Kris Allen Embraces "The Vision Of Love"

Kris Allen is finally back and makes his contribution to the anti-bullying movement with the video for his self-empowerment single, "The Vision of Love," the official first single from American Idol season 8 winner's upcoming sophomore studio effort, "Thank You Camellia," the follow-up to his self-titled 2009 debut, arriving on May 22.
Even the smallest steps make a difference, the track is a self-empowerment anthem about standing up for those less fortunate, even when fear takes over. Allen wrote the song with The Messengers production team, Nasri and Adam Messinger, who have also worked with Chris Brown and Justin Bieber. Speaking with Katie Krause of Clevver News before its release, Allen said the single is an, "uplifting song... a world song that's about people being good to each other."
The the 26-year-old former American Idol winner plays narrator in the Lenny Bass-directed new clip, which was filmed last month in Los Angeles. The the storyline involves two teens, one insecure and lonely, the other tormented by bullying, and ultimately shows how acts of kindness helps those suffering find inner strength and confidence. The scenarios play out intercut with footage of Allen playing the song in an empty loft, and is also seen being occupied with creative process of writing the empowerment song.
The video documents the song's lyrics pretty literally by suggesting optimistically, that "standing up" doesn't need be a dramatic, difficult action - one student puts a hand up and stops his friends from harassing another, while our lonely introverted girl learns how to overcome her self-doubt simply by taking off her headphones and introducing herself. The texture of the video is sleek and raw, packing a punch. The clip is meant to appeal to Allen's younger base and it sends a nice, yet oversimplified message.

Kris Allen Goes To the Desert To Find 'The Truth'

tAt long last, all of Kris Allen's hard work in the desert is revealed. The former American Idol star has finally premiered the long-awaited video Tuesday on VH1 for his latest single, "The Truth," the second single from his self-titled debut album, has him getting a bit dusty as he wakes up and performs in the desert for the accompanying video. The 25-year-old Arkansas native is known for his laid-back and unassuming personality, yet his music is full of depth, energy and soul.
The video is directed by cinematographer, Aaron Platt, and was shot in the desert in 110 degree heat and rained out the first day! 'American Idol' season eight winner traveled out to the middle of nowhere with nothing but a guitar, a piano, a bed and Patrick Monahan, the lead singer of the Grammy award-winning rock band Train, on vocals to find "The Truth." Two music stars on a dreamy desert video shoot surrounded by beautiful imagery. The gorgeous sunsets, mountains and sand should act as the perfect backdrop for a ballad "The Truth." Spontaneously, Allen's guitar lights on fire, a scenic transition to the closing night scene where the 'Idol' winner sings the final chorus among hundreds of deteriorating chandeliers hanging in the sky.
The album version features Allen singing by himself while the single version features Allen singing with Monahan. According to Allen, it was his label's idea to switch the song up, stating, "Their idea was that Pat wrote the song, so why not get him involved in it in some way. And obviously Train is doing really well right now, and I don't think that can be ignored. Everyone thought it was a good idea." Allen also stated it never crossed his mind to feature Monahan, commenting, "It wasn't that type of song where you say, 'We need someone else on this.' Now that it's done, I hope it does really well, man. I really do." He also said the song was not written as a typical duet, so the feature was not meant to come off as a duet, as listeners may think of the song as a breakup ballad between two men, therefore Monahan was added on the bridge.
When asked about the controversy over his fans feeling that he was victimized in the released of the single, he responded, "The people at 19 and the people at Jive have been great. I'm not gonna say there haven't been things that have happened, some conflicts. Not bad stuff — I think it's just general stuff that goes on between artists and labels or whatever. Questions that come up. I'm very new to this. But it's really nice to have fans who care about you, who want you to be done right, and for the label and management to treat you right. I think they felt like I wasn't being cared for and being respected. And I appreciate them worrying about that. But I feel like I am. I really do." Allen unleash his vocal power shown in the mainstream pop song on something more unique to him as an artist.

Kris Allen Debuts "Live Like We're Dying" Video

American Idol's reigning champ Kris Allen is back in front of a camera, but instead of having to win the hearts and minds of "American Idol's" TV audience, his new mission is to win the hearts and wallets of America's music buyers. Allen has unveiled the new music video for his first single, the up-tempo "Live Like We're Dying," off his upcoming self-titled album, due out November 17. The song was written by Andrew Frampton, Steve Kipner, Danny O'Donoghue, and Mark Sheehan. It originally performed by the Irish rock group 'The Script,' as a bonus track for the Japanese release of their self-titled debut album. What would you change about your life if you knew that you were dying? Despite his ultra quick rise to fame the 24-year-old AI rocker managed to stay grounded.
The single has met with mostly positive reviews. About.com praised the song for being an excellent first single, calling it "possibly the best first post-American Idol single yet by an American Idol champion," and Entertainment Weekly called the song "a future smash hit." Yahoo! News' Billboard singles review described it as "impressive" and felt that Allen's version of the song "improves on the unreleased version with a nuanced vocal and a nimble, rhythmic delivery." The Seattle Times described the song as "a marked improvement over what some Idol winners have put out as their first post-show single".
The music video was directed by Marco Puig and was shot all night at a junkyard in the LA desert. Throughout the video, Allen is shown playing both an acoustic guitar and a piano, as well as singing without any instruments. Arkansas native described the video that "The idea behind it is that I plug in the clock and I'm pulling the big cord through the junkyard and through all these other things and then I plug in the clock and it starts counting down to zero and there's performance stuff in there. In the end when it hits zero, it's kind of like the song, it's like we only have so much time so we gotta do what we want to do. It was my first video, so I was really trying to have a great time."

American Idol Season 8 Finale... KRIS ALLEN WINS!

Nearly 100 million people voted last night to decide if Adam Lambert or Kris Allen would win AI season eight.

The Our polls said you wanted Kris to win but thought Adam would... Finally, after two long hours, it was announced that Kris Allen is a winner and beat favorite Adam Lambert after the highest recorded vote total in the history of the show.

My friend Mie got all her wishes come true! She's super happy that Kris won! Here is all comment by her "I watched every week, and last week I screamed when I watched the finale. Kris was the guy who I was rooting for from the very beginning this season... kind of. He didn't have any air time at first. They didn't show his auditions, Hollywood rounds, and so on... and he just climbed up with his own artistry, in my opinion. So I think he did deserve it. Adam, I think he has tremendous skills and he sings great when he holds back. But I thought it was unfair that the judges praised so much for Adam (even when he almost screamed and was pitchy), and they criticized frequently about Kris, for no reason. Anyways, once they rearch the top 3 or 2, it doesn't matter who would win anymore because they will probably get a record deal anyway... so I am sure Adam will be successful as well."