Idol Chatter & Voice Views

While the American Idol world rages against the selection of Miley Cyrus as tonight’s guest judge, let’s not forget that this is also a pretty big day for a former Idol contestant: Anoop Desai.

Added as the 13th contestant to the finals last year, Anoop wound up finishing sixth, well enough to earn a spot on Idol’s summer tour.

Now he’s released his first post-Idol single, “My Name,” on iTunes, complete with a dance beat and a neat little ‘Anoop, Anoop’ during the fade-out.

The song was co-written by Brandon Rogers, who finished 12th on season six of Idol and predicted big things for Anoop when I spoke with him back in November (interview link).

You can hear the complete “My Name” at people.com.

Anoop plans to follow up the single with an eight-track EP, “All Is Fair,” on May 4. He told People: “It’s a pop record, but definitely influenced by a Bollywood feel.”

In a neat little video interview, Anoop told The Los Angeles Times the EP was completely an independent project. He also sings the intro to the song a cappella and provides one-word descriptions for a variety of Idol personalities here.

The single and a variety of EP packages (with T-shirts, buttons and the like) are also available on Anoop’s Web site.

And, if that isn’t enough, you can head to Anoop’s street team site to watch him perform an acoustic version of the new song live on a Philadelphia television show this morning.