Kristy Lee Cook’s Idol Secret
Kristy Lee Cook's American Idol run was marked by a number of stays in the bottom three and, as it turns out, a secret engagement.
Cook's boyfriend popped the question in the sauna of her Idol apartment on March 15, days after she survived her first elimination round as a finalist.
The country-inclined singer was able to share this detail with reporters Thursday because she did not survive Idol's latest elimination round Wednesday night.
After an especially Byzantine results show, Cook, 24, was revealed to be the odd singer out, exiting in Mariah Carey week with the inaptly titled "Forever."
"I was kind of upset that I went home because I thought I was getting stronger and stronger," Cook said. "I thought ["Forever"] was my best performance so far. I thought I had at least another week in me."
Cook said her goal was to make the top five. In the end, she finished seventh.
No stranger to the bottom threeshe was there four out of the last six weeksCook "built up a stamina for it." And so when host Ryan Seacrest divided the finalists into curious groups Wednesday night, Cook wasn't fazed, even if Carly Smithson was.
Smithson, Cook said, was convinced that Cook's groupshe was sent to stand next to her nonrelation David Cookwas the safe group. "They're going to do something that's so off the wall," Cook said she advised the nonbelievers.
Cook was right. David Cook, the show's emotional favorite, was sent to safetyand to Smithson's group. Kristy Lee Cook, Brooke White and Syesha Mercado ultimately comprised the unsafe group.
Cook took the opportunity of her exit to sing her swan song right in the face of her chief critic, judge Simon Cowell.
" 'Well, you made it awkward for me,' " Cook said Cowell told her. "And I said, 'Well, now you know how you make it for all of us.' "
Of Cowell, Cook said, "He didn't really get what I have. I still don't think he does."
On a happier note Wednesday night, Cook's boyfriend, whom she identified only as Andy, reproposed on the Idol set, dropping to his kneea move he didn't do the first time out in the sauna. "He owed it to me," she said.
Cook didn't talk about her engagement earlier because of all the Idol-related madness that goes with being a finalist. "The first time we tried to keep everything on the down-low," she said.
There's no wedding date yet, although Cook guessed she might walk down the aisle in June 2009. And she more than guessed that she might invite the Idol judges, Cowell included.
"Oh, yes, of course I would," Cook said. "I definitely would."
Other tidbits:
- Conventional wisdom had it that Cook saved her endangered bacon a couple of weeks ago when performed the critic-proof "God Bless the U.S.A." But Cook denied working any angles. "It wasn't like a huge thought process," she said of the song selection. "My dad was in Vietnam. He absolutely loved that song. I've loved that song, and sang it for a long time."
- Cook's eviction means the Vote for the Worst has lost its latest champion. (Prior to Cook, the Idol-vexing site had stumped for Amanda Overmyer, Danny Noriega and Amy Davis). At last check Thursday, Vote for the Worst had not settled on its next new anti-hero.
- First Madonna, then Kristy Lee Cook. It could have been. Had Cook survived to sing on next week's Andrew Lloyd Webber recital, she said she would have performed Evita's "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina."
- No novice, Cook had a major label record deal when she was 17. But her album never came out, and Cook said she didn't regret putting herself through the Idol cattle call. "My career was a long time ago," she said. "And I needed this to get my career started again."
- Once upon a time, Cook was signed by Britney Spears' production company. If Cook's former boss was keeping tabs on her former protégé's Idol run, she didn't make it known. "I actually haven't heard from her," Cook said. "It's been a long time since I've been in contact with her."
- On Wednesday's show, Cook called Cowell "kind of a butt." Her statement was the product of due deliberation. Said Cook: "I was debating brat and butt."
Idol’s Other Cook Lands Record Deal
American Idol’s most proudly (or maybe just strategically) American finalist has landed herself a record deal.
Maybe she can celebrate with some apple pie.
The recently betrothed Kristy Lee Cook has inked a deal with 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville for a twang-heavy album debut, with her first single, “15 Minutes of Shame,” already getting an Aug. 11 release date.
The as-yet unnamed album will be recorded, as with Davids Cook and Archuleta, on the road this summer during the Idols Live! tour. While no firm release date has been announced for the album, like the Davids’, it will be due out this fall, presumably after David Cook’s.
Kirsty Lee Cook is wasting no time taking a page out of past Idols’ playbooks: Arista Nashville is also home to Carrie Underwood, and her album is being produced by Brett James, who cowrote Underwood’s megahit “Jesus Take the Wheel.”
