Rock Star: Supernova

Rock Star: Supernova is the second season of the reality television show Rock Star. The show, hosted by Dave Navarro and Brooke Burke, featured 15 contestants competing to become the lead vocalist for a newly formed supergroup featuring Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke.
On September 13, 2006, Lukas Rossi was crowned the winner and became the frontman of the band Rock Star Supernova.
As the show's name implies, the new group was to be called Supernova; however, another band named Supernova was granted an injunction against the television supergroup stating that they cannot use the name "Supernova" for any promotion or perform under that name. With this judicial ruling, the band announced their official name would be "Rock Star Supernova".
The show began online on the Rock Star web site on MSN on Monday, July 3 with an Internet exclusive weekly episode and premiered on 5 July 2006 on CBS in the United States and Global in Canada. Votes could be cast on the Rock Star website or by text message on Verizon Wireless. it was one of two prominent programs in the "Rock Reality Show" mini movement of the summer of 2006, the other being VH1's Supergroup.
Unlike in the first season, the behind-the-scenes episodes were not televised in the U.S.; instead, they were available online at the official MSN sponsored website, to subscribers of Verizon, and through the Rock Star tab on Windows Live Messenger. However, these "In the Mansion" reality episodes did air on television in Canada on Global, in Australia on Foxtel channel FOX8, and in Asia on STAR World.
The following is a list of songs performed by each finalist during the competition. They are listed in elimination order, so the first one mentioned was in first place in the competition and the number represents the week in which the song was performed. Each week one finalist is asked to perform an encore performance of the song they performed the night before which is noted below as an "Encore Performance". The three finalists who have the lowest total votes for the week are also asked to perform another song of their choice, and this song is noted as a "Bottom Three Performance". Additionally, beginning in Week Seven, one finalist is chosen to debut a new Supernova song with the members of Supernova. This is noted below as a "Special Performance".
Lukas Rossi's victory makes him the second Canadian to win the Rock Star competition.
There was a standing ovation for her and she made rockstar history as the only person to do a Stagedive. Jill Gioya Chose to do Brown Sugar backed by Gilby Clarke. Though she was praised by Dave for her performance, Gilby stated that he was annoyed when she started to "GRIND" against him.
The first rocker to end in the final bottom three was Jill who has saved herself in every previous bottom three performance. She performed Aretha Franklin's "Respect" for her elimination review. The second rocker to be in the final three was Josh. Tommy was concerned with Josh being in the bottom three as a result of standing behind his guitar during his performances. In a bold move, Josh announced that he would again be playing his guitar, performing "Shooting Star" by Bad Company. The final rocker to be in the bottom three who would fight for their survival was Ryan, over Patrice, who had never been in the bottom three and had the encore in the previous week. Jason commented he was surprised to see this and maybe the audience was confused with his diversity in performances. For this night, the crowd cheered to his selection of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence", in which he said he arranged especially for what he thought fit Supernova's taste. Impressed with the changing of his performances and growing momentum, Supernova let Ryan off the hook for this week. In a surprising move, Tommy dropped his axe twice eliminating both Josh and Jill. Both eliminated rockers showed great poise in their final moments and self-proclaimed dork Josh asked if he could still go to Vegas with the rest of the guys (as a joke).
When the rockers arrived in the mansion, Dilana was still upset by Dave Navarro's words. The next day while she was talking to Lukas and Magni, Dilana became aggravated with herself and her recent performance. In a fit of rage Dilana flipped off the camera, voiced a profanity, and smashed a wine glass to the floor, a piece of glass hit Magni in the head cutting him. The following day was to be a photo shoot with InStyle magazine for the rockers. Storm was a natural in front of the camera, but Magni had the most difficult time posing. Later it was revealed to the rockers that the songs they would be performing this week would be chosen by the fans, some of the rockers saw the fan's selections as fitting while others were troubled by the choices.
Lukas started the show by singing "Lithium" by Nirvana and was praised by Supernova for his arrangement. Next up was Magni, who has been in the bottom three twice now. He sang "I Alone" by Live and was also praised for his performance, especially by Dave Navarro commenting that "the boy can sing". The fans chose Ryan to sing "Clocks" by Coldplay. He changed the song by rocking it out and also received praise, earning the nickname Ryan "the Darkhorse" Star from Dave Navarro. Storm sang "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence, with Toby helping on the back-up vocals. However, Gilby thought that her performance was not memorable and cited Jill's version as more memorable. Toby performed "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol, singing it well, and incorporating crowd interaction by inviting girls from the audience onto the stage. Last up was Dilana with "Mother Mother" by Tracy Bonham. Dave Navarro said it was the best performance of Rock Star: INXS and Rock Star: Supernova.
Supernova started the show with a recap of the performances. Lukas received the special performance and rocked the house. Next up was the encore sung by Toby. Then, the bottom three performances were Ryan who sang "Baba O'Riley" by The Who, Storm who sang "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles, and Dilana who sang "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads. With Storm and Dilana in the bottom three for the first time, Lukas remained as the only person not to make a Bottom Three Performance. Notably, Dilana forgot the lyrics to her song. Supernova decided it was Ryan who was eliminated, citing the reason that they feel that he may not be the perfect fit for the band. Supernova, however noted the tremendous progress and improvement that Ryan has made during the duration of his stay in the show and predicted that big things may still happen for his career. In turn, Ryan informed Supernova that they could have made twenty years of great music together and that he would see them on the record charts.
On returning to the mansion, the rockers saluted the departure of Ryan before engaging in a food fight. Afterwards, they listened to the new Supernova track, for which they were all to create melodies and lyrics. The rockers brought their creations and worked with Gilby Clark in a songwriting clinic where everybody received criticism except for Storm and Toby. When they returned to the mansion, they found out that in addition to performing a cover song at the next performance night, they also had to play an original song.
Dilana (despite having torn a calf muscle during rehearsals) started the show by singing "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who followed by her original performance, in which Dave and Tommy had conflicting opinions on. Magni went next and sung the classic "Back in the U.S.S.R." by The Beatles and then went on to sing his original song, which Supernova enjoyed, except Tommy Lee who seemed to think both performances sounded too similar. Storm continued the show with "Suffragette City" by David Bowie with a surprise guest Dave Navarro on guitar, along with a memorable original song "Ladylike," which Supernova loved - especially Tommy. Lukas took to the stage next and performed a stripped down version of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" as well as performing his original. Supernova applauded his performances of both songs on showing his softer side. To finish the show, Aussie Toby sang the famous hit "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers and an original song that Supernova enjoyed, leading Gilby to mention that Toby brought the fun to rock n' roll. Overall, the performances were good from all the rockers, as the band had very few criticisms in comparison to other shows. Before the show went off air, the first votes showed Storm, Dilana and Magni in the initial bottom three.
The show began by Supernova announcing that Magni would be performing with Supernova this week. Later, Brooke Burke surprised the contenders by saying that this week's encore performer would win one of the brand new Honda Ridgelines the contestants were transported in to the gig. The band announced Toby Rand as the winner by singing his catch phrase "Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh" from his original song "Throw It Away". Toby carried an Australian flag on the way to the stage and told everyone that he is dedicating his encore performance to fellow Aussie the "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin, who had died only days before. Later on in the night Storm, Dilana, and Lukas were this week's bottom three. Storm sung a rendition of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," which she dedicated to her mother; during the performance Jason Newsted could be seen wiping a tear drop from his eye (He was crying because of the recent death of his bandmate from VoiVod). Next was Dilana who sang Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". Lukas closed with his original song "Headspin," which he dedicated, just like Storm, to his mother. After deliberation, the band chose to send Storm home, but on air, Dave Navarro proclaimed that he would like to play with Storm on future projects, Tommy and Jason also volunteered with implication that Gilby would play too. Dave Navarro lived up to his promise by playing on Storm Large's album Ladylike Side One on the song "Ladylike", which is the same original song she had performed on the show.
During their last few days at the mansion, the four remaining rockers reflected on their time spent at their home away from home. For song selection, the rockers were presented with over 150 songs to choose from (all but four of them had been performed at some time or the other during the course of the series); three out of four songs selected for performance night were songs that had not been performed, the exception being "Roxanne". The fourth song was "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. Lukas and Dilana both wanted the song, but in the end, neither actually kept it. The rockers were instructed by Supernova to perform a song from the list, as well as their original songs.
As per fans' choice, Ryan Star returned to the show just to perform his hit original song "Back of Your Car" as an opening act. Toby started off with a good performance of "Karma Police" by Radiohead, as well as getting the audience excited with his catchy original, "Throw It Away". Supernova applauded his performance. Next up was Lukas, who sang "Fix You" by Coldplay and a stripped down version of his original, "Headspin". Dilana went next with the song "Roxanne" by The Police. Like all the rest, she then sang her original, "Supersoul", which Supernova enjoyed. Magni finished the show with the Deep Purple song "Hush" followed by his original, "When the Time Comes". However, unlike the other rockers, Tommy Lee and Jason Newsted had criticisms for Magni's performances, particularly how his original is not as "memorable" as some of the others. Nevertheless, Gilby Clark stated that he enjoyed both songs.
At the beginning of the show, Magni and Toby were revealed to be in the bottom two. Both of them performed songs that they had done prior. Magni performed 'Fire' and Toby performed 'White Wedding'. Based on these performances, Supernova sent Magni home saying he was more like someone part of a band instead of a frontman. The three remaining rockers then each performed a song they felt best represented themselves. Lukas sang 'Bittersweet Symphony', Dilana performed 'Zombie' and Toby performed 'Somebody Told Me'. Based on these performances, the band sent Toby home. After further deliberation, Lukas won and became the frontman for Supernova, which meant that for the second straight season, the winner of Rock Star is a Canadian. Dilana was offered to have her album written and produced by Gilby Clarke. Dave Navarro offered to play on the album.
After the announcement that Lukas had been chosen to front the band, the newly formed Supernova closed the show with a performance of "'Be Yourself (And Five Other Clichés)" and "It's All Love" (originally performed with Supernova by Toby and Magni, respectively).
Following the series Rock Star Supernova recorded and released their self-titled debut album Rock Star Supernova with the first single being released in September 2006. The album charted at #101 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the Canadian Albums Chart and was certified Platinum in Canada (over 100,000 units sold). Supernova's first concert performance took place on New Year's Eve at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. A world tour followed in early 2007.
Five musicians made up the house band that backed the 15 contestants during the show. The house band was made up of Paul Mirkovich, Jim McGorman, Nate Morton, Sasha Krivtsov, and Rafael Moreira. Several of these musicians currently perform as the house band for the NBC show The Voice.