‘American Idol’ notes: More on Hollie Cavanagh, Phillip Phillips

With the Christmas holiday leading to a bit of a bit of a lull, most “American Idol” stars are understandably taking a little bit of a break in order to focus a little bit on what matters the most to them: in particular friends and family. Therefore, our notes have been scattered as of late … but we do have a pretty interesting new story to share about the fourth-place finisher from last year in Hollie Cavanagh.

In an interview with her hometown Liverpool Echo while overseas, Cavanagh explains that her plans for the new year include moving from her American hometown of McKinney, Texas to Los Angeles in order to find a writing team for a new album that she hopes to bring to a record label once completed at some point in 2013. The 19-year old also seems to have absorbed much of what she learned on the show earlier this year, ans she gives what is a very smart quote about the direction in which the music business has going in over the course of the past few years:

“It’s going to be a pop album but I’ve always loved Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Whitney Houston and those big diva ballad songs. Those ballads don’t sell as much as they did when they made them so I want to do pop songs. But there will still be ballads on there as well.”

It is this sort of recognition of the big ballad’s place in music right now that has us questioning why we are then forced into hearing contestants time and time again on music shows perform Whitney Houston and Mariah songs. Our philosophy on this is simple: people like Hollie should do maybe two or three of these a season to show that she has that range, but then also have more opportunities to show what she could sound like on the radio today. Sadly, we don’t think the producers are handing out this sort of advice during the live rounds.

A brief note from Phillip Phillips – Just in case you are wondering why there are so few videos available right now from the reigning champ’s recent visit to MuchMusic in Toronto … it’s because it hasn’t aired yet on TV! We just got word that Phillip’s appearance on “NewMusicLive” will air early on in the new year, and we’ll bring you more on that when we have it.

If you want to read some more news about Mariah (but as a judge this time more than a singer), you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Fox