American Idol alum Michael J. Woodard drops fifth single on Katy Perry’s Unsub label
American Idol judge Katy Perry signed season 18 alum Michael J. Woodard to her unsub label in 2021, two years after he competed on the show. His first single, “why you texting me” came out shortly thereafter. But you may be surprised to know that Katy did not abandon Michael after a single or two! The singer just released “Face,” his FIFTH single on Unsub, distributed through Capitol Records.
Generally there hasn’t been much promo around Michael’s releases, unless you count Katy or her team taking a minute to promote it on social media. But on Spotify, “Trouble,” released in 2023 garnered over 67K streams. His debut single, “why you texting me?” in 2021 earned 802,812K while “Hope full,” also released in 2021 earned over 1.5M streams. His 2022 release, “show some teeth” garneed 148,436K streams
American Idol’s Michael J. Woodard Pleads for a Manager on Instagram
“‘FACE’ is a record that is so special to me,” Michael said in a statement. “It’s about the struggle of not being able to verbalize the way you feel about someone you love, yet the emotion is clearly expressed on your face.” He continued, “I wanted to capture the feeling of liking someone and just not being able to hide it. The lyrics capture the disorienting nature of feeling so strongly for someone but only being able to express your feelings through your facial expressions. I hope you love it, and it gives you all the feels.”
Watch the official music video below, directed by Janush Libicki. “Face” is written by Michael and Duwayne John Phinisley.
Michael’s Hollywood performance had Katy throwing her chair
Michael wowed the judges in his 2018 Hollywood solo round with a performance of “Maybe This Time” from the musical Cabaret. In the clip below, Katy keeps exclaiming “Oh my gosh!” throughout his performance. Eventually she screams. And then she tries to throw a chair. Dangerous! “WHERE THE HECK DID HE COME FROM!” she finally said. “I feel like a star was born.” Watch all of his search American Idol performances HERE.
Eventually, Michael advanced to the Top 10, where he was eliminated with Cade Foehner at the Top 5. Maddie Pope would go on to win the season with Caleb Lee Hutchinson and Gabby Barrett as the first and second runners up, respectively.
In 2021, Michael played the lead role in the Netflix animated movie musical Arlo the Alligator Boy. He also appeared in the sequel.
