American Idol season 13 runner-up, Jena Irene, had plans to move to Los Angeles after the summer tour, but decided to stay in her hometown of Detroit, where she signed a deal with independent label, Original 1265.
The singer is gearing up to release her first album, titled Cold Fame. The first single, “Unbreakable,” has just dropped. Jena debuted the song live in downtown Detroit this morning (Oct 5) for Fox News 2.
Interestingly, Jena chose as a first singler a song she released in 2012 with her old band, Infinity Hour. Back then, the song was called “Unbreakable Me.”
Over the weekend, she attended the premiere of Michael Bolton’s unfinished Detroit documentary “Gotta Keep Dreamin,” to which Jena contributed a song. On Friday night, she was invited on stage to sing “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” with Bolton and Martha Reeves. Read more at MLive
Jena will release more songs–some with video–over the next 6 months. Here’s a blurb from the official description posted on the “Unbreakable” Youtube page:
I am my own worst enemy,” Jena sings on “Unbreakable,” the lead single from her upcoming record Cold Fame. “I look in the mirror and don’t see anything at all.” A few lines into the song and it’s clear that the transformation Jena underwent after American Idol has turned a girl into a woman. That zippy, finger-bent-against-her-cheek façade from Jena’s TV performances is still present, but Cold Fame has a voice that’s more brooding than breezy.
Except that she wrote the song before she even stepped foot on the Idol stage? Maybe it’s all about her delivery.
The video begins in black and white, as it depicts scenes of Jena’s stressful life in Los Angeles in 2014, but then shifts to color for the present day scenes in Detroit. A message that Jena is comfortable in her own skin and knows who she is as an artist? Watch the video here.
ETA: It completely slipped my mind that Jena sang “Unbreakable” as her wildcard song. The song is pivotal to her success on Idol. Re-recording it as her first single makes sense. But I am still looking forward to new music from Jena. From the time we only knew her from the pre-Idol spoilers, it was obvious she’s a gifted songwriter.
