Idol Gives Back Show - 4/9/08

Let's applaud this worthy cause before I begin my re-cap. I do apologize for being so delayed with this re-cap but I was with my daughter and did not see my taped show until quite late. While I do think this worthy cause is wonderful I do have to add that I thought last year's show was better for performances. Who can forget seeing the heartfelt moments of seeing Josh Groban with the African Children's Choir, truly inspired singing from IL Divo and of course others who performed so well. That aside, the message is still the same: Let's save a life tonight, DONATE!

:cheers:Great start with 3000 people at the Kodak Theatre and 30 million watching this wonderful event. Ryan announces this is "Idol Gives Back". Loved, loved the opening act of the idols and the dancers of "So You Think You Can Dance" performing Rhianna's "Don't Stop The Music". I recognized so many of the dancers: Danny, Lacey and Benji dancing (definitely two of my favorites), Neil, Lauren (she does adore David Cook it looks like), Donyelle (sadly she has re-gained her weight), Travis (cutie), Hok and another favorite of mine Dominic. Another cute moment of Ryan trying to dance. Definitely a real highlight of the evening!

Our parade of stars: Bravo to all for donating their time for this wonderful event. I am grouping them all together for thanks.

Nascar Jimmie Johnson
George Lopez speaking to spanish community
Kylie Minogue who looks wonderful in spite of her breast cancer.
Maria Shriver with the volunteers and reminding us we can be heroes.
Ben Stiller with his gugillion dollars speech
Kobe Bryant wearing a band aid to remind us of giving aid
Triple H looking scary
Mary Murphy screaming too much I think, poor Nigel covers his ears
Jonas Brothers
Commercial showing many stars with a message of One. org
Julianne Moore with her message for Save The Children
John Cena wrestling cutie
Adam Sandler with his dog
The Beckhams
Kiefer Sutherland, he looks great
Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale
Whoopi Goldberg sadly looking so much older than her years
Ellen DeGeneras ragging on Oprah but still with a message of hope
Sarah Silverman who judges Gloria Esteban
Keith Urban looking so handsome
Rob Schneider who mentions Bono
Tyra Banks looking lovely as usual
David Spade who introduces Brad Pitt

If I forgot anyone, I apologize but want to say I applaud their efforts.

:sad: Sad Clips With Hope For A Better Life

Jennifer Connolly in a video about clean water

Paula and Randy showing us the impoverished area of Goshen, California which is only 100 miles from Hollywood. Sweet Christian shows us around this sad but true area of violence and poverty. Thanks to Allstate who sponsored this clip of "Save The Children".

Bono who is a true humanitarian with Isabina (a very caring woman) who shows us the plight of a 14 year old girl with Aids. Our caring Isabina has lost 3 of her own children to this dreaded disease and my heart goes out to her for her efforts.

Eli and Peyton Manning giving us a moment with younger Katrina victims and the horrors they saw during this awful hurricane. Thankfully they are still alive.

Bono again showing us the young boy Deloy who has a memory box of the parents he has lost. I am crying just thinking what these orphan children go through daily.

Annie Lennox who holds back the tears until later. She goes with 4 brothers who are now orphaned. Thank god they are negative after being tested. My heart cries with her knowing that a 15 year old boy is raising this family. Very heartfelt performance of "Many Rivers To Cross" by this caring woman.

Celine Dion also with orphaned children in Africa.

Simon Cowell shows us the healthcare crisis in America then introduces Carrie Underwood who looking quite beautiful sings "Praying For Time".

Forest Whitaker and his wife gives us a sad insight into the Malaria problem in Africa. His message speaks loud and clear: One net, one pill, one life. I applaud Prime Minister Gordon Brown who is donating 20 million nets for this cause.

Reese Witherspoon giving us views of The Children's Defense Fund.

Dane Cook who introduces Alicia Keys who is the global ambassador for the charity Keep A Child Alive. Sadly again we learn that 13 million children are orphaned by the killer Aids. Her message to the media, skip the stars problems and focus on a true crisis.

