AMAs, Altiyan wins X Factor, Aussie VIP gig, GH vinyl

Bon Jovi performed at the American Music Awards on Sunday, November 21. They played a medley of "What Do You Got?", "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "It's My Life".



Also on November 21, was the first half of a two-night grand finale on The X Factor Australia which culminated in "my boy" Altiyan Childs being crowned the winner on Monday night. I've been shamelessly plugging him on Twitter for the past couple of months, as well as posting his performances of "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Blaze of Glory" on this blog. Anyway, Altiyan reprised "Prayer" on the Sunday night show so here's more blog fodder. :P


In more Down Under news, I remember watching with amusement as we went into frenzy over Oprah Winfrey's visit in December... Seems Bon Jovi, who are also in Australia in December, will be doing a private VIP concert at Star City for Oprah's touring party:

The new management of Star City want to make a statement . . . the private Bon Jovi concert show and the after-party will be one of the biggest VIP events Sydney has seen in more than a decade, a source said.

Invited guests include Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, James and Erica Packer, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch, Hugh Jackman and Deborah-Lee Furness.

And Sydney Confidential readers should stay tuned for a special offer.

And for old school audiophiles, the Greatest Hits has also been released in vinyl.

Altiyan Childs sings Blaze of Glory

About five weeks ago, I posted a video of The X Factor Australia contestant Altiyan Childs' performance of "Livin' on a Prayer". Well, I'm beginning to wonder if his mentor Ronan Keating has a slight man-crush on Jon Bon Jovi, because he gave Altiyan a JBJ solo hit to cover last night. :P The theme was "Chart Toppers" and I think this is the only Bon Jovi/Jon Bon Jovi single to actually get to number one in Australia (The band has had a few number one albums here, but no singles to my knowledge).

Here is Altiyan's rendition of "Blaze of Glory" (including a few words from the Bee Gees' Robin Gibb at the start, and the judges' comments at the end):

JBJ interview with Kyle and Jackie O

Jon called into the Kyle and Jackie O Show in Australia recently. He talks about performing live, money and giving gifts, Rich Bozzett's book Sex, Drugs and Bon Jovi, Jake's potential acting career, and going bowling with Romeo at the White House.

You can listen to and download the podcast from the 2day FM website (direct link here).

(BTW, Altiyan was NOT in the cave for two days... it was a few hours, Kyle. And they didn't "find" him, he returned all in his own. Sheesh! :P It wasn't actually after the "Livin' on a Prayer" performance either, though that's probably Kyle Sandilands' dodgy memory rather than a deliberate creative license, haha.)

Bon Jovi and X Factor

Time for a few of those posts I've been meaning to write/publish over the past few days but simply haven't had the time. But my final two assignments are due on Monday and after that I'll be able to finish a new header for Blame It On The Love, and of course, blog when I want to. ;)

I'll start with Bon Jovi's appearance on The X Factor in the UK on Sunday, October 31. They performed "Livin' on a Prayer", backed up by the contestants. TV performances are usually very underwhelming so this actually isn't too bad at all; I quite enjoyed it. But I'm very surprised they didn't give "What Do You Got" some airtime. In my opinion, "What Do You Got" was a poor choice of lead single, but miracles can happen with the right promotion so it's a bit curious that they didn't take the opportunity to spruik it.



Speaking of The X Factor, a few weeks ago I blogged about Altiyan Childs' rendition of "Prayer" on the Australian version of the show. A lot has changed in that time... I think Altiyan was an $18 outsider to win going into that week; he's now the $1.60 favourite. And following his performance of Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" last Sunday, radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands told him "Bon Jovi said to say hello to you, Altiyan". Ronan Keating did mention a couple of weeks ago that Jon had watched the "Prayer" performance on YouTube so that was a pretty cool moment... It's always nice to get a random Jovi reference on Aussie TV. ;)

Altiyan Childs sings Livin' on a Prayer

My Twitter followers might have noticed in the past few weeks that I'm a huge fan of Altiyan Childs, The X Factor Australia's resident eccentric rocker. Now, this guy has polarised people from Day 1 when he botched his audition and was allowed to return, but there was just something about him that piqued my interest, and he does have a lot of fans to balance his vocal haters. In fact, Altiyan was in the top 10 trending topics worldwide on Twitter earlier tonight.

Anyway, this is a Bon Jovi blog and Altiyan took on a song that's tough at the best of times and probably a lot tougher when you've been battling tonsillitis all week. Apparently his mentor, Ronan Keating even rang Jon to ask permission to tackle "Livin' on a Prayer", lol. Here is Altiyan's intro package, performance and the judges' comments.