Song:Home
Album:The World From The Side Of The Moon
Phillip Phillips won season 11 of American Idol in 2012. He's a singer songwriter similar to guys like Dave Matthews. Home was released right after AI and is his biggest hit to date. He was born Sept. 20, 1990 in Albany, GA and his family moved to Leesburg, GA when he was 12. His brother-in-law Benjamin Neil got him into music and they formed a band. Phillips says his favourite singer is Jonny Lang and he is also a big Dave Matthews fan. A major criticism of Phillips is he sounds too much like Matthews. After winning a local talent contest, Phillips unsuccessfully auditioned for America's Got Talent and then successfully auditioned for American Idol in Savannah, GA. He had kidney stones while on AI and had that taken care of after he won. There was concern that he might have to leave the show. Phillips writes most of his own songs. But Home was chosen by AI mentor Jimmy Iovine as Phillips' AI coronation song. The song was written by Greg Holden who planned to record it himself. His publishing company brought in songwriter Drew Pearson who wrote The Zac Brown Band hit Where The River Goes to help him. They submitted the song to AI. Pearson produced the record and Home reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was played on TV a lot. Phillips wanted to use one of his own songs for his coronation so he wasn't happy with the decision to use Home. But it was successful. Phillips wrote most of the songs on his debut CD The World From The Side Of The Moon. The CD was produced by Gregg Wattenberg who has worked with other AI artists. The CD sold over a million copies and was certified Platinum. Phillips' second CD Behind The Light was released May 2014 and it didn't do nearly as well as the first one. And there were no hit singles. This kind of brief success only to be forgotten is typical of AI winners. There's nothing wrong with him but he sounds too much like other successful singer songwriters. And that's why I have always said American Idol is a double edged sword. It can get an artist to the top of the charts but it can't keep him there. Here's the video for Home by Phillip Phillips.
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