17-year-old Season 10 American Idol winner Scotty McCreery has given one of his best interviews to date when he sat down with the Wall Street Journal.
Scotty talks about his new album “Clear as Day” and his thoughts on not being just another country singer.
Scotty says,
“It’s got a good mixture of songs. I remember sitting down with my producer and saying I don’t want this to be one of those poppy country albums. I want it to be current and up to date.”
Most of the songs on Scotty’s album are original songs and several have a gospel influence.
McCreery also announced that after his summer tour and record deal with Mercury that he has decided to return to his home town of Garner and rejoin his friends in high school to finish out his education.
Even though he had security tag along with him to school Scotty says things slowly returned to normal.
McCreery’s album “Clear as Day” is available now at Amazon.com and on iTunes.
Even though Scotty has decided to return school you can still stay up to date with his career at his official web site at Scottymccreery-official.com
Sales reports indicate that “Clear as Day” has already sold over 200,000 copies which make Scotty the first Idol winner to achieve these sales levels since Ruben Studdard in 2003, and it puts him just ahead of Adam Lambert’s debut album first week sales.
Wow, what a cool guy.
Scotty seems to be very level headed and has set his expectations accordingly.
American Idol winner Scotty McCreery has finally released his music video for his first single “I Love You This Big”.
McCreery, who walked away with the Idol top prize this year, is currently on the road with his fellow contestants with the “American Idol Live Tour 2011” and from what we hear is bringing down the house.
His first single is now #1 on iTunes and on the Billboards 100 Hot Ten list.
Watch Scotty McCreery “I Love You This Big” Music Video
“I Love You This Big” will also be featured on his first album due out later this year.
Scotty told reporters,
“I’m really excited to let people hear what we’ve been working on and putting so much effort and energy and time into. It’s something that I’m really proud of. I can’t wait for them to hear it! Hopefully they’ll feel what I was feeling in the studio.”
I got to say, after watching this video he seems so natural, like he has been in the country music business for years.
Scotty has also just opened a new official web site at “ScottyMccreery-Official” where you can pre-order his album, see his latest blog posts and photos, and read about his experience this summer while on tour with the rest of the American Idol contestants.
The summer concert tour runs through September and then you can expect to see him in the studio fulltime finishing up his album says his manager.
He also has plans to make the rounds on late night television visiting with Jay Leno and David Letterman as well as daytime stops with Ellen and The View to help promote his new project.
Way to go Scotty – you made Garner North Carolina proud!
What do you think? Will you buy his album when it comes out?
Season 10 American Idol winner and country music crooner Scotty McCreery sure has been busy since his big win.
While McCreery has been on tour this summer with the “American Idol Live Tour 2011”, he has
also been working hard behind the scenes on his first feature album and new music video.
Scotty, who was signed a record deal with Mercury Nashville and Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope Records shortly after his win, says his first music video for “I Love You This Big” will be out on August 9th and his first album will be released later this Fall.
He also announced the creation of his new official website at “ScottyMccreery-Official” and says he will be releasing new tracks, news, and videos before the album comes out so his fans can see and hear what he has been working on.
Scotty talked about his new album saying,
“I’m really excited to let people hear what we’ve been working on and putting so much effort and energy and time into. It’s something that I’m really proud of. I can’t wait for them to hear it! Hopefully they’ll feel what I was feeling in the studio.”
Visitors who register at the website and pre-order his new album will also receive an autographed photo of Scotty along with a signed poster and a free digital download of his new music video “I Love You This Big”.
The Garner North Carolina native was the youngest person to ever take home the American Idol crown and within weeks had shattered the Billboard 200 charts with his first single.
“At his age, Scotty has the chance to become one of the first teen idol type celebrities born from the country music genre. There are thousands of young girls who would pay any price for a poster of a shirtless Scotty McCreery hanging in their bedrooms. And their parents would be happy to buy it for them because he is a fantastic role model for any teen.”
Scotty McCreery has been packing in the fans this summer on the American Idol Tour with fellow contestants James Durbin, Paul McDonald, Pia Toscano, Casey Abrams, Lauren Elaina, Stefano Langone, Jacob Lusk, and Hailey Reinhart.
McCreery hits the stage midway through the show and sings Josh Turner's "Your Man”, “Are You Going to Kiss Me or Not”, and his signature hit “I Love You This Big”.
Insiders say this has been one of the best summer tours by American Idol contestants ever, and that the crowd goes absolutely crazy when Scotty McCreery takes the stage.
The tour runs through mid-September and you can buy tickets and check for concert dates in your city on the American Idol Summer Tour official Website.
Can’t wait to hear what young Scotty has cooked up for us!
