Idol Chartwatch, June 2, 2003

Welcome to the first of our weekly articles that will update you on how well your favorite American Idol alumni doing in their current projects. There is a lot of anticipation and excitement building as we get ready for the American Idol 2 tour, the release of the first singles from Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, Justin Guarini’s debut album, and the arrival of From Justin to Kelly in theaters. It’s going to be an exciting summer!

Kelly Clarkson:

“Miss Independent,” her follow up to last year’s number-one selling “A Moment Like This,” continues to storm the charts. This week it moved up from number 30 to number 22 on the Billboard singles chart in only its 4th week of release. The video for the song has become the number one request at MTV’s Total Request Live.

Meanwhile, Kelly’s debut album Thankful has jumped back up the Billboard album chart to number 3. The past couple of weeks have seen a decline in sales and the album was about to fall out of the top 10. The strong performance of “Miss Independent,” along with Kelly’s appearance on the finale of American Idol 2 has breathed new life into the platinum selling album, which is now well on the way to selling its second million copies.

On the Horizon

From Justin To Kelly
Kelly Clarkson’s first movie will hit theaters on June 13, 2003. Estimates indicate that the film is presently set to appear on 1,376 screens in North America, but it is projected that it may achieve the 2,000-screen level prior to release. Brief ads for the film have finally begun to appear on MTV, the Disney Channel, and Fox Family with further advertising scheduled on several other national networks. Kelly, along with costar Justin Guarini, will be making promotional appearances for the film on The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman, along with several other talk shows. Check local listings for dates and times. A tentative release date for the videocassette and DVD of the film has been set for November of 2003. Budgeted at $15 million, studio hopes are that the film will open with ticket sales between $7-10 million during the first weekend of release.

Low
Kelly Clarkson has stated in interviews that the follow up release to “Miss Independent” will be “Low”. No word yet on video plans or on an official release date, but it will likely begin getting heavy airplay roughly three weeks after “Miss Independent” begins to slip out of the top 40. (As has happened before with AI, this has changed since just a few weeks previously when Kelly appeared on Oprah along with the AI2 contestants, and sang “The Trouble With Love Is” – it was said that would be her next single.

Justin Guarini:

As everyone knows, his debut album will be released on June 10, 2003. The self-titled record is available for presale. No definite word yet on a single or video. As of this writing, the album is ranked at #78 on Amazon’s sales chart.

Midnight Voices is an album of a cappella music that features Justin’s singing. It has been out of print for several years, but is now in re-release. It is available at www.justinguarini.us/welcome.html, but be aware that Justin will receive no royalties or money from sales of the album and this is a very independent release. It is solely for people who wish to own everything that Justin has been involved with in his career.

On the Horizon

Keep watching here for news on the first single release and the video.

From Justin to Kelly:
As stated above, Justin will make his movie debut on June 13, 2003. Please see Kelly’s section above for further details and promotional appearances.

Clay Aiken:

Clay’s first single release is currently available for presale and is slated for release on June 10, 2003. It will contain the two songs: “This is the Night” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It is currently the #1 item on Amazon’s sales chart.

On the Horizon

Clay will also be appearing on tour with the rest of the American Idol 2 finalists throughout the summer. We will report official sales receipts from the tour as they become available.

Ruben Studdard:

Ruben’s first single will be released on June 3, 2003 and is also available for presale. The two-song single will contain “Flying Without Wings” and his remake of the Carpenters hit, “Superstar.” The release is currently riding at #8 on the Amazon sales chart.

On the Horizon

Other American Idol products:

American Idol Season 2: All-time Classic American Love Songs

If you have information you wish to be included in Chartwatch or have news about upcoming releases that may be of interest please send us an e-mail!

You can order any (or all) of the CDs at Amazon.com:

Clay’s Single: “This Is The Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water”


Ruben’s Single: “Flying Without Wings/Superstar”


Justin’s Album


Kelly’s Album, Thankful


Season 2: All-Time Classic American Love Songs

Mr. Barker is co-owner of Movie Boss (www.movieboss.com), a free online movie game, and author of "Zippers," a humor column that looks at mistakes in movies. He can be reached at BBarker@movieboss.com.

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