Idol Season 5 contestant, Elliott Yamin, is out on the road promoting his new single “Fight For Love” from his upcoming album of the same name, due out on May 5th.
His first single, “Wait For You, ” from his debut album Elliott Yamin was a hit, climbing to #13 on the Hot 100 back in 2007.
But, in an interview with Shirley Halperin of Billboard, Elliott says that getting stations to play his music is a lot tougher these days.
“…there so much junk and sh*t trash on the radio now, ” says Elliott, “The landscape of radio has totally changed for the worse since my first promotional tour.”
Ive been out for five weeks going door-to-door at radio, something very few artists do anymore in the pop world, but it so much tougher this time around. Everybody walking around like their days are numbered and a lot of the programmers that showed me early love the first time around arent even there anymore because they got laid off. People dont have interns anymore; when we hit the stations for these ass-crack-of-dawn radio shows, you have to wait for [the jocks] to take their commercial break so they can come let you in. Everybody understaffed and there less airtime to play with.
With all these new artists coming out with music at the same time, it kind of ruins your chances because theyre all fighting for space that much more scarce. Most stations have their syndicated morning shows and in the afternoons, the Clear Channel stations play Ryan Seacrest, so that gives you half-a-day less of time to hear your song played, unless youre Britney Spears. It just tough times. When you step outside your bubble and get out there on the road, you see how the economy is really affecting your business, career and livelihood. But getting to do all this, even though it harder, I wouldnt have it any other way. I still have that huge Idol audience, everywhere I go, people recognize me, and Im continuing to learn so much about this business and about myself. Im very blessed to be in this position.
Elliott also tells a funny story about meeting Idol contestant Adam Lambert at a club:
I actually met him at [LA club] the Hotel Cafà © a few months ago. This guy comes up to me and says, …Hey, my name is Adam. I wanted to tell you that Im a big fan and I was voting for you ¦ Then he starts looking around to see if anyone else was paying attention to us, and leans in and whispers, …I made it to Hollywood. Im in the top 36 or whatever. So we talked and he asked me a bunch of questions about what to expect. He a really sweet dude, I had a blast talking to him and was looking forward to checking him out. Then to see him on the show ¦ he amazing, what can I say?
Elliott’s favorite is actually Danny Gokey, who he thinks sings from the heart, like he does. And he thinks the lip-synched group numbers are horrible…
Check out the interview. It’s a good read.
