‘American Idol’ notes: Phillip Phillips, Carrie Underwood, Gurpreet Singh Sarin

For this edition of “American Idol” notes, we are touching on a little bit of everything, beginning with the reigning champ’s new music video and ending with one of the first major interviews featuring a notable contestant from this season.

Phillip’s “Gone, Gone, Gone” video – As revealed earlier this week, the reigning champion unveiled his new music video on Friday, and it is a reason to be thoroughly excited.  “Gone, Gone, Gone” is the second single of Phillip’s from his “The Worst From the Side of the Moon” debut, and the video to represent it feels rather similar in ways to what he did with “Home.” It’s a personal account of being in love, growing older, and making sure you are there for someone else during tough times.

What is working very well for Phillip is how “American Idol” as a whole seems to be smartly painting him with this sort of homegrown folk hero brush. These videos don’t feel like something coming from the winner of some hyper-produced singing competition, which is something that has plagued many a past contestant going into the real world.

Carrie Underwood joins Instagram – This is not a story that we need to spend much time on, but it is certainly worth being aware of that the season 4 champion is now a part of the photo-sharing site. For those interested in following along with her tour, this is an easy and fun way to do it.

Gurpreet Singh Sarin speaks out – You may know him better as the “Turbinator” this season, but out of the top 40 contestants on the show, Gurpreet is one of the more intriguing. He is one of the few people of the Sikh faith to be represented on an American reality show of this manner, and in a new interview with The Daily Beast, he talks about trying to overcome some of the criticism and prejudice that inevitably comes his way as a result of who he is:

“I understand that some people are intolerant, but I don’t let the get to me. I just have to keep speaking the universal language of music. I’m being judged for my voice and talent and passion, not for my appearance. For me, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like or what language you speak. That’s the beauty of music. It overcomes stereotypes and negativity, and it helps bring people together.”

This, in addition to his nice voice, is one of the reasons why we hope to see Gurpreet go a long way.

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If you want to read our full review for Thursday night’s new “American Idol” episode, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Fox