Jennifer Hudson and La Toya London were so supportive and always helped me out when I needed them. For example, I had a dentist appointment and needed an emergency root canal. I asked them to sing my songs and they did. La Toya, Jennifer, and I were all tight, and when I asked them to sing in my place, it was always cool. I felt the same thing about the other talented Idols. Most of the people who are onIdol don’t just listen to pop radio and R&B radio alone. They listen to all kinds of music and appreciate all of it. They come from all over the country with all kinds of music backgrounds. I’m sure that I taught the singers on our tour some things about gospel music, but I learned a lot from them, too. One of the things I learned from other singers is to be more subtle in my delivery of certain songs. Everything can’t be so dramatic and full of hollerin’ like church music usually is. I needed to learn that. I learned from some of the other Idols to take my time with a song. I also learned from all of them that your roots are what make up your style as a singer. I found out that what comes natural to me is what usually works best.
I did feel confident about my performance, not because I won onIdol or because I thought I was the best, but because I knew that I was very comfortable being me, and to me that is what makes me a good singer. Every night, I felt like I was going out there givin’ ’em my type of singin’, which is singin’ from the church. It’s the singin’ that I had been doing as long as I could remember. I took every song and was always “’Tasia wit’ it.” Sometimes the other singers would try to switch up their styles, but I never switched mine. I kept it ’Tasia. For me, a jazz song or a country song or whatever, I just sang it like I was makin’ ’Tasia art. I always want my singin’ to be beautiful and I always want it to be a part of me.
TheAmerican Idol tour was a very busy time for me. After three years of sitting on the couch, I could not have imagined beingsooo busy. Everyone else got to use their days off relaxin’, sightseein’, or just kickin’ it. I, on the other hand, was busy making my album. Winning American Idol meant that my album had to be completed as soon as possible so that my fans could hear my music. On nights before a scheduled day off, I was taken to the airport immediately following a show to fly to Los Angeles to work on my album. The tour schedule was crazy, and it was often frustrating to live on a bus for almost four months! When I felt frustrated and restless, I would think back to those nights on the porch at Montlieu Avenue, singing like it was all I knew and the only thing we had to call our own. Those nights I was dreamin’ that someday I would have the “problem” of being on tour and singing my heart out every day to thousands of people. Every time I remembered that dream, I was just thankful to be on that plane, with no sleep.
I have grown so much in myself, so I am able to say to you, now, in all honesty, that everybody on the tour wasreally good. I could never hate on them, ever. The other Idols were amazed at how excited I was when others were singin’ and doin’ their thing. If someone hit a great note or did something that moved my spirit, I was sayin’ somethin’ out loud. I was constantly walking around backstage sayin’, “Did you hear that note?”
On tour, my favorite Idols were George Huff, Jennifer Hudson, Camille Velasco, and La Toya London. George Huff is abaad brotha’ who had very good vocal control on the tour. I don’t really recognize notes and I can’t read music, but George knows notes and his vocal arrangements were so crazy. He could do things that left me wondering, “How did he dothat?” George was very soulful and you could tell that he, too, was raised in the church. When George performed he made you want to get up out of your seat. I always see myself as having an old sound and George does too. When he would smile, he would brighten up my whole day.
Jennifer Hudson reminded me of Roberta Flack. Jennifer didn’t need a microphone. I was just amazed when I heard her sing and always thought, Where is she comin’ from with that voice? Jen had that type of power! You could hear her coming from a mile away. She was just soulful, soulful, soulful!
La Toya was different than the others. She was laid back and soothing with her singin’. Her voice was light but soulful. I could sit back and relax when listening to La Toya’s voice. She has a beautiful voice with such good vocal control. Her voice reminds me of all those times when I was growing up and my mother was cleaning the house on Montlieu Avenue and she would have Anita Baker playing.
John Stevens had an older vocal and he sounded like Frank Sinatra, and people love Frank Sinatra. That is what got him to the Top 10. John had adifferent vocal, and when he didn’t have a good round on the show, it was just because he was so young and nervous. He would be singing Broadway music and
