With the success of the weekly Karaoke challenge, the support and suggestions from different users, and the interest of so many avid singing fans on the site, I have decided to launch this month, on a trial run, the first Red Karaoke Mini Idol.

The RK Mini Idol will be a monthly competition with a different round each week. Every user can compete and the users will decide who wins! So please, read the following explanations and rules very carefully so that everyone can have fun in this new competition.

Week 1: Open Auditions

• Open Auditions will run August 31st until September 6th.
• Users can pick any song they have recorded and post it in the forum thread titled RK Mini Idol - Open Auditions, which will be located under Contests and Competitions.
• Users may only submit one song one time. Users cannot change their submissions once they have posted in the forum.
• Any user may cast three votes by posting a response in the RK Mini Idol - Open Auditions thread.
• Each user should only post one submission and/or one post with their three votes.
• Any other posts will be deleted as they may complicate the proccess.
• If you want to support other users, please use the comment option under their recording or use another thread in the forum.

Week 2: Round 1

• Round 1 will run September 7th until September 13th.
• The top 10 users who received the most votes in the Open Auditions will compete in Round 1.
• These users will be listed in the main post of the RK Mini Idol - Round 1 thread, wich will be located under Contests and Competitions.
• The Administrator will pick a theme which will be posted in the blog and forum thread RK Mini Idol - Round 1.
• Only the ten listed users should post a recording that fits within the chosen theme. Any other posts with recordings will be deleted.
• Competitors may only submit one song one time. Users cannot change their submissions once they have posted in the forum.
• The ten listed users have three votes and may post these within one post in the RK Mini Idol - Round 1 thread.
• All other users have one vote and may post their vote in the RK Mini Idol - Round 1 thread.
• Any other posts will be deleted as they may complicate the proccess.

Week 3: Round 2

• Round 2 will run September 14th until September 20th.
• The top 5 users who received the most votes in Round 1 will compete in Round 2.
• These users will be listed in the main post of the RK Mini Idol - Round 2 thread, wich will be located under Contests and Competitions.
• The Administrator will pick a theme which will be posted in the blog and forum thread RK Mini Idol - Round 2.
• Only the five listed users should post a recording that fits within the chosen theme. Any other posts with recordings will be deleted.
• Competitors may only submit one song one time. Users cannot change their submissions once they have posted in the forum.
• The five listed users have three votes and may post these within one post in the RK Mini Idol - Round 2 thread.
• All other users have one vote and may post their vote in the RK Mini Idol - Round 2 thread.
• Any other posts will be deleted as they may complicate the proccess.

Week 4: Final round

• Final Round will run September 2st until September 27th.
• The top 3 users who received the most votes in Round 2 will compete in the final round.
• These users will be listed in the main post of the RK Mini Idol - Final round thread, wich will be located under Contests and Competitions.
• The three listed users can post one recording of their choice. Any other posts with recordings will be deleted.
• Competitors may only submit one song one time. Users cannot change their submissions once they have posted in the forum.
• All users, including competitors, have only one vote and may post their vote in the RK Mini Idol - Final Round thread.
• Any other posts will be deleted as they may complicate the proccess.

1st, 2nd and 3rd place will be announced in the blog and forum exactly one week after the Final round begins, on September 28th.

This month´s RK Mini Idol is a trial run to see how many people get involved and to work out any kinks in the system. If all runs smoothly, this can become a fun part of Red Karaoke and may lead to even bigger and better contests! So give it a whirl and make sure to tell us what you think about it in the forum!

This week´s challenge ought to be alot of fun for everyone. To answer an excellent request, Aladdin´s Friend like me, sung by the charmingly quirky Robin Williams as the Genie, is this week´s karaoke challenge.

Friend like me is probably the most energetic song from the soundtrack to Disney´s Aladdin, aided by the hilarity Robin Williams brings to the Genie´s character as he shows off his powers to the incredulous Aladdin. The song also was received with the highest praise, in the form of a nomination for an Academy Award.

The best part about this week´s challenge is Red Karaoke users can have as much fun with Friend like me as William´s did. Listen to the original, then try some different accents and a different sound in your own rendition, post it in the forum and maybe yours will be the winner of the Karaoke challenge.

Sean Kingston has turned to none other than the loveable past time of karaoke to help promote his upcoming album release, Tomorrow, due out September 22nd.

Tomorrow will come along with a CD Booklet that will contain, aside from a 3D poster and glasses, a special image that will allow fans to access a specialized karaoke session on Kingston´s website. After holding the image up to their webcam, fans will then be able to sing their own version of Kingston´s club hit Fire Burning, with the option to coreograph a Lil´ Sean figure that dances around to their karaoke rendition. Fans can then share their video on Kingston´s site or a handful of other social networking websites. Despite the whole process sounding a little bit complicated, it sounds promising for any fans of the reggae fusion artist AND karaoke.

