It’s May, everyone! And that means we’re closing in on the final four weeks of American Idol season 11. In today’s News Round-Up, we know who will be this week’s guest mentor (as well as a returning alum in a couple weeks), the Idol Tour dates have been announced (the same with Carrie’s new tour) and the last music sales.

Little Steven Comes to Idol

Even though record executive Jimmy Iovine is the in-house mentor on Idol, he’s usually joined by a guest mentor as well. And with the Top 5 performing two songs each this week, one a British song and the other a song from the 60’s, Jimmy’s bring on board Little Steven, who is the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. It’s been pretty common this year that the guest mentors are people that Jimmy knows and has worked with before, and this time is no different: “Little Steven has a relationship with Jimmy that goes back to the 70’s when the Interscope chairman was a recording engineer on Springsteen’s early recordings,” according to EW.

Adam Lambert Makes a Return

As an Idol fan, I always love it when former contestants and winners return to the stage where it all began for them. And we’ve seen that a lot this year, every week it seems. On the May 17 results show, it’ll be Adam Lambert’s time. His sophomore album, Trespassing, will have been released only two days before this appearance. Lambert tweeted this exciting announcement along with what song he’ll be performing:

Two Major Summer/Fall Tours

It’s a tradition that goes back to season 1: After the winner is crowned, the Top 10 (or 11, depending on the year) head out on a major tour across the country. The tour dates and cities have now been announced. The 2012 tour will begin on July 6 in Detroit and concludes September 11 in Milwaukee. Tickets go on sale May 11 at 10am. I have gone to these Idol concerts every single year since the first one and always enjoy them immensely. As with the show, the concerts are family-friendly, so bring the kids, the grandparents, and everyone in between!

The Idol contestants aren’t the only ones hitting the road soon. Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood, whose most recently album Blown Away just dropped this week, will be headlining ‘The Blown Away Tour.’ It’ll kick off with stops at the Royal Albert Hall in London in June before she makes her way across America and Canada from September to December. Tickets go on sale May 11.

New Music Releases (Now Available)

Carrie Underwood: Blown Away
The Music of Smash (featuring Katharine McPhee on 7 songs)

The Top Idol Album Sales

The latest music sales numbers from the past week were released this morning, and as usual there are Idols all over the place. (After 10 seasons, it’s a given that’ll happen.) Out of just former Idol contestants and winners, here is who’s at the top of the pack in album sales:

Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger at #41 on Billboard 200, Selling 10,000 units (Total Sales: 766,000)

Scotty McCreery’s Clear As Day at #78, Selling 6,000 units (Total: 1.035 million)

Daughtry’s Break the Spell at #124, Selling 3,000 units (Total: 434,000)

Carrie Underwood‘s first week sales for Blown Away will be released next week.

(Image courtesy of PR Photos)

Jeff Dodge

Staff Writer, BuddyTV

Jeff Dodge, a graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena.