While some of them might not admit it, it’s pretty likely that every single American Idol contestant has scrawled the title of their dream debut album out one, two or maybe 100 times in a notebook. With the season 17 finale less than a month away, it’s a sure bet that the top eight have started giving some thought to what they want their first effort to be called and the vibe they’re after.
Billboard asked the top eight to share their fantasy titles and what kind of sound they’re planning to explore after all the confetti falls. Check out their answers below.
Laine Hardy
“Stay in Your Laine. Why? To have songs on there about not letting anything get in your way or chasing your dreams and stuff about home and things like that. [The sound of] my first album after Idol is unpredictable right now for me, because I don’t know. … I’ve got a good idea of what kind of style, but I just need to find the right song, the right kind of composition of a song. … My love of ’50s music is gonna influence my new songs and anything after that. It’s going to be a modern ’50s.”
Walker Burroughs
“I haven’t thought about it … inspired by the fact that I haven’t had the brain energy to have thought about it. I think something that separates me from the other artists here is that I have never been fully set on being an artist. Because of my self-confidence issues, I’ve never been comfortable enough to actually pursue that dream, and so I’ve never really thought about what my first album would look like. I think thinking about it on the spot, it would probably be jazz-influenced. I would love it to have interesting lyrics, but also intentional musicality. I want to be intelligent with how I match my lyrics and the music behind it and the chords behind, how the melody moves. I think that’s the type of artistry that I really respect and admire at this point in my life, so that’s what I would hope to emulate.”
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Madison Vandenberg
“VICTORYYYYYYYYY… Just kidding. Maybe I’d name it like, At Last or Finally, or something like that. LOL. I think just because I wanted to do something like this for so long and I finally achieved it. I really just want to have a softer pop type of sound. I would love to write a couple songs and I’d love to write with songwriters, because I’ve never done that before with some co-writers. I think that would be cool. I’d love to do a music video for one of the singles on the album. I think that would be cool.”
“Self-titled, aka Scary Pool Party [his musical alter ego]. The first album would be very acoustic-driven. Kind of like some more singer-songwriter stuff. I write so many songs. I’m trying to really find my vision and I want it to be 100% honest and I just want to try my best.”
Alyssa Ragu
“Bad Daydream. One, because it’s a song on the album, but the meaning behind it is that everyone has nightmares. They’re normal. But we never talk about the bad scenarios that run around in our mind throughout the day. Bad Daydream signifies the importance of your gut feeling, what you expect to happen and how your visions might mean something after all.”
Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon
“Souvenirs because it would be made up of songs I’ve written inspired by my travels. I would love to be able to write all my music and record and go on tour, the whole nine. But along with that, I would like to connect with people in more of a humanitarian context. I think being raised in church really instilled in me the sense of music as a vehicle to connect with people. It’s always been sort of like this natural progression, like it’s not just about performance to me. It’s about including people in on this experience and bettering ourselves as a result of it. So I would like to see my music take on that effect to my listeners.”
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Wade Cota
“Big Feet, Baby Steps… because for a guy like me, you have to step carefully. One step at a time, one foot in front of another. My big feet have to make baby steps. I would rather do my original music, but I’ll do other people’s music for now. It’s whatever I’ve got to do right now to make people happy and I’m still picking songs I absolutely love. That’s one thing that people need to know about American Idol. Nobody’s picking songs for you. You’re doing it yourself. You’re making sure it’s going to be good, and it’s one of those things where you’re the architect of your own demise. If you’re going to go home, it’s going to be because of you.”
Laci Kaye Booth
“All My Love because that’s exactly what it would be, me writing and pouring my heart out into an album 🙂 Plus, I wanna spread love and kindness always. I see it being country soul, but with a more dreamy vibe. It’s hard to explain. I like pop music but I like the Stevie Nicks pop music, so that incorporated with country soul, I think would be just really cool.”