(Hopefully Cool will fare better than Idol alums Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard, Katharine McPhee and Blake Lewis, all of whom have been dropped by their respective RCA-owned labels this year.)
Signing up with Arista Nashville also marks a return to Cook’s roots, as the singer was signed to the label as a countrified teen but parted ways with the company before getting the chance to record anything.
American Idol Cuts Down To 12
American Idol Cuts Down To 12
Last night, “American Idol’s” pool of potential winners got a little bit smaller, cutting from sixteen to twelve. And the lucky finalists have the most colorful backgrounds of any season to date.
Syesha Mercado, for instance, is a 21-year-old actress with past acting credits including a Ford Automobile commercial, while David Archuleta, a seventeen-year-old crooner, has a 2003 “Star Search” win under his belt.
And that’s not all… David Hernandez was outed by his former Dick’s Cabaret manager as having done some stripping in his pre-Idol days. But he still made the cut.
During last night’s elimination round, Kady Malloy, Luke Menard, Asia’h Epperson, and Danny Noriega were all given the boot, leaving a dozen contestants to carry on in next week’s competition. As a side note, they’ll be singing Lennon-McCartney Beatles songs, as a result of a long negotiation process with Sony/ATV Music Publishing (of which Michael Jackson is a part).
The remaining American Idols are as follows:
- David Archuleta, 17, Murray, Utah
- Jason Castro, 20, Rockwall, Texas
- David Cook, 25, Blue Springs, Mo.
- Kristy Lee Cook, 24, Selma, Ore.
- Chikezie Eze, 22, Inglewood, Calif.
- David Hernandez, 24, Glendale, Ariz.
- Michael Johns, 29, Los Angeles
- Ramiele Malubay, 20, Miramar, Fla.
- Syesha Mercado, 21, Sarasota, Fla.
- Amanda Overmyer, 23, Mulberry, Ind.
- Carly Smithson, 24, San Diego
- Brooke White, 24, Mesa, Ariz
Idols Hit the Road
Millions will vote for the latest American Idol. Only nine will spend the summer with him.
Tickets for this summer's annual American Idols Live! Tour are set to go on sale Saturday for the more than 50 stops on the North American trek.
The top 10 contestants will all be hitting the road July 1, with the two finalists, Davids Cook and Archuleta, leading the way.
Fellow also-rans Syesha Mercado, Brooke White, Carly Smithson, Chikezie Eze, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns and Ramiele Malubay will make up the numbers for the stage extravaganza, which fans will no doubt get a taste of next Wednesday. Producers historically put their show ponies to work in several cheesily staged group numbers, aka filler, on the two-hour finale show.
Full itinerary after the jump.
- July 1: Glendale, Ariz.
- July 2: San Diego
- July 3: Fresno, Calif.
- July 5: Las Vegas
- July 7: Los Angeles
- July 8: San Jose, Calif.
- July 9: Sacramento
- July 11: Portland, Ore.
- July 12: Tacoma, Wash.
- July 14: West Valley City, Utah
- July 18: St. Louis
- July 19: Rosemont, Ill.
- July 20: Columbus, Ohio
- July 22: Indianapolis, Ind.
- July 23: Cincinnati
- July 24: Detroit
- July 26: Toronto
- July 27: Rochester, N.Y.
- July 29: Pittsburgh
- July 30: Newark, N.J.
- Aug. 2: Atlantic City, N.J.
- Aug. 4: Long Island
- Aug. 6: Albany, N.Y.
- Aug. 8: Hartford, Conn.
- Aug. 9: Worcester, Mass.
- Aug. 10: Manchester, N.H.
- Aug. 12: Baltimore
- Aug. 13: Philadelphia
- Aug. 14: Washington, D.C.
- Aug. 16: Lexington, Ky.
- Aug. 17: Charlotte, N.C.
- Aug. 18: Duluth, Ga.
- Aug. 20: Sunrise, Fla.
- Aug. 21: Tampa
- Aug. 24: Houston
- Aug. 25: Dallas
- Aug. 26: Bossier City, La.
- Aug. 28: Oklahoma City
- Aug. 29: Kansas City, Mo.
- Aug. 31: Minneapolis, Minn.
- Sept. 2: Green Bay, Wis.
- Sept. 3: Grand Rapids, Mich.
- Sept. 4: Cleveland
- Sept. 6: Bridgeport, Conn.
- Sept. 7: Providence, R.I.
- Sept. 8: Wilkes Barre, Pa.
- Sept. 10: Ft. Wayne, Ind.
- Sept. 11: Evansville, Ind.
- Sept. 13: Tulsa, Okla.