Idol Chatter & Voice Views

In a recent interview, Nick Fradiani said waiting so long to release his post-Idol debut album would have been a huge mistake eight or nine years ago when winners wanted to capitalize on the show’s popularity.

Well, waiting a year and a half to release the album didn’t work out so well either.

The latest Billboard 200 chart is out. And Nick’s album “Hurricane” debuts at number … are you ready for this? … 121.

The previous worst Billboard 200 debut for an Idol winner was Caleb Johnson at number 24 with “Testify.” That album sold 11,000 copies in its first week.

I haven’t seen sales figures for “Hurricane;” Billboard doesn’t even mention him in its weekly chart roundup. But Adele was 10th on this week’s Billboard 200 with 27,000 sales of her “25” album, so Nick’s likely sold far fewer than that.

Four new albums cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 this week, including the “Suicide Squad” soundtrack at number one, Skillet’s “Unleashed” at number three, the “Now 59” album featuring various artists at number five and DJ Snake’s “Encore” at number eight.

To Nick’s credit, he wrote or co-wrote 11 of the 12 tracks on his new album; the lone exception was “Beautiful Life,” his Idol coronation song. That’s one reason the album took so long to release. He became the first Idol winner to release his post-show debut after his successor had been crowned.

But he hasn’t been helped by the fact that none of his singles have caught on big time. “Beautiful Life” did the best, peaking at number 24 on the adult pop chart, but that song was released when he won Idol in May 2015. It’s followup, “Get You Home,” reached number 32 on the same chart.