Sabrina Sloan
News

Just in time for the holidays, Sabrina Sloan is coming out with her debut CD.

It's actually a duet with fellow American Idol contestant Sundance Head. Below, Sloan talks about the album, and her musical background in general:

“I played for about eight years at concerts and competitions. . . . I use that to write songs now. I definitely feel that I could have been much better than I am if I’d kept at it, but being able to read music, to really have a music theory background, is really important in helping me in my career.”

In addition to using the piano to help write songs, Sloan relies on her life experiences.

“I write about love, I write about pain, and whatever I’m feeling. I’m working on kind of an inspirational song right now because I’ve been doing a lot of charity events, so I wanted to write something that was appropriate for that—that compliments people reaching out for each other.”

The website Buzz Patrol recently caught up with Sabrina Sloan, American Idol season six finalist.

Follow our link to read the full interview now - and check out some highlights below.

Buzz Patrol: OK, first and foremost, you were robbed! In retrospect, do you think you would have gone further in the competition if you’d worn short shorts [ala Haley Scarnato]?
Sabrina: Haha! You know, that is possible. I was just getting ready to pull them out before I went home. It’s funny since Haley was my roommate during the show.

Buzz Patrol: Other than the shorts then, do you have any regrets over doing American Idol?
Sabrina: Regrets? No! I was hesitant going into the competition because a lot of my Broadway friends back in New York couldn’t even get past the preliminary stages to meet with the judges. You know, though, the competition is about a lot more than singing. Popularity is a big part of it.

Buzz Patrol: Well, moving past American Idol, I’m told that you are currently recording a cd. Would you like to tell our readers about it?
Sabrina: Sure! I am doing a project with Sundance Head for Motown Records. Since we both did our exit interviews together, the execs thought that our voices and fan bases would blend well. The cd is basically a soul album that contains a number of covers re-arranged to become duets, though we do have one or two original tracks as well. The cd is due out in November.

Buzz Patrol: Any favorite tracks?
Sabrina: Yes, the Isley Brother’s “For the Love of You.” It’s sort of an Outkast meets Al Green kind of arrangement.

Buzz Patrol: So speaking of music, who are your biggest musical influences?
Sabrina: I grew up loving Mariah, Whitney, and Prince. Personally, I would love to be a kind of female Justin Timberlake. I love his sound, the whole urban hip hop genre.

Buzz Patrol: In light of troubled musicians like Whitney, do you have any thoughts on young pop musicians like Britney, Lindsay, and Amy Winehouse and the current trouble they all seem to find themselves in?

Sabrina: Well, looking at them, it makes me feel lucky that I didn’t start out singing as a child. I mean, I sang from an early age, but I wasn’t put into the business. This industry is too demanding for a child, being told what to do all the time and not being allowed to have an actual childhood. And now look; they are just doing whatever they want! It’s like they are taking back their childhood they never had.

Personally, I have an awesome family and a wonderful support base. I have a husband who is not in the industry, and I think that’s important as well. He is very supportive of what I do and there is no clash of egos. I mean, I’m a performer; we’re supposed to be dramatic!

Sabrina Sloan has signed a recording contract with Universal Motown - and here's cool news about her first project:

It will be a CD of duets with fellow season 6 semifinalist Sundance Head, the singer confirmed in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly.

''The feel will be soulful songs with a contemporary twist — kind of Al Green meets OutKast,'' said Sloan, noting that she and Head will hit the studio in August, with the hopes of making a late November release date.

Jolene Cherry, senior VP of A&R at Universal Motown, said the album will be produced by Peter Collins and include a mix of new and classic material. ''I usually am not so much in sync with things that are on American Idol,'' Cherry noted, ''but both [Sloan and Head] really caught my attention. I was really impressed by the quality of their vocals.''

Sloan, the last female semifinalist voted off American Idol before the season 6 finals began, said that an executive from Universal Motown tracked her down via a member of her mother's Arizona church congregation in the days after her ouster.