For all you American Idol fans who thought this year’s shows ended too soon you still have a chance to see your favorite idol live in concert in one of their 47 concert shows that run through September.
The 2011 Summer American Idol Live Tour kicked off last week in West Valley City Utah and all indications are that producers have put together one heck of a show.
The show rundown seems pretty well mixed between individual numbers and lots of duets, and crescendos with a group performance at the end.
Hard rocker James Durbin gets the crowd warmed up with Guns and Roses “Sweet Child of Mine before the entire ensemble bounces in and out doing individual and small group numbers.
Watch James Durbin Sing Sweet Child of Mine Live
Our spy’s on the inside say that Pia Toscano and Stefano Langone do a duet of Rihanna’s "California King Bed”, and Casey Abrams hits it out of the park with a version of Santana's "Smooth" while playing his signature stand-up bass.
All the girls join together for a tribute to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”, and of course runner up Lauren Elaina gets the stage to herself for “Like my Mother Does.”
Hailey Reinhart also gets a moment alone on stage for Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets”, and Pia Toscano blows away the crowd with “Empire State of Mind.”
Watch Idol Live Show Compilation Concert Video
Leading off for the guys is veteran singer Paul McDonald with his version of Rod Stewarts “Maggie Mae” followed by heart-throb Stefano Langone playing the piano while performing Bruno Mars “Grenade.”
Watch Paul McDonald Sing Maggie Mae Live
After a few mare solos, all the guys join on stage for a group rendition of “Animal” by Neon Trees. This was probably the worst and most awkward performance of the night.
But one of the best performances, and the one wanted by the crowd, was by odd man Casey Abrams who brought out his standup bass to croon to Santana’s “Smooth.”
Watch Casey Abrams sing Santana's "Smooth" Live
Once Casey hit the stage you could definitely hear a change in the tone of the crowd – they started to really get into the groove and as you know, Casey has that unusual groove that plays out well in front of an arena crowd.
After a short intermission Thia Megia belted out “Who Says” by Selena Gomez and Stefano brings out the rest of the girls for Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling in Love.”
James Durbin gets the crowd wound up again with “Uprising” by Muse before Jacob Lusk performs “Never Too Much” by Luther Vandross, and then is joined by Pia, Naima and Stefano for “You’re All I Need To Get By” by Marvin Gaye.
Scotty McCreery comes on stage for a group number and the crowed explodes. Scotty then starts his own private little musical set and gets the crowd on their feet with Josh Turner's "Your Man.”
Watch Scotty McCreery sing "Your Man"
McCreery follows with “Are You Going to Kiss Me or Not” by Thompson Square before launching into his hot single “I Love You This Big.”
Watch Scotty sing "I Love You This Big"
The crowd goes wild.
Scotty then joins with Lauren for a duet of “When You Say Nothing At All” by Alison Krause before the entire ensemble comes back on stage for the huge finale.
Watch American Idol Live Tour 2011 Group Finale
The American Idol Live Tour 2011 has only just started and tickets are still available for Los Angeles, Ontario, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Grand Prairie, Houston, New Orleans, Orlando, Duluth, Raleigh, Charlotte, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rosemont, Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Atlantic City, Newark, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.
As for next season, the American Idol producers have already hit the road for Idol season 11 auditions in Pittsburg, Detroit, Denver, St. Louis, Portland, and San Diego.
Last night was an interesting night on the Jay Leno Show.
American Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina visited with Jay and “America’s Got Talent” judge Piers Morgan and dropped a bombshell.
Pierce was standing on his prideful soapbox plugging AGT, saying how they strive to find the best talent in the country, and no other show has this quality of acts, yada yada yada, when Lauren stopped him in his tracks.
Lauren told Piers that she had auditioned for “America’s Got Talent” on TWO separate occasions and never even made it past the screening and never got to sing for the judges.
Morgan seemed horrified, or at least as horrified as his smugly little brain will allow, and joked that he was going to call the producers as soon as he left Jay’s taping.
It was classic. And it was fun to see a 16-year-old girl put the big fat sellout Piers Morgan in his place.
Kudos Lauren!
Watch Lauren Alaina and Piers Morgan on The Jay Leno Show
In addition to embarrassing Piers, Lauren also talked to Jay about her relationship with American Idol winner Scotty McCreery.
Lauren says they are NOT a couple and are NOT involved in any way other than with preparing for the Idol summer tour starting next month.
Hmmm, we don’t believe it. The two seem like perfect lovebirds and we hope their friendship blossoms.
If the two need some advice on how to do things up right and let the world see their public displays of affection, they can just ask Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez for advice – because this Royal Couple have the PDA system down to a science.
