Keith Urban

[Kim]

Keith Urban Joins Australia's 'The Voice'


The rumors are finally confirmed! Keith Urban will indeed be a judge and mentor on Australia's version of the hit reality competition show, 'The Voice.' The country superstar, who grew up in Australia, joins fellow Aussie Delta Goodrem, plus R&B/soul sensation Seal and Good Charlotte's Joel Madden as the show's four celebrity coaches.

Different versions of 'The Voice' air in thirty different countries, with Australia being the latest added to the worldwide mix. The show's inaugural American season wrapped this past June, with pop/R&B singer-songwriter Javier Colon named 'The Voice.' With celeb judges Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Maroon 5's Adam Levine, the U.S. version of the program boasted more than 10 million viewers per week.

As a celebrity judge on Australia's 'The Voice,' Keith will first start with the show's blind auditions, during which he'll hear the contestants but not be able to see them. After choosing his team, he'll then mentor his group of aspiring singers in weekly competitions, going head-to-head with the teams led by Delta, Joel and Seal.

'The Voice' will air on Australia's Nine Network, starting early next year. That gives Keith plenty of time to recover his own voice, as the Grammy winner is currently on vocal rest following successful throat surgery. He assures fans he will make a full recovery.

[Kim]

Keith Urban Announces First Batch of 2012 Tour Dates


Keith Urban‘s recent throat surgery went well enough that the country superstar is already scheduling tour dates in 2012. Urban recently posted four dates to the calendar at his official website, beginning with a Feb. 11 show in San Antonio, Texas.

The singer hasn’t released any details about a 2012 tour. These four dates are major event shows — rodeos and state festivals. Last year, he crisscrossed the country playing arenas with opener Jake Owen.

Urban was ordered to not speak for three weeks following the late November surgery. A spokesperson said he was “doing fine” following the routine procedure to remove a polyp from his vocal chords.

“It’s not an uncommon thing, and we’ve certainly been seeing a lot of it recently too, but I think the technology has improved and so the success of this kind of surgery is much greater now than before. I’m hoping I can continue that tradition!” Urban said in November.

It will no doubt be a quiet holiday in the Urban-Kidman household. Of course, the couple does have two young kids to make up for the noise their silent daddy can’t make.

Keith Urban 2012 Tour Dates (So Far):

2/11 – San Antonia, Texas
5/26 – Baton Rouge, La.
6/23 – Oshkosh, Wisc.
6/24 – Cadott, Wisc.

[Kim]

REO Speedwagon Singer Wants Keith Urban to Cover a Song



WireImage/AP


Once Keith Urban, who recently underwent throat surgery, gets medical clearance to start singing again, he might consider cutting an REO Speedwagon tune. Doing so would help that band's singer, Kevin Cronin, scratch another item off his bucket list.

"I've had a lot of musical goals in my life, but getting Keith Urban to do one of my songs is one of my last ones," Kevin tells CountryWeekly.com. "His talent amazes me. If he did just even one of my songs, I can die a happy man."

Best known for such lighter-waving rock anthems as 'Can't Fight This Feeling' and 'Keep on Loving You,' Kevin actually spent time in Nashville early in his career, penning country tunes before becoming a rock star.

He again caught the country bug in 2010, when REO Speedwagon performed at a benefit concert with some of the genre's biggest names.

"Here we are playing 'Roll With the Changes' and I look out and see people like Brad Paisley and Martina McBride singing every word," Kevin said. "It blew my mind."

He's since been back to the Music City to write with Martina, among others, and further explaining his renewed interest in all things twangy, he told CountryWeekly.com that if you "throw some pedal steel" on some of REO's biggest hits, they'd become country.

[Kim]

Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, & Sunday Rose in NYC

[Kim]

Keith’s 3-Year-Old, at Sesame Street, Wants to Know If Oscar Smells

Brad Schmitt | Published: Dec 22, 2011
countryweekly.com


Nicole Kidman recently made a special guest appearance on iconic children's TV show Sesame Street. And of course mom and dad, country star Keith Urban, made sure that their oldest, 3-year-old Sunday Rose, was along for the ride.

"She thinks they're all real," Nicole tells Access Hollywood. "She loves Abby and Zoe and Elmo."

But you don't have to be a kid to love Sesame Street: "This is a lifelong dream for me," Nicole says.

Nicole and Oscar the Grouch taped a segment together to reveal the episode's word of the day.

And Sunday Rose did have a question about Oscar.

"She asks, 'Does he smell?' Yeah, he does," Nicole said of the garbage-can-dwelling Oscar, laughing.

Oscar, also on hand for the Access Hollywood interview, groaned and made a face when he heard Sunday Rose's question.

[Kim]

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman’s Daughter Delighted by ‘Sesame Street’ Visit

Keith Urban‘s A-list actress wife, Nicole Kidman, made a pit stop on ‘Sesame Street’ recently to do a guest appearance, bringing with her the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Sunday Rose, who is apparently a huge fan of the show. While on set, little Sunday had lots of questions about the puppets, which she believes to be real.

“My daughter’s here on the set and she asked, ‘Does he smell?’” Kidman recanted, before sniffing Oscar the Grouch and confirming that he does indeed smell badly. In a new video interview with Access Hollywood, the actress took cameras behind-the-scenes of her ‘Sesame Street’ appearance to give some insight into what the experience was like for her and her daughter.

Kidman was on hand to help teach young viewers the word of the day — ‘stubborn’ — which was perfectly executed with help from a certain stubborn green monster in a trashcan. In between takes, the proud entertainer mother doted on Sunday, who was apparently beyond herself to be on the famous street with mom. “She thinks they’re all real. She loves Abby and Zoe — and Elmo,” Kidman revealed. “Sorry, Oscar.”

While his wife has been making her rounds to children’s television programs, we assume Urban has been at home resting his throat for his handful of upcoming 2012 concert dates.

[Kim]

December 28th - Keith's youngest turns 1!


Happy Birthday, Faith! Nicole Kidman’s Baby Turns 1


They grow up so fast, don’t they?

Faith Margaret Kidman Urban, the younger daughter of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, blows out the candle on her first birthday cake today. (Big sister Sunday Rose probably helped.)

Little Faith is Nicole and Keith’s biological child, but they used a gestational carrier to carry the embryo to term because of fertility issues following her pregnancy with Sunday. “We were in a place of desperately wanting a child, and I couldn’t get pregnant. I get emotional talking about it, because I’m so grateful,” Nicole has said of the woman.

The birthday girl’s name wasn’t hard for the parents to decide on. “Just the way she came into our world – we needed to have every bit of faith we could muster,” Nicole once said. “It was completely out of our control. We just kept saying, ‘We gotta have faith, we gotta have faith. She’s gonna be fine.’ And we just thought, ‘What a perfect name for her.’ ”

They chose her middle name after Nicole’s grandmother, who, like Nicole, was a midlife mom. Nicole was 43 when Faith was born, and grandma Margaret was 49 when she had her last child.

Have a happy one, little Faith!

[Kim]

Keith Urban Plans 'Date Night'


Keith Urban has announced his first official performance of 2012. 'Date Night With Keith Urban' will take place Feb. 10 in Austin, Texas, benefiting the Beyond Batten Disease Foundation.

The evening will include a full performance from the country superstar, as well as a VIP pre-party and interactive auction. Funds from the benefit will be used to complete testing on a carrier screening panel the foundation has developed to detect genetic mutations, including the fatal Batten disease.

This is Keith's first performance since undergoing a successful throat surgery in November to remove a polyp on his vocal chords. "I'm overwhelmed by your gratitude, and your prayers are really appreciated by me and my family," Keith said prior to the operation. "I'll look forward to seeing you in 2012."

The surgery was followed by three weeks of complete vocal rest, but buddy Brad Paisley had big plans for that time. "We're big guitar junkies, and we wanted to get together and maybe go through some amplifiers and go through some gear," Brad told Nashville's Tennessean. "I told him, 'Let's do that. You don't have to talk. We'll get together. We'll play guitar, set up some amps, go through some tubes, try some stuff out and tweak.' I'll do all the talking, which I am very capable of. He can just nod and grunt and do whatever he's allowed to do."

[Kim]

Keith Urban Lists His Favorite Songs of 2011


Keith Urban's 'You Gonna Fly' is flying up the country charts, with a good chance of being his 14th No. 1 single. In true Keith style, it's fun, uptempo love song that shows his country roots run deep. But we happen to know that his radio dial is all over the place! The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter appreciates all kinds of music, from bluegrass to rap. Keith caught up with The Boot to share his eclectic list of favorite songs of 2011.


'Springsteen,' Eric Church
'Lonely Boy,' the Black Keys
'The Afterlife,' Paul Simon
'September,' Daughtry
'Someone Like You,' Adele
'Superbass,' Nicki Minaj
'Somewhere With You,' Kenny Chesney
'Made in America,' Jay-Z and Kanye West (for adults only)
'Cost of Livin,'' Ronnie Dunn
'For the First Time, the Script
'Somebody That I Used to Know,' Gotye
'Rewrite,' Paul Simon

[Kim]

Keith Urban Records Original Track for a Motion Picture


Relativity Media is pleased to announce its upcoming collaboration with Grammy® Award-winner Keith Urban for the heart-pounding Navy SEAL action-thriller Act of Valor. Urban’s “For You,” co-written by Urban and Monty Powell, marks the first time that Urban has written and recorded a song specifically for a motion picture, and it will be featured during the film’s end credits. In theatres February 24, 2012, the Bandito Brothers’ Act of Valor stars a group of active-duty Navy SEALs along with Roselyn Sanchez, Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle and Nestor Serrano and tells a powerful story of contemporary global anti-terrorism. Urban’s current single “You Gonna Fly” is currently #10 on the country radio charts and climbing.

“I loved the challenge of writing for a film,” said Urban. “I’ve never done that before. After seeing Act Of Valor, my co-writer (Monty Powell) and I wanted to capture the essence of not only what these men and women do so extraordinarily, but how that relates to all of us. 'Valor' shows us what they are willing to give their all for, which made me wonder, 'what am I willing to give my life for?' ‘For You’ is intended to allow the listener to define who that is for them.”

“For You” was co-produced by Dan Huff and Urban and was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee at Starstruck Studios. The song was engineered by Mark Dobson and Todd Tidwell, mixed by Mike Shipley at Animal House, and mastered by Brent Blackwood at Euphonic Masters.

The Act of Valor soundtrack, featuring the song “For You” by Urban, will be available digitally on iTunes® and physically in music retail locations on Tuesday, February 21st. Also to be announced, are additional original songs inspired by the film from more of today’s top country music artists.

Produced and directed by former Baja 1000 champion Mike “Mouse” McCoy and former stuntman Scott Waugh, and written by Kurt Johnstad (300), Act of Valor takes audiences deep into the secretive world of the most elite, highly trained group of warriors in the modern world. When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a deadly terrorist plot against the U.S., a team of SEALs is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt. As the valiant men of Bandito Platoon race to stop a coordinated attack that could kill and wound thousands of American civilians, they must balance their commitment to country, team and their families back home. Inspired by true events, the film combines stunning combat sequences, up-to-the minute battlefield technology and heart-pumping emotion for the ultimate action adventure.

The next film on the studio’s growing slate is Oscar®-winner Steven Soderbergh’s dynamic Haywire debuting in theatres January 20, 2012. This highly anticipated action-thriller stars Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton and introduces mixed martial arts (MMA) star Gina Carano in a demanding lead role that has her performing her own high-adrenaline stunts. Haywire tells the story of Mallory Kane, a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive. Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious – and dangerous – trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary. The release marks Soderbergh’s 25th film. Relativity’s expansive upcoming slate also includes the magical adventure comedy Mirror Mirror (in theatres March 16, 2012), starring Oscar®-winner Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Nathan Lane, and Armie Hammer. The studio just wrapped production on the comedy 21 and Over and is currently in pre-production on Nicholas Sparks’ gripping love story Safe Haven and the international espionage thriller Hunter Killer.

[Kim]

Keith Urban Plans First Show After Surgery

January 12, 2012
cmt.com

Keith Urban will appear at the Grand Ole Opry on Feb. 3, marking his first performance since successfully undergoing vocal cord surgery late last year. He has also scheduled a performance at the Opry for March 9. Urban announced plans for vocal surgery in November 2011 and was forced to cancel two Opry appearances that month. In related news, the Opry will conclude its winter run at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville on Feb. 3, then will move back to the Grand Ole Opry House the following night.

[Kim]

Keith Urban Talks 'Strange' Frustrations of Vocal Rest


Keith Urban is getting ready to return to the stage on Feb. 3 with a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, after being on voice rest for several weeks following surgery to remove a polyp on his vocal cord. While the superstar is thrilled to have the operation behind him, he admits it was a bit more challenging than he anticipated to have to stay silent for so long.

"You have to [go] three weeks [with] no talking, no uttering a sound, and you can't cry, you can't sneeze, you can't cough, you can't clear your throat," he explains to Access Hollywood. "It was a strange three weeks, but I had a dream one night -- it was the strangest thing because I thought, 'What's my voice gonna sound like when I hear it the first time again?'"

Keith was determined to follow doctor's orders but worried that he might unintentionally break the rules, after the particularly vivid dream that had him belting out high notes. "I woke up the next morning and I called the doctor and [asked], 'Would it be possible that I could sing in my sleep?' he questioned. "Because you can't, you're not allowed to, and I was terrified that I was singing in my sleep, singing Leo Sayer songs!"

While the 'You Gonna Fly' singer had the complete support of his wife, movie star Nicole Kidman, he found it challenging to communicate with his two little girls, especially 3-year-old Sunday Rose. "She can't read, so I had that issue too," he explained. "Mum had to communicate."

With his voice back stronger than ever, the entertainer looks ahead to several shows in 2012, including his All for the Hall benefit, which was postponed from its original Jan. 18 date to accommodate his vocal rest.

"My goal for the concert, is really the same as the Hall's," he notes. "To help country fans connect the dots -– to find out where their music came from, how it's evolved (and is still evolving) and to discover the artists that have influenced their favorite artists. Country music is like a big beautiful strange family tree, and nowhere is that more honored than at the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum."

Joining Keith for the benefit will be Vince Gill, Alabama, Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts, the Band Perry, Lady Antebellum, Diamond Rio, Little Big Town and the Oak Ridge Boys. Tickets go on sale Jan. 27.

[Kim]

Keith Urban Learns the Challenges of Forced Silence


Keith Urban thought he had the perfect plan. Before he had surgery in November to remove polyps on his vocal cords, he sat down and read into a cassette recorder several books that were favorites of his 3-year-old-daughter, Sunday Rose.

"I would take the recorder and the book up [to her room] and read to her by pressing play and turning the pages of the book," Keith tells The Boot. "Sunday would hit the stop button and go, 'But I want YOU to read it.' She didn't understand why I couldn't read the books. With everyone else I could write notes, but Sunday can't read yet so Nic [Nicole Kidman, Keith's wife] would have to try to explain it to her."

Keith had to be totally silent for three weeks after his surgery and says one of the things he learned is that he had to exaggerate his responses to people. He couldn't just nod in agreement; he had to nod vigorously in order to get across the point that he really did agree with them.

"You almost have to over-exaggerate facial expressions to let the person you are trying to communicate with know you're in a good mood. I nodded a lot. I found you have to be effusive, because when you talk and you agree, you go, 'Yeah. Absolutely!' But when you go like this [slightly nods] the other person doesn't know what's going on. So I had to nod vigorously to make sure people knew that I was agreeing with them. After two weeks, I was in the shower one day and my neck was so sore ... because I was always nodding in agreement to people."

Keith says another way he communicated was to carry a white board around with him to write on. He quickly found out he could leave out a lot of words when he needed to talk with someone.

"It's like they say, when one of your senses is gone you get stronger in the others. With me it was my hearing. I became amazed at how much noise there is on television and in conversations ... how much is said that could be stripped away so that conversations could be more succinct. I realized I'm as guilty with that as anyone else. When you have to write it down you get real particular about what you want to say. We went to a dinner party one evening and I didn't want to take my white board in but Nic told me to bring it. So during dinner I'm nodding a lot and making the proper facial expressions during conversations, really trying to contribute. Then I'd think, I should say something about this particular topic, so I'd write it down. And just about the time I got it written down and was about to hold it up to share it, the conversation would move on to another topic. So I'd write faster and people would say, 'I can't read that.' So towards the end of the evening I got real specific and more economical and to the point about what I wanted to say."