¨It´s going to be dope.¨ Kingston told Billboard, excited about jumping on the karaoke bandwagon, ¨No one has done this before. It´s different and I think it´s going to blow up.¨

Marketing a new album by using karaoke definitely gets a thumbs up from me. But who wants to wait around until September to bust out some of Kingston´s hits? Sit back and enjoy singing Sean Kingston´s top singles, including Beautiful girls, Take you there, Me love and his cutesy love duet with Natasha Beddingfield, Love like this.

Norah Jones is singing to a different tune for her first studio album in 3 years, planned to be released in November.

The pretty little songbird known for her jazzy crooning has moved from piano based blues, to a different sound on guitar, much like her time spent with alt-country group The Little Willies. ¨It just felt more natural for me to play it on these songs,¨ Jones told Rolling Stone of her decision to jam acousticly, ¨I knew I wanted to play with grooves more than I have on previous albums. Some of these new songs lent themselves to having driving rhythms underneath.¨

That´s not the only change we´ll see in Jones upcoming album. She´ll be working with producer Jacquire King, known for his work with Kings of Leon and Modest Mouse, a genre defintely not associated with Jones´ previous work. Other contributions will come from artitst like Ryan Adams, who wrote one of the all time greatest songs Come pick me up, and Jesse Harris, who wrote Jones´ breakthrough hit Don´t know why.

But Jones hasn´t stopped there… even her band members have changed. ¨I´d been playing with the same musicians for a long time,¨ Jones told Billboard, ¨…it felt like a good time work with new people and experiment with different sounds.¨

With all this change, it´s a wonder if Norah Jones will sound anything like what we´ve come to expect from her older work like Don´t know why, Come away with me, Sunrise, Nearness of you and Turn me on. I think I´m just gonna keep singing her blues.

This week´s challenge is one for the ladies… and the men brave enough to show their softer side. I´d like to see who can evoke the same emotion that Selena does when singing her biggest single and the theme song of her biopic (brings me to tears every single time), Dreaming of you,

The love song Dreaming of you was written by Franne Golde and Tom snow, and was released in 1995, after Selena´s tragic murder. For those of you who don´t know, Selena was basically the Mexican Madonna, adored by millions, and her death had such a huge impact on the Hispanic community, and everyone else, that then Texas governor George W. Bush declared April 12th, the day two weeks after her death, Selena Day.

The album featuring the single Dreaming of You, went by the same name, and became a worldwide hit, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200, giving Selena the honor of the first Hispanic singer in history to have made such a remarkable impact on the US charts. Dreaming of you, the single, reached #22, making it Selena´s highest reaching single.

The song is featured in the biopic of Selena´s short but incredible life, starring non other than latina pop queen Jennifer Lopez. Dreaming of you plays during the heart wrenching sequence of Selena´s death (sorry to spoil the ending) and manages to get the waterworks going without fail anytime I watch it.

So, let´s see if you can bring Selena´s sweet charisma to her biggest single. Try Dreaming of you, remember to post it in the karaoke challenge forum thread, and maybe you´ll be in next week´s newsletter.

London based, grammy nominated and flabouyantly happy artist Mika is poised to be the next big thing to hit the USA with his upcoming album The boy who knew too much.

Mika´s debut album Life in Cartoon Motion was quite the success, selling 5.5 million copies, whether or not you can really call it a breakthrough into the US market. It certainly did well everywhere else, claiming top spots all over Europe and gaining the honor of one of the top globally sold albums of 2007.

Still, his otherwise uber popular singles such as Gracy Kelly, Love Today and Relax took their time gaining any credit on American shores, though they did eventually garner him some fame with us Yanks (his sweet sad love song Happy Ending even appeared on the severely succesful over the top teen drama Gossip girl).

Life in Cartoon Motion, is a peppy fun twist on the coming of age angle, loosely based on Mika´s own experiences. And while themes like discrimination against larger women (Big girl you are beautiful) and bisexual married men (Billy brown) are explored, they are done in such a lighthearted, let´s all just play nice way that Mika has me wishing his songs were all we heard on the radio.

Soon enough I may get my wish.

The upcoming album, The boy who knew too much, scheduled for release on September 22nd, may just give Mika that push he needs to launch himself into the stratosphere of stardom that is the US music industry. Mika has already released a video for the first single, We Are Golden, and also just released for listening pleasure the single Blue eyes, both just as energetic and full of fun story telling that one should expect from him.

I myself will be counting down the days until the release of such a quirky feel good album, but until then, will have to suffice with singing along to his older hits. Check out Mika´s karaokes here on Red Karaoke like Grace Kelly, Happy Ending, Big girl you are beautiful, and Love today.

Due to the general interest of some lovely users in the forum, this week´s Karaoke challenge was an easy choice for me, as it was nominated and then seconded as a good choice. So, without further ado, this week´s challenge is Blue Suede Shoes.