But then again, we think Scotty and Lauren would have a little more taste and act more like adults. We can’t see Scotty sporting tattoos and trying to sing rap.
But this year the big story seems to be the relationship between winner Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina.
Maybe we should have seen it coming, but producers didn’t want it out for public consumption until the competition was over.
One insider says,
“We didn’t want it to effect the voting. It was something that happened over time and we knew it would get out eventually. Now that the show is over it will just add to their popularity and success.”
Indeed, Scotty and Lauren have become close, and Scotty even told E! Online that he had fallen in love.
After hearing his name Wednesday night the two quickly embraced each other with hugs and kisses and the rumor mill went into Hollywood overdrive.
But are they dating? Are they a couple? Is there really a relationship there? Insiders say yes.
In fact, after announcing the winner, host Ryan Seacrest ask "Scotty the Body" how he felt and he replied,
"It's been a year since me and Lauren Alaina have tried out now. Me and her have been together since day one and we're gonna stay together."
This was the first time most fans had heard such words from the 17-year-old country singer, but suddenly it seemed everybody wanted to know how serious things were.
For her part, Lauren told Entertainment Tonight when asked if they were boyfriend and girlfriend,
"He might be my boyfriend, ask him."
When asked by reporters about the on-air kiss and possible relationship after the show she said,
"I kissed him on the lips, yeah. He might be my boyfriend, he might not be my boyfriend."
Scotty on the other hand is being a bit more subtle with his remarks and comments. After the show he told reporters,
"I'm sure those rumors are spreading, but we're just really good friends. We've been friends since day one in Hollywood. We've been in class together in school. We've gotten really close, but I don't know about the more than friends stuff. I'm still single, but me and Lauren are really really really close friends."
That’s how it starts kids. Think back to when you were in High School and imagine how you would feel with 50 news cameras stuffed in your face and only 10 seconds to think of your answer.
From here, McCreery is already slated to be back in the studio to record his first single “I love you this big”, and Lauren is recording her first song “Like my mother did”.
The couple will also appear together starting next month in the “American Idol Summer Tour” and have said they plan to record at least one duet together on each other’s first album.
We think this is a perfectly tender moment for the two and wish them nothing but the best. In terms of conspiracy and intrigue there were far more sinister moments that fans never got to see or hear about this season.
And now we know the winner of American Idol 2011 season 10.
17-Year-old country crooner Scotty McCreery took home the gold tonight and is the new American Idol 2011 winner.
Even after last night’s last minute scare, 30 minutes before going live, that Lauren Alaina had lost her voice and Haley Reinhart would be his new competitor.
Scotty made his hometown of Garner North Carolina proud by winning the tenth season’s top prize after a record breaking 122 million votes put him over the top.
“Scotty had what it took to go the distance and everybody in Garner is very proud of him. The entire town went into shock when we heard that Scotty had won.”
Scotty beat out 17-year-old country singer Lauren Alaina, and emerged as a frontrunner after the eliminations of Jacob Lusk, Haley Reinhart, James Durbin, Stefano Langone, Casey Abrams, Paul McDonald, and Pia Toscano.
So what prize does the winner of American Idol get?
The winner receives a record deal with a major recording label for up to six albums. All previous winners have reportedly earned at least $1 million in their first year after being named winner. Several have gone on to become superstars.
In addition, the top ten finalists go on the road with the “American Idol Summer Tour” kicking off this June and making each contestant a nice six-figure income.
This season of American Idol was a vast improvement over prior seasons. The ousting of bad guy Simon Cowell and the addition of Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez ignited a fresh fire under the show.
Not that this season was without problems and drama.
Things got a bit rocky when Pia Toscano was voted off before smooth operator Stefano Langone. Fans revolted and started a grass roots effort to have her reinstated - but ultimately failed in their attempt.
Fans were ecstatic when Pia announced she had signed a record deal only two days after being voted off the show.
And fans cheered when alt-rock sensation Casey Abrams was welcomed back after the judges used their one “save” of the season.
However, some viewers felt that the addition of famous record producer Jimmy Iovine may have led some Idols astray by giving bad advice or pushing them towards a particular song.
Jacob Lusk for example, criticized Iovine for giving him bad advice that Jacob felt ultimately cost him his chance at winning.
And Chris Medina lashed out at producers when he was not invited to the finale live show. He felt that the show really played up his sad story about his fiancée, who suffered a debilitating brain injury, and then dumped him after he was eliminated.
But all-in-all it was a great season. We really believe the changing of the guard propelled American Idol back to what it was in the early days.
