‘American Idol XIII’ runner-up Jena Irene still waiting to be signed
Life has to be rather strange right now for a star of “American Idol.” You have been through this crazy experience that you would hope would lead to the same opportunities that your predecessors had, but that isn’t the case anymore. Recent winner Candice Glover didn’t get to release a debut album the same year she won the show, and while Caleb Johnson’s is coming along this year, there hasn’t exactly been a ton of promotion.
Then, we have Jena Irene, whose coronation single “We Are One” was by our estimation in the top 5 best that the show has ever put out, not even being signed right now. According to USA Today, she is “on hold” with 19 Entertainment, but is going to do her best to plan for her future while out on the tour starting today:
“We’re going to be on a bus the whole time, so it’s going to be really hard to write music … But the whole journey’s going to be very inspiring and there’s going to be a lot of new song topics to write about.”
Even this tour this year is somewhat sad in a way as a sign of where the show has fallen. Despite some great people on the road (our favorite tour lineup probably since season 10), they are playing significantly smaller venues, there have already been cancellations, and Mjsbigblog has pointed out per an attendee at the concert that there is not even a full live band there this year to accompany the artists. It almost seems better at this point to let the artists do their own tour gigs after the show than give them something like this.
Hopefully, Jena does find some good news for her future soon. Even if she doesn’t end up with a major label, there is still potential for her to do great things out there. Other former contestants have, even if it takes a lot patience.
As for other news, the entire judging panel from last season of “American Idol” is coming back … so they are not cutting costs in that regard.
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Photo: Fox