Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Felicia Barton calls it “one of the craziest days in my life.”

Understandably so.

She was sitting in Freedom Fellowship church in Virginia Beach with her husband, parents and about 100 supporters watching American Idol’s judges’ mansion episode. You know, the one where remaining contestants found out who has and who hasn’t made the semifinals.

She knew she had not made the cut. So did her husband and her parents. She’d been forbidden from telling anyone else.

So she sat there, waiting for the condolences that were sure to come once her segment aired.

Until she was summoned into another room to take a phone call. From American Idol.

“It was the executive producer and she was like, ‘You know, due to some circumstances, you’re back on the show.’ And I was screaming out loud and jumping around and was so excited I just got back on the show,” Felicia recalls.

But, again, she wasn’t allowed to share the news.

“So I had to go back in the room with about 100 people and basically console all of them that I had just gotten kicked off the show,” Felicia says. “But then my phone started ringing at 5 a.m. (the next morning). It had been released on the Internet that I was back on and they were all excited.

“It was a crazy night.”

And, just like that, Felicia Barton was part of one of Idol’s infamous controversies — the contestant chosen to replace the just-ousted Joanna Pacitti on the most-watched TV show in the nation.

Felicia’s reprieve lasted until week three of the semifinals, when she performed Alicia Keys’ “No One.” She received good reviews from the judges, but too few votes to stay in the competition.

These days, when she’s not traveling to Nashville to work on music, Felicia, 27, is back in Virginia Beach, where she lives with her husband, Loren, and their 2 1/2-year-old son, Malachi. She and Loren have been music leaders at Freedom Fellowship, where Felicia’s dad is pastor.

As for the music, ah, yes, Felicia plans to continue pursuing a career in music. In fact, just since Idol, she has opened at a Matt Nathanson-David Cook concert and performed at a July 4 celebration in Virginia Beach.

Here’s the Idol Chatter interview with Felicia, the latest in my series of IF interviews. (See below for the explanation and links to earlier interviews.)

Idol Chatter: Did American Idol give you any explanation for why they selected you to replace Joanna Pacitti?

Felicia: “No. They really didn’t. They said that, basically, something had happened with one of the contestants. They didn’t even tell me who at that point. Of course, it came out later than Joanna Pacitti had been disqualified from the competition. They never told me why or anything. They just told me that I was on.”

Chatter: Did that put you at any disadvantage, being a late entry into the semifinals? I guess you lost some time with Idol as a result.

Felicia: “I think it possibly could have. But I didn’t get much air time through the whole Hollywood part and early on in the show. It’s really a lottery as to how much air time you get on American Idol. I don’t know, it could have put me at a disadvantage, but also the publicity that I got because of the drama of being put back on the show was unreal. I think it was like a week later I went into Target and picked up a couple of US Weekly and saw my picture in it. And I was just flipping out.”

Chatter: Idol made a lot of changes this year. If you had the ear of a producer, which changes would you encourage them to keep? Which changes would you encourage them to ditch?

Felicia: “I’m not a big fan of the fourth judge concept. I don’t mind Kara. But the whole fourth judge concept … I just think it was a lot of talking after everybody sang. So I’m not sure about that.

“I also was not a big fan of the splitting the 36 (semifinalists) into groups of 12 and doing the different three weeks. It kind of gave the rest of us that didn’t make it to the top 13 only one chance to sing for the world versus in the past seasons.”

Chatter: How do you feel about the outcome of season eight?

Felicia: “I’m thrilled about the outcome. Kris and Adam are amazingly talented people. I loved Adam’s performances. ‘Tracks of My Tears’ I think was probably my favorite performance for him. But I just felt like American Idol really did wonders for Kris. He just kept growing as a performer every week and shocking America. I was really happy to see him take it.”

Chatter: You have two songs up on MySpace. Given your background with Freedom Fellowship, I guess I expected something a little more mellow. Is that the type of music you normally perform?

Felicia: “I do a lot of covers when I’m playing out so, yeah, I do pop. (She later describes it as “kind of Alicia Keys meets Pink, but kind of with an organic feel to it.”) I’ve been writing a lot of music, traveling back and forth to Nashville a lot and working with some amazing people out there.

“The song, ‘Here Comes the Day’ that I have up there is actually an acoustic version. We’re getting that produced right now. So, yeah, it’s different. Some people would expect me to do a Christian record or something like that. But I’m really excited about doing a mainstream record that’s going to be positive music that influences a lot of people. Songs with messages about relationships, but also about — like that song, ‘Here Comes the Day’ — chasing your dreams and never giving up.” (Felicia wrote “Here Comes the Day” with Cary Barlowe.)

Chatter: How about “Rocket Science,” which is very catchy?

Felicia: “A friend of mine, Shane Stevens, he wrote that with another guy, Matt Tishler. It’s a great fun song, too. I got to open up for David Cook a few months ago, and I did ‘Rocket Science.’ And the crowd just loved it. They thought it was great.”

Chatter: How did you wind up opening for David Cook when he played Virginia Beach?

Felicia: “Coincidence. I don’t know. Just him being from American Idol and me being here and from American Idol. The concert promoters originally asked me to sing the national anthem, and I couldn’t. Then I could. And then I said, ‘Hey, do you think I could open.’ And they said, ‘Sure, why not?’”

Chatter: So the sound on those two songs is pretty much what you’re shooting for?

Felicia: “Somewhere in between that. Actually, I’ve got a lot of new stuff that I’m getting ready to throw up there. So if people stay on my MySpace, definitely in the next two weeks, you’re going to hear a lot more stuff that’s going to be exactly the vein that I’m going in.”

Chatter: You’ve posted videos on MySpace of you and your husband working in the recording studio. What role does he play in your music?

Felicia: “He’s an amazing encourager for me. He runs the studio in Virginia Beach. He has an ear for music and is constantly able to give me advice.”

Chatter: So, are you hoping for a label deal, or are you thinking you’ll have to release an album independently?

Felicia: “I’m hoping for a label deal actually. I think as soon as that contract’s up (with 19 Entertainment) we’re going to start talking with some labels. That’s why we’re trying to get music ready now, so we can start talking to them right away and not waste any time. But if not, if a label deal doesn’t happen right away, we’ll definitely be pushing to get that record done so that we can push it independently until we get some major distribution.”

Chatter: Do you feel like Idol opened some doors for you?

Felicia: “It really did. It opened a lot of doors just in terms of singing opportunities. And building up my fan base. My fans have been amazing. I never thought I would really have fans. But they had just been so supportive and have really just kept believing in me and are constantly asking me for music and can’t wait for a record to come out.”

Links

To hear snippets of two Felicia Barton songs, go to her MySpace page.

You can also find videos of Felicia performing on YouTube, including live versions of “Magic Carpet” and “Here Comes the Day,” during a FOX-TV interview.

IF Interviews

I’ve been interviewing semifinalists from season eight because of my belief that the cast of finalists could have been completed different if Idol hadn’t mangled its semifinal format this year.

Previous interviews:

Arianna Afsar

Kendall Beard

Kristen McNamara

Brent Keith