And we congratulate Scotty for going the distance and bringing home the win.
Update 2: Looks like it was all a ratings grab. Lauren is live and ready to sing. Good luck Lauren and Scotty!
Update 1: Lauren is in makeup and is not speaking. Haley is on-set and prepared to perform.
- Original Post -
Bad news for American Idol finalist Lauren Alaina.
After all these weeks of competition, Lauren is supposed to be competing with fellow country finalist Scotty McCreery in this week’s final show.
But TMZ is reporting that the singer has lost her voice.
Lauren was scheduled to sing three songs Tuesday night but was only able to get through two of them during rehearsal. A doctor was called and Lauren was told not to sing or speak.
If she loses it during the live performance it could be the end of the road for Lauren.
Producers have said that if Lauren is unable to compete during the live show that they will have Haley Reinhart return to compete with Scotty McCreery.
Tuesday evening was supposed to be a night of country music with songs selected by Carrie Underwood and George Strait.
Lauren and Scotty were also allowed to each sing a song they personally selected from season 10.
No word yet if Haley Reinhart has had time to get up to speed with three separate songs for Tuesday, so we will be watching just like everybody else to see what goes down.
She tried so hard, and even had her dad on stage to rock out a little Led Zeppelin.
Last night on American Idol Singer Haley Reinhart was eliminated leaving Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina to take home the gold during next week’s finale.
This is where things are going to get hard, and we are torn between Scotty and Lauren and could see either of them going all the way.
InfoStar had a feeling that out of the three remaining contestants Haley had the best chance of going home. This is the first year that the top three finalists all had terrific talent.
Last night’s show was also full of firsts.
It was the first time we got to see McCreery cry as he journeyed home to Garner North Carolina and visited his fans and old High School. It was one of the sweetest moments we have ever seen.
We found out that there were over 95 million votes – a new American Idol record.
And we got to see the first ever Italian boy band singing “O sole mio” – we’re still not really sure why we had to see that.
So this is it. It comes down to Scotty and Lauren.
Is it time to bring in some new blood to the mentoring mix?
Big news this week for Lady Gaga and American Idol fans as Miss Gaga herself is scheduled to mentor the remaining four Idols during this week’s May 11th show.
James Durbin, Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina and Haley Reinhart are the sole remaining 4 contestants after Jacob Lusk was voted off last week.
And when I heard Haley sing Gaga’s unreleased single “You and I” last week I suspected it was not a coincidence. And I think some folks are getting tired of listening to Jimmy Iovine week after week.
Lusk is tired of him – and even blamed Jimmy for his poor performance last week that ultimately sent him packing.
Gaga is riding high with her just released music video “Judas”, but is coming under fire from some fans that her hit “Born this way” is a knock-off of Madonna’s “Express Yourself”. We have to admit, they do sound almost identical.
But we don’t really want to see Scotty McCreery emerge from some type of country style giant egg contraption, or watch James Durbin rock out wearing a tuxedo made of meat.
So we hope Gaga is gentle with our last four contestants as the stakes this year could not be greater.
But you can tell that an hour show is way more than necessary for simply revealing the voting results, and producers are having to fill the time with other performances.
Last week each contestant sang TWO songs and Jennifer Lopez graced us with a performance.
This Thursday, Steven Tyler will belt out his new single “It Feels So Good” and word has leaked out that Aerosmith will be performing during finale week.
The theme this week is songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote most of Elvis Presley’s hit songs.
Really? Lady Gaga and Elvis?
Please Miss Gaga, no meat dresses, giant eggs, crown of thorns, nun outfits, or lesbian kisses – let’s keep things civil. After all, this is family hour. At least they didn’t go with Justin Bieber as mentor.
It seems that some American Idol fans were so upset when favorite Pia Toscano was voted off the show last week that a grassroots campaign has been launched on Pia’s behalf.
Fans think there was a great injustice done by keeping Stefano Langone in the competition, and have been calling and sending emails to producers at Fox saying that Pia should be brought back to the show.
They have also been bombarding Stefano’s email and twitter accounts telling him he should bow out and quit.
But before everybody gets too excited they should know that Pia just signed a record deal with Interscope Records – ran by Jimmy Iovine, who has also been acting as mentor for American Idol this season.
Interscope released a statement saying,
"Pia is being signed to a deal with Interscope Records who are rushing her into the studio to record an album ASAP. We have started calling every top songwriter and producer in town to get an album together and rush release it. Papers are being finalized. It's basically a done deal. She's signing. They rushed everything but she's so excited."
In addition to the album, Pia will also be touring with the other top ten finalists on the American Idol summer tour – so everything has worked out nicely for her.