And despite some initial reservations about the duets concept, Sloan said she hopes the combined power of hers and Head's fan bases will help them get noticed in a music scene increasingly crowded with Idol alumni. '

'We had a fear of having a whole From Justin to Kelly thing. We didn't want to make anything cheeseball,'' Sloan explained. ''But Jolene and the [people at the] label said, 'It cannot be that.' We're putting it out at the same time as Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis. It's got to be killer.''

Still, Sloan added, in the long-term, both she and Head consider themselves solo artists. ''It's not going to be a long-term [partnership], like Peaches & Herb,'' she said with a laugh.

Aside from Mario Vazquez, who chose to drop out of Idol just prior to the season 4 finals, and novelty act William Hung, Sloan and Head appear to be the first Idol contestants to score major label deals without reaching the top 12.

American Idol finalist Sabrina Sloan has been out of the spotlight for a bit. But she recently spoke with Buddy TV. Here are a few excerpts:

First, can you tell us a little bit about what made you audition for American Idol last season?
Yeah, I've been a fan for the last five years watching the show from the first season, and my friends and family were always telling me, “You could be on the show, you can totally compete on that show. You should go audition.”

And I was actually in New York, on Broadway, kind of doing my thing but I wanna go, you see every year people get kicked off that should stay, and it's kinda controversial who ends up winning. But I thought I absolutely have nothing to lose, I just really wanna try and get in the show and I decided this year I had to do it.

When you went into those auditions, did you think you had a pretty good chance to move on once you got there and saw the competition?
I did. It wasn't too overwhelming, actually. I flew to Minneapolis from here to audition. I live in LA, but when they were in Pasadena, I was throwing my best friend her bachelorette party in Las Vegas so I missed the LA audition and ended up going to Minneapolis.

And it was still a huge, huge crowd but I actually got really lucky and got in kind of in the first couple of hours and like out by 8 am so it wasn't like the long, long day that I thought it would be and I...I felt like, yeah, I mean when I walked in, you don't know what people sound like necessarily but the characters around you so you kind of feel like, “Well, I've got just as good a shot as anybody else.”

One of the things I think viewers don't get to see enough of is the Hollywood week and kind of what happens there, you know. Can you explain to us a little bit about your experience in Hollywood week?
Hollywood week was crazy, cause I watched it on TV too so you just think it's so...you're up all night, it was crazy. And it's intense. It's a little like boot camp, it's a little like, you know, kind of a sorority rush cause you're on lock down in the hotel and you're around people you don't really know, you're rooming with somebody you didn't know before, maybe you just met and day in day out, going up and singing a song and getting cut and like hanging out for the day, like the girls day where they took us out at Long Beach and it was a good four days, five days and by the end of it, it gets really intense during that group daytime when you're working with three or four people trying to memorize lyrics or put together a song, a routine for the judges.

It was a whole lot of pressure and not a lot of sleep and at that point everybody really wants it bad because everybody gets into Hollywood thinks they absolutely belong in the show so it gets really competitive at that point.

To read the full interview, click here.

To be honest, we didn't think much about Sabrina Sloan before last night's tremendous audition.

FOX seemed to feature other contestants, such as Chris Sligh and Melinda Doolittle, a lot more than this semi-finalist. But the world pretty much knows Sloan now.

Maybe we shouldn't award the crown to Lakisha Jones just yet. Sabrina was sublime. Therefore, we wanted to share a few quick facts about this singer to help spread the word:

• Not only does Sloan remember the age in which she began singing (three), she actually recalls that it was on top of a table at Chucky Cheese.
• Asked to choose her own American Idols, Sabrina points to her mom. And Oscar nominee Jennifer Hudson.
• She has a husband named Chip.
• A week after the 9/11 attacks, Sabrina moved into a "cockroach-infested apartment to pursue singing."

Now THAT's dedication! The kind that will take you far in a competition such as American Idol. After last night, looks like viewers are beginning to realize that.