Katharine McPhee Interview
- Did she know she wouldn’t win? “Did I know? I guess I had a feeling that he could probably take it home. Especially because Taylor has been high up in the voting thing for the last couple of weeks. He’d never been in the bottom three. I think he’s the only one who’s never been in the bottom three. He did it. I wasn’t in a panic. It wasn’t like, ”I was staying up for four hours last night voting, ” like, ”Oh, I have to win American Idol!” At the point I made top two, I felt like there were so many doors opening for me.”
- How did she choose her songs? “‘Black Horse and Cherry Tree, ‘ I chose that because I think I knew everyone was going to want me to sing that. Everyone was like, ”Oh, good, we wanted you to sing that.” It’s just a song that I think I could’ve put on an album or something like that. And also it’s a fun song for me to let go. And then ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ was a hard decision for me. I had everybody who thinks they’re everybody telling me what they think I should do. ‘Don’t sing it.’ ‘Oh, it’s too soon to sing that song.’ Blah blah blah. And then it ended up being the one thing Simon thought might save me, so I don’t have any regrets. I’m glad I did it. I didn’t win American Idol for a reason. I think I came in second place for a reason. It’s not second-best; it’s just as good.
- Was she upset when Simon predicted Taylor would win? “No, I didn’t get mad at all. I wasn’t really hurt. It was just one of those things when it’s like, Okay, someone’s gotta win. And then you think, Well, maybe I can still win. I don’t think I was in this… I don’t think I was really desperate to win American Idol. I was just grateful to be in the top two, to be honest.”
- Did she like her single, “My Destiny”? “I liked it when I heard it, but it’s a lot different when you hear it produced. I think people will like it when they hear it produced, with the echo behind it, just a lot of things they put with the song that you don’t get to hear live. And also, my voice was not doing good. I sang it as best I could.”
- Was she having trouble with her voice? “I was losing my voice by the dress rehearsal. I had to have a shot of cortisone from my doctor. He came in and definitely saved my day.”
- How did the Meatloaf duet come about? “They just came to me. It wasn’t like it was my choice. They just said, Okay, you’ll be singing with so-and-so…I didn’t even know who he was. But now I do. He was like really big in the ’70s, right?”
- She and Taylor wanted to do “the lift” from Dirty Dancing during “Time of My Life” but…, “Yes! We wanted to! We thought there was going to be a commercial break before the finale for the results. I was supposed to be wearing a different dress, and we wanted to do a spin and a dip at the end, but not with that dress.”
