Idol Chatter & Voice Views

RaeLynn is one of three former singing show stars up for the AMC Award for new female vocalist of the year.

Danielle Bradbery

Lauren Alaina

Specifically, the one called new female vocalist of the year.

The 2018 nominees, announced Thursday, include RaeLynn, Danielle Bradbery and Lauren Alaina.

Congrats to all three. Each of them released great new music in 2017. They deserve to be celebrated.

But to call them “new artists?”

Wow, that’s quite the stretch.

RaeLynn starred on Season 2 of The Voice and scored her first big hit in 2014 with “God Made Girls.”

Danielle won Season 4 of The Voice and released her record-label-wants-to-cash-in-quickly debut album in 2013.

Lauren? She pre-dates even that, having finished second on Season 10 of American Idol. Her debut album, “Wildflower,” came out in 2011.

And it gets even more ridiculous than that. Lauren was nominated for the same award in 2017 on the strength of her comeback hit “Road Less Traveled,” which came out in 2015!

How can you be a “new” artist two years in a row?

As I noted, all three have enjoyed a resurgence of sorts. All three released excellent albums in 2017.

Comeback female artist of the year? Resurgent female artist of the year?

Either would be a better name if these are the type of artists the academy wants to honor.

The only other nominee for the award is Carly Pearce.

She released her first single, first album and first music video in 2017.

Now that’s new.