‘American Idol’ notes: New singles via Phillip Phillips, Fantasia

Usually around this time of year, the only “American Idol” news we have to share revolves around the show’s former contestants going out and performing various tunes at Christmas events. However, we have a rare treat today: the unveiling of a pair of new singles from two popular winners from the show’s past, including the most-recent champ in Phillip Phillips.

While we have already heard the pretty fantastic track “Gone, Gone, Gone” from Phillip’s debut album “The World from the Side of the Moon,” we are still overjoyed to know that this is going to be his official follow-up to the massive smash “Home.” This news was confirmed in an interview with Yahoo! Music Canada, and he had the following to say about why it was chosen along with some of his hopes for it:

“You’re the first to know … The second single will be ‘Gone, Gone, Gone’ [and] it’s a good little love song. Todd Clark and Derek Fuhrmann, they wrote [it] and brought it to me and I thought it was a beautiful song. The more I’ve played it live, the more I’ve made it more my own and people seem to really connect with it and really enjoy it so I’m excited to see how that song’s going to do.”

Even though Phillip was not involved in the writing here, it’s a really good track that shows a little bit of “Home” along with some of his own musical sensibility. It’s a nice way to transition to something that is at least a little bit more upbeat.

Now, let’s turn to season 3 winner Fantasia, and a startling admission here when it comes to her new single “Lose To Win”: we absolutely love it. We say this because we’re not necessarily the biggest fan of her voice, and we haven’t always liked some of the music she has performed in return visits to “American Idol.”

What makes this song so fantastic to us, though, is that Fantasia does capture some of her brilliant ability to capture a story within the song while also presenting us with a pretty fantastic hook. This sounds almost straight out of 1994 with its retro beat, but at the same time it’s fresh. This will probably not be a smash hit on the pop charts, but we could see it doing really well in R&B and adult contemporary formats.

The song will be available on iTunes January 8.

If you want to check out some new promos from season 12 of the show, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Fox