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Idol Auditions, Take Seven

Mon., Jun. 25, 2007 6:31 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Plans for the next Idol invasion are already well underway.

Fox announced Monday that auditions for the seventh season of American Idol will kick off July 28 in San Diego, when however many thousands of aspiring pop stars and attention hounds will be allowed to bombard Qualcomm Stadium for wristbands securing their place in line.

Then, starting July 30, the singing (and shrieking…and warbling…and posturing…) will begin.

The upcoming installment of the Simon Fuller-produced ratings juggernaut will then make stops in Dallas; Omaha, Nebraska; Atlanta; Charleston, South Carolina; Miami and Philadelphia as part of its latest quest to find the perfect mix of the promising and the bizarre en route to Hollywood.

American Idol's seventh season will premiere in January 2008.

But if that seems like an awfully long time to be bereft of the Idol influence, fear not. The American Idols Live Tour, featuring season six's top 10 finalists, gets underway July 6 in Sunrise, Florida, and winner Jordin Sparks is already hard at work on her debut album, due sometime "before Thanksgiving."

"I can't really describe what I want it to sound like," Sparks told MTV News earlier this month. "I'm a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll, a little bit pop, a little bit R&B. I listen to Nat King Cole and Patsy Cline and Bon Jovi and Heart and 'N Sync and Britney and Christina and Justin Timberlake, too. I want to mix it all together. I hope people like it."

And her backers are hoping people buy it. Sparks' Idol-tailored single, "This Is My Now," which will appear on the new album, peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and her five-song self-titled EP, featuring music she performed on the show, has sold less than 35,000 copies.

While still the most-watched show on TV for the past two years, averaging 30.6 million viewers, American Idol lost a step or two in 2006, with about 5 million fewer people catching the Sparks-crowning season finale than turned out to see Taylor Hicks triumph in '05.

Some blamed the ratings drop-off to the quality of the contestants, which ranged from the sideshow amusement that was Sanjaya to the pro-quality poise evinced by Sparks, Melinda Doolittle and LaKisha Jones.

Sparks' win eventually helped put the spotlight back on singing, however, hopefully (for the Idol brain trust) serving to reassure America that the well that wrought Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood hasn't run dry.

And after doing her part to ensure that Idol remained a competition for heavy vocal hitters at least part of the time, Melinda Doolittle is now planning to go the extra mile (thousands of 'em, in fact) on behalf of the show, yet again.

This year's third runner-up is scheduled to fly to Zambia on June 28 with the Malaria No More program to participate in First Lady Laura Bush's five-day African tour highlighting this country's efforts to combat disease and improve education in the area.

"Traveling to Africa has always been a lifelong dream of mine," Doolittle said. "I am very excited to travel with the First Lady and Malaria No More and to show the impact the viewers of American Idol have had through their help and support during Idol Gives Back."

The two-night charity special raised more than $60 million for the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund, set up to distribute donations among multiple African and American relief organizations, including Malaria No More.