While the Elvis Presley version of Blue Suede Shoes may be the more popular, as it was one of his first recorded hits and reached number 20 on the music charts, the song was originally written and recorded by his good buddy Carl Perkins of Sun Records in 1955.

The thought of blue suede shoes for a song was originally planted by Perkin´s friend, Johnny Cash, when he referenced his military regulation air shoes as ¨blue suede shoes¨ and admitted it would make a good song subject. Still the meat of the song came later when, while performing, Perkins whitnessed the unimaginable-a couple dancing where the boy valued his fancy blue shoes more than a pretty girl. Perkins finished off the piece by pairing it with a nursery rhyme, One for the money, and added a boogie rhythym to create one of the fastest chart topping singles of his time.

While many other version were made, and made succesfully, Perkins original Blue Suede Shoes was the first ever record selling Country song to crossover to both R&B charts and Pop charts, making it a huge succes among all kinds of crowds.

So pull out your Sunday best, dust off those dancing shoes and start singing about them. Blue Suede Shoes is a fun oldie that anyone can nail if they just have a good time with the grammy winning record, and yours could be the rendition that lands in next week´s newsletter. Just don´t forget to post your rendition in the forum!

Today Train released only for online Hey Soul Sister, a brand new single from their upcoming album Save Me San Francisco. And if the feel good vibe of the single is any kind of telling sign, they may finally have yet another Top 10 album on their hands.

Though it´s been four year since Train´s last studio album, and even longer since the huge success of their singles Meet Virginia and Drops of Jupiter, it seems like Train is ready to add another platinum album to the list with the album Save me San Fransisco, due this October. The album goes back to their folk-rock roots, skipping the production magic and focusing on peppy melodies instead.

Frontman Pat Monahan describes the album as a tribute to Train´s hometown, and expects fans will like the record alot more than their last.

The single, Hey Soul Sister definitely caught my ears with its perky lyrics and sound, already better than anything I heard on Train´s last album For Me, It´s You. Train has also been previewing other material this summer at a few shows here and there, but everyone will have to wait until October 27th to get the album, and to see Train on their fall tour starting in Seattle.

Record your own versions of the singles that helped Train reach platinum sales like Meet Virginia, Drops of Jupiter and Calling all Angels.

Summer´s end is slowly creeping up on us. Somehow the last few months have flown by, and it seems without warning the signs of a summer gone are already showing. Back to school sales. Tax free weekends. And soon, Labor day will have come and passed, and the leaves will start turning, and the next holiday we have to look forward to won´t come around until Thanksgiving. Sort of sad, isn´t it?

When looking back and counting down these last summer days, Ella Fitzgerald´s smooth and sexy crooning to the song Summertime just perfectly fits my mood. So this week´s challenge is Summertime, the Ella Fitzgerald version, only if it pleases you, because there are plenty of other down right beautiful renditions to choose from.

Take for example the recent pop knockout Leona Lewis´s own soulful rendition of the George Gershwin composition on X-Factor, the show that won her so much fame. While her sound may ring just a little bit too much on the pop diva side, it still posesses the soul it needs to carry the blissful beauty of this tune.

Whether you prefer the classics or the more current, from Billie Holiday to Sublime, this song has been covered by enough people to give you a little bit of inspiration. So get out there and sing your own version of Summertime, make sure to post it in the forum, and you could end up in next week´s newsletter.

The midwest is gearing up for some very exciting happenings in the world of karaoke this week. Mason, Ohio is hosting the Karaoke World Championships USA, this weekend August 6th, 7th and 8th, with the goal of finding the two top singers who have been working their way through regional competitions in hopes of winning an all expense paid trip to the World Karaoke Championships in Finland this September.

This year the national contest is bigger than ever, with contestants from 30 states, a big improvement from last years 11. The 3 day event will narrow down the singers from a group of 40 to the best male and female so that they can go on and represent the USA in the world competition.

The World Karaoke Championships, which got its start in 2003, draw singers from over 20 countries fighting to take the reigns as the best female or male karaoke-er in the world. Not only do the winners get a fancy title, but the competition gives them the chance at stardom. Take for example last year´s winner Michael Bates who just released his first single on the airwaves or runner-up Antonio Garcia who has just recieved his first record deal. So winning a free ride to the competition, which is going to be held on September 11th and 12th in Lahti, Finland, could be one lucky American´s shot at world wide fame.

And it just keeps getting better. With next year´s regional competitions, the organization plans on expanding to become a 55 statewide platform, dividing popular or just plain big locations like Florida and Texas into different groups. On top of that, the KWC USA plans on increasing the number of finalists that will go on to the national competition in 2010 from just 40 to 100!It looks like a fun little adventure in the world of karaoke, and anyone can join in. We´ll keep on updating here on Red Karaoke with the results, but until then, keep on singing. Maybe it could be you walking off with that title next year.