-line, Hicks has the largest confirmed fanbase and is all ready demonstrating his growing international appeal. The man has true star power evidenced by his performances of "Taking it to the Streets", "Living for the City", "Trouble," and the brilliant combination of "Play That Funky Music White Boy," by "Wild Cherry" teamed with George Harrison's "Something." No doubt, I am biased.

It may be unavoidable, that no matter what Taylor Hicks performs, a certain ascerbic judge may have already penned the dreaded "K" label on his index card. Conversely, when considering some of the 'master-minds' behind the Idol scenes such as the obviously brilliant Bob Sillerman, Hicks should be garnering the recognition, internally, within the monied fraternization needed to promote and develop his career.

My advice to Taylor Hicks, "Lay it all on the stage, baby, and don't look back!"

Groove on Soulman!

8 comments:

  1. I POSTED YOUR SITE ON MY SITE AS A LINK TO A GREAT PAGE FOR TAYLOR HICKS. Your page is AWESOME !
    You have it all. I hope he wins it all. He is such an entertainer. The best and I love his unique style. What a guy. Thanks so much for having this site. Go and check out a post I did on TAYLOR. I think you will love th pic of him I have with his eyebrown moving. Its cool. Take care and luck to Taylor, for you, me and a whole heap of others out there !! woohoo ! Go Taylor.

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  2. mustangpatty51 - thanks for your comments. I hope Taylor just completely shows what I know he has and seals the deal tomorrow night! Good to see you - I remember you from last year's Bo Bice push! Man Bice and Hicks what a pair of great guys from Alabama!

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  3. anastasia - i followed your link to your site, and I was blown away, I have been following the Natalee case since day one. My daughter attends the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, last I heard they were still holding a room for her in the dorm. Tragic and so sad. I wonder if that new suspect is real or a fall-guy. I think about Natalee often.
    Thanks for your kind comments on my blogsite.

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  4. Hi Sunny. thanks for visiting "our" "sites". I don't put much about Natalee on the worlds out of control site where I sent ya. I put a variety of different stuff there. I DID NOT LIKE WHAT "SIMON SAID" about Taylor tonite. Hope everyone will vote for Taylor tonite. I am sure his second song will be as good as his first. GO TAYLOR. YOU ROCKED THE HOUSE TONITE !! WE LOVE YOU TAYLOR.

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  5. I hope my post went through . If it did not I will repost later. THE SITE WAS BUSY.

    Now that TAYLOR SANG HIS OTHER SONG I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH. ROCK ON TAYLOR. YOU ARE THE BEST. Thanks Sunny for this site. GO TAYLOR. Vote vote vote for Taylor.

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  6. Yeah - I'm riding with blogger - it's free and we each have a certain amount of bandwidth. I got hit 2 wks ago so hard I had to re-create the blog from scratch - within 6 hours I had 11,003 hits. It completely K.O.'ed and Crashed my site - now what blogger does - if I start getting hit hard they shut me down for a while... I will eventually have to switch servers... it's been for a GREAT CAUSE.

    I had 3 go phones 1 cell phone and the home phone dialing - we could hardly get through.

    I so love what Tay brings to the table... Groove on Soulman!

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  7. Sunny, now we know what happened to your site. But..I can see why. Its just a great site. You did a great job putting it together. I see the posts I did did go through afterall. And...sory to hear you had to redo everything. That must have been a heartbreaker !! Good luck to you lady, and luck to TAYLOR. He's the man. Will check in with you tonite. :O)

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  8. Anonymous9:06 AM

    If you would like to hear Taylor sing his Elvis songs click here

    http://www.elvispresleynews.com/Elvis-AmericanIdol.html

    enjoy, ElvisFan

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