Kathryn Cross, Salisbury, N.C.
After being runner-up to Kris Allen on Season 8 of Idol, Lambert put out his first album, For Your Entertainment, which sold more than 775,000 copies. When he did a racy number at the American Music Awards in 2009, the openly gay Lambert, 29, acknowledged he got “carried away” onstage but asked why straight artists were not judged as harshly.
In 2010, he launched a world tour and earned a Grammy nomination for best male pop vocal performance for his single Whataya Want From Me. And in March, Lambert released a second album, Glam Nation Live.
Who’s News Column Contributors: Olivia Barker, Cindy Clark, Andrea Mandell, Maria Puente
Larry Isenberg, Tyrone, Pa.
Since 2004’s Chasin’ Wild Trains, the Grammy winner has spent a lot of time touring in South America and Europe, where she has “such a wonderful following.” And yes, at each show, Carnes, 65, performs her ’80s classic, Bette Davis Eyes. Once, when she didn’t, “people were really upset afterward. I thought: ‘That was really stupid. I have to do it.’ Which is fine,” she says. “It’s part of my history.”
Who’s News Column Contributors: Olivia Barker, Gayle Jo Carter, Andrea Mandell, Nancy Mills, Arienne Thompson
Katy Perry is a superstar in the music world since her hits I Kissed a Girl and Hot N Cold from her first album. We posted Brian Truitt’s interview with Katy in the blog in December; in this weekend’s magazine we have a feature on the newly single singer. She’ll perform at Sunday’s Grammy Awards and could even take home a trophy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance but she has stiff competition from Pink, Sara Bareilles and British up-and-comers Leona Lewis, Duffy and Adele. Who do you think should win? Vote in our poll below.
Photo by Michael Ellins
Need reasons to watch the Grammy Awards on Feb. 8? Here are five: U2, Kid Rock, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and Rihanna will perform. And they are just the artists announced today. Other performers you’ll see on the CBS broadcast include Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Paul McCartney (with special guest drummer Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters), Katy Perry, Radiohead, T.I. and Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood, and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West in a special performance of their hit single Swagga Like Us.
There will be some pretty sexy presenters, too. Simon Baker of CBS’
hit The Mentalist, Jack Black, Duffy, Josh Groban, Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow will be handing out trophies. Maybe Paltrow and her husband Chris Martin, the frontman of Coldplay, will finally be seen on a red carpet together. (They generally go out of their way to avoid photographers.)
Photo by H. Darr Beiser/USA Today
