How depressing that 2009 X Factor winner Joe McElderry put out a fairly rad (if not a little heavy on covers) solo album this past fall and has already been dropped by Simon Cowell's Syco label. Equally depressing: 2005 X Factor winner Shayne Ward put out a surprisingly-defining sophomore album in 2007, though — let's face it — only slightly listenable third LP in November and, like little Joe, has been dumped by Cowell.
A interesting read in the Daily Mail about both out-on-their-ear lads and the way the Syco machine supposedly works was posted on Saturday.
The gist of it: "It almost doesn’t matter if one act fails to sell records, because there is going to be another television show with a raft of new acts to sign. Simon Cowell and his record label are harsh. But that’s showbiz."
"To all my Fans I am great! Remember Business is business! 1 door closed, A Thousand more will open. :-)"
"I'm looking forward to what lies ahead over summer! Exciting times. Fix up look sharp.- #newchapter"
Good for him. With abspecsan ass positivity like that, he'll land on his feet. Though, if he landed on his back in bed on the set of some porn production in the meantime, well...
Good ol' Archie—he does love to ramble in his video blogs. I admittedly have a soft spot for David Archuleta (though, really, kiddo—that last album, not so good) so it's nice to seem him remaining so upbeat, post label-drop from Jive.
There's a whole bunch of Zen-like hoo-ha in this video blog from the young chap, but the gist is that the Sony execs in charge of Archuleta's trajectory left the company, and the American Idol alum says it just felt like the right time to change as an artiste, and leave the label, too.
Oh, well—Baby Queen and Jive will always have "Crush."
...because his label hates him. Well, okay, maybe that's not the reason David Archuleta, who I affectionately used to refer to as Baby Queen (said with love!) here on CR, doesn't show up on the upcoming American Idol 10th Anniversary - The Hitscompilation, despite having had a Platinum-selling hit with "Crush" in 2008.
Still, Archie has reportedly been dropped by not only his label, Jive, but also his management company. And, really, things weren't looking so hot when his sophomore LP The Other Side Of Down was released in October last year. There appeared to be minor promo set up for the poor guy—he appeared on The Wendy Williams Show (low rent) and Live! With Regis And Kelly (zzzzzz), while a Today Show appearance (a biggie) was canceled last minute.
Billboard reported on Friday that The Other Side Of Down has sold only 67,000 copies, compared to the 765,000 shifted by his self-titled debut. Archuleta came in second to David Cook (quadruple snooze) in the 2008 season of American Idol.
Here's the poor guy in much happier times, when "Crush" was played for the first time on New York's Z100 three years ago:
Baby Queen tweeted the following, post-drop: "Thanks for the support you continue to show! Means a lot. Just wanted to check in [and] let you know things are going where I feel they should."
Well, I'll just repeat what I said when "Crush" landed on Chart Rigger's 10 Best Singles Of 2008 list: "Someday, when you're old enough, Archie, a big male stripper is gonna crush your head like a peanut between his thighs."
I'd take this with a grain of salt, as the original source is apparently News Of The World, but Digital Spy published info and quotes yesterday hinting that if Shayne Ward's next single—apparently the title track from his third album Obsession—doesn't perform well, he'll get the axe from Simon Cowell's SyCo roster.
Well, at least I'm taking it with a grain of salt. Then again, if Shayne isn't bogged down with silly things like recording music, maybe he can spend more time doing photo shoots like the one above (for the December issue of UK Cosmopolitan).
Anyway, says "a source":
"Shayne is finished at SyCo. Simon has tried his best to turn him into a star but it simply hasn't worked. He gave Shayne one more chance after ending his working relationship with Louis but his music hasn't connected with the public.
"The chances of him being a popstar again are incredibly low. It's a huge personal blow to Shayne. For a long time people thought he'd become the next Robbie Williams. But the music industry is ruthless and he is costing the company a lot of money at the moment."
"Shayne is also quite arrogant about his music [and] isn't the easiest person to work with. He will be quietly let go next year and the focus will turn to the new crop of X Factor contestants."
Strange. Shayne hardly comes across as arrogant or difficult to work with. In fact, at times he seemed to be very publicly bending over backwards (and, sadly, not the other way around) to get this album out there.
That said, Obsessionpeaked at #15 on the UK chart, while first single "Gotta Be Somebody" squeaked in at #12. Time will tell—but wouldn't you much rather watch Shayne Ward singing at you than Matt Cardle?
Maybe it's all stemming from comments Shayne supposedly made about recent X Factor contestants One Direction lip sycing? I will say this, though—I ordered Obsession from Amazon UK four weeks ago, and the damn thing never arrived. Bad omen?
