American Idols LIVE! Tour 2006

American Idols Live! Tour 2006 was a summer concert tour in the United States featuring the top 10 contestants of the fifth season of "American Idol", which aired in 2006. It was sponsored by Kellogg Pop-Tarts. It started on July 5 and ended on September 24.

It followed in the tradition of other "American Idol" summer tours following the completion of each season in May.

Runner-up Katharine McPhee missed the first 17 shows of the tour due to voice illness (severe bronchitis and laryngitis). Her 1st show of the tour was scheduled to be on July 27 in Pittsburgh, PA but her flight from New York City to Pittsburgh was delayed and then later canceled due to bad weather. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/06/idol.mcphee.ap/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/06/idol.mcphee.ap/index.html] "CNN.com" ] When she finally did join the tour for the July 28 show in Washington D.C., she sang two solo numbers, which were "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". She also participated in the group number "Living in America". [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072901055.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072901055.html] "Washingtonpost.com" ] At the August 1, 2006 concert in Charlotte, NC, McPhee suffered a hair-line fracture in her left foot after tripping backstage before going on. She then performed her 2 songs that night in bare feet (not in slipper-sandals or gardening slippers that had widely been reported) and was noticeably limping during the final group number. After the concert, she was taken to a hospital where the fracture was discovered. McPhee continued to perform on the American Idols Live Tour while wearing a cast on her left foot.The first show without the foot cast was on August 22 in St. Paul, MN. Interesting to note, beginning with the Charlotte show, McPhee had performed barefoot at every concert on the tour.

Bucky Covington was absent from the August 13 performance at the Savvis Center in St. Louis due to an illness but did return.

Performers

Response

The 2006 tour was a huge success. Its total gross turned out to be $35.2 million. It also sold out 19 out of 59 dates and averaged 96% capacity. [ [http://blogs.usatoday.com/idolchatter/2006/10/idol_tour_the_f.html#uslPageReturn Idol tour: The final scorecard] ]

References