A clip of Daughtry going to Uganda. Props for going to the area Chris with your band however I felt like I was watching the makings of a video to plug his song "What About Now". However, thanks for bringing some sunshine to these kids.

Sorry if I forgot anyone. Thank you for these clips to show us how lucky we are to have heroes and for those of us who can count our blessings knowing we do not have to endure these tragedies.


The Performances:

Snoop Dogg with Charlie Wilson and the Snoop Football League of L. A. Those boys looked so cute and the song "Can't Say Goodbye" lets us know about street life. I do however have to add I was distracted by the bling, bling mic of Snoop Dogg. In the future Snoop leave the jewels at home when doing a charity event.

Carrie Underwood with Mike the plumber under the sink leads us to a surprise performance of Teri Hatcher singing Carrie's hit song "Before He Cheats". I was impressed that she could sing and she does well with this number. Did you notice James Denton of Desperate Housewives fame playing the guitar? Carrie gives Teri a well-deserved hug after the performance.

An enjoyable moment with Billy Crystal and Miley Cyrus. It was very funny I thought and sorry to say more impressive to me personally than the performance of 15 year old Miley singing "Good and Broken".

Nice moment with John Legend and Fergie. I would have loved to hear John sing however he plays the piano as Fergie sings "Finally". She can really belt out the music.

Great follow-up with Fergie again performing with a favorite of mine Heart. Ann and Nancy still have the "oomph" as all 3 perform "Barracuda". Definitely a personal highlight for me. Loved the hand flips Fergie did also.

Jimmy Kimmel heckling a not very enthused Simon was a hoot. Simon does pay him back later by saying he loves the Jay Leno show.

A real treat seeing Gloria Esteban, Sheila E, the choir and our wonderful dancers doing "Get On Your Feet". It still amazes me how Gloria came back after her near fatal accident of years again. A real trouper!

Definitely a wonderful moment with our top 8 singing "Seasons of Love" from the show Rent.

Miley Cyrus performs "See You Again". Another sad clip as our Hannah Montana girl with her dad Billy Ray visit the poor area of Clay County in Kentucky. It is unreal that people actually live like this day by day.

Robin Williams acting as a Russian Idol. I love Robin but could have lived without this performance. Cute moment however when Robin gives Simon's butt a squeeze.

Mariah Carey performing with Randy Jackson and the choir. She looks wonderful and does an awesome job singing "Fly Like A Bird". This is indeed one talented singer.

Our idols give the last performance of "Shout to The Lord" and sound great in my opinion.

The major organizations who are are sponsers of this worthy cause:

News Corporation, Coca Cola, Ford, Allstate, ExxonMobil, AT & T, Mac Aids Fund, ITunes, Freemantle Media, 19.

Bravo to them for their push of over 15 million dollars in the beginning of the show.

In closing I again thank American Idol for caring enough to hopefully make the lives of the less fortunate people we saw tonight get the help they so deserve.

Hugs to all who participated.

Wow great review CC, Thanks as usual. I watched the show last night and it was ok but in all honesty I think last year was better and I don't understand why they didn't have more of the former Idols on, strange. But maybe it's just me, I loved the Billy Crystal part, he is so funny. I also LOVED the Jimmy K part, loved it he to is funny but I just love Billy Crystal. It is a worthy cause and it broke my heart to see those poor kids and the way they've had to live and continue to do so, just surviving conditions like they live in makes me relize just how good I have it. I'd love to be able to give each one of them a new home and parents and all the good things in live. It is so sad to see.
Thanks for the great review..

:D Hi Sandi, thanks for posting. I had so much I had to cover for this particular show I just now realized I forgot to include the clip of Chris Daughtry visiting Uganda. I thought it was great that he and his band went to bring some sunshine to those kids but in a way I felt like I was watching him making a video to plug his newest release "What About Now". I hope I am wrong about this but Chris really irritates me to no end with his music.

Anyway it was a very worthy cause and yeppers I agree with you about helping those kids.

Be chatting with you soon, take care!