Now that Keith is completely recovered from surgery, he's back to reading to Sunday Rose and her 1-year-old sister, Faith Margaret. He'll also be performing again soon. His first trip to a stage will be the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium on Feb. 3. Keith's 'All for the Hall' concert, which he'll co-host with friend Vince Gill, is scheduled for April 10.

[Kim]

Keith Urban, Richard Marx Celebrate 'Long Hot Summer'


Getty Images for BMI


It didn't seem much like a 'Long Hot Summer' last evening in Nashville. With temperatures in the 40's and dropping, Keith Urban and Richard Marx were celebrated with a party marking their No. 1 summer song from last year. Despite the invitation from Keith for people to come out in "flip flops, a Hawaiian shirt and shorts," only one person at the entire fete took the superstar's attire request seriously.

Keith told The Boot that the song was written after the devastating floods of 2010 in Nashville. All of his guitars were lost, and he had to borrow one from someone at Studio Instrument Rentals, where he and Richard were holding their writing session. Although they had gotten together to finish another song, that one was pushed aside to another day when the idea for 'Long Hot Summer' came along.

"I like to have at least one of these kinds of songs on my album," Keith explained. He and Richard worked on the song but didn't get it finished. Shortly thereafter, Keith was opening for the Eagles in Chicago, where Richard lives. He called and invited the pop legend out for a songwriting session.

"We were sitting on the bus working, trying to finish the song, when Joe Walsh (Eagles guitarist) came onto the bus," Keith relayed.

"Joe had played on my first album and we hadn't seen each other in a long time," Richard added. "He came on, and we were talking and he finally stopped and said, 'Am I interrupting something?'

"We had to tell him we were trying to finish a song and he was like, 'Oh, I can come back.' So he left, and we finished it and did a work tape on it. Then Keith put it on his album! It's one of my favorite songs that we've written. You always hope that when someone else records something you wrote, they will do it justice. When Keith sent me the recording of it after he had been in the studio, I called my family in to listen to it. There was just this one moment of 'I hope it doesn't stink' before I hit the button, and it was great."

The song is very special to Keith, as well, who counts Richard as a friend and invaluable co-writer. The singer relays that when the two first met through a publisher in Nashville, they hit it off so well that they would do anything but write because they just enjoyed each other's company. So when Keith called Richard and suggested that they get together to finish this other song they had started, they never did. They came up with 'Long Hot Summer' instead, and the other song remains unfinished. So we're hoping for another Keith Urban/Richard Mark No. 1 party invitation later this year!


www.theboot.com/2012/01/26/keith-urban-long-hot-summer-party/

[Kim]

Keith Urban Credits Nicole Kidman for Getting His Song on the ‘Act of Valor’ Soundtrack


Prior to going in for vocal surgery, Keith Urban had a pretty good list going of things he had to knock out before the weeks of recovery. One of those top priority tasks included writing a song for the new ‘Act of Valor’ movie soundtrack.

Urban says the job had its pressure, and he knew that the style of his usual chart-topping hits wouldn’t have matched up well for a movie based around an elite team of Navy SEALs who embark on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent.

“I knew that ‘Long Hot Summer’ wouldn’t have suited ‘Act of Valor,’ that’s for sure,” Urban tells Taste of Country with a laugh. “I’d never written for a particular thing before, and I was really nervous about it. I was about to do vocal surgery, and I just felt like, ‘I can’t do this.’ One of the guys flew down and showed us the film, and I was really moved by the film. I wanted to write something; I just couldn’t think of an angle and a placement and so on.”

Urban turned to his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, for advice on what he should do. “I have to really thank Nic for really saying to me, ‘You should do this … you really should,’” notes Urban. “She really kind of gently suggested that I do it, and I’m glad I did. We had written this song, and we were under such incredible time crunch to get it, done that for the first time in my life I actually booked a studio and the players before we had written the song. If there’s ever any pressure to get a song written it’s because the studio is booked and we had to have the song before [the session].”

His wife may be an Oscar-winning actress, but Urban has no plans to test the waters in Hollywood — “because I suck at acting,” the singer says with a laugh.

‘Act of Valor’ hits theaters on Feb. 24. The movie’s official soundtrack will also feature songs by Sugarland, Hunter Hayes, Josh Kelley, Jake Owen, Montgomery Gentry, Wynonna Judd, Trace Adkins, Lady Antebellum and Lori McKenna.