Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Last week, the Republican Party got a surprise victory in the special election for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts.

The Democrats wound up with a royal headache and a monkey wrench in their plans to pass health care legislation.

The end result: American Idol fans get new music this week from a long forgotten former contestant.

Unless you’ve been hibernating for the past week, you know Scott Brown won the Senate race for the GOP.

What you might not know is that his daughter Ayla was a contestant in season five of Idol.

That’s the year Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee tangled in the finals. Ayla made it to the last round of the girls’ semifinals before being eliminated.

In addition to attending Boston College and playing basketball there, Ayla has continued to pursue a singing career.

Fact is, you can head to her official Web site and hear lots of her music.

And since she was working on a new CD anyway, the 21-year-old has moved up the release date to Tuesday to capitalize on the publicity surrounding her father’s Senate victory.

According to this column in the Boston Globe, the CD is actually a five-song EP. The EP is called “Circles,” and Ayla wrote three of the five songs.

To promote the release, Ayla will appear on CBS’ “The Early Show” Tuesday (7 to 9 a.m.) She’ll perform one of her new songs (“No More”) about 8:30 a.m., according to her Web site. CBS will also premiere the music video for another of the songs on the EP — “Pick Me Up.”

