American Idol Season 13 winner Caleb Johnson has choice words for his debut single, and he is making his feelings known.
The news comes after American Idol judge Katy Perry says winning the singing contest is not enough for success. Elsewhere, Season 18 winner Just Sam shared she went broke less than two years after winning her season.
Caleb shared that he was “bummed” when he won the show because he knew he would have to sing a song he described as “utter crap.”
American Idol winner Caleb Johnson trashes his debut single
Many would be thrilled to win American Idol but not Caleb Johnson. The singer described his experience of winning the talent show to Insider.
Caleb expressed disdain for winning because he knew he would have to perform As Long as You Love Me, a song written by Justin Hawkins.
Caleb shared, “I knew that, by de facto, if you won you had to sing the song, and the song was just utter crap. Like it was just the worst song ever.”
The season 13 winner revealed that he argued against the song, but to no avail. He explained, “I pitched a fit about it to the management company and all this stuff. And they were like, look at this as kind of a graduation present or something.”
Caleb shared that he had to perform the song on the American Idol tour, but eventually dropped the song. He said, “We did at the beginning, but they switched it. They switched it about halfway because it just wasn’t working. It was not working, and it was a nightmare.”
He continued that the American Idol recording label, 19 Recordings, “put absolutely no support behind the record.”
Caleb finished, “The label wouldn’t release the single, there was no single that came out after the record was done. There was no music video. There was nothing.”
Caleb is not the only American Idol who did not achieve the expected amount of success.
Just Sam broke after winning American Idol
Season 18 American Idol winner Just Sam is back singing in subways after her music career did not get off to the start she anticipated.
Sam said, “I thought it was gonna be easy, just go to the studio, record, put out music. And that’s not how the world works. That’s not how the industry works. It takes time, it takes money that I don’t have. It takes patience.”
Sam explained that making music is expensive, and she has other costs. She shared, “I am making music. I just cannot afford to release music, because mixing and mastering music costs a lot of money. And I invested in myself and ended up broke. That’s the truth. Not broke, broke – like I’m living. I have my own place.”
American Idol is on hiatus. The singing reality competition series will return to ABC in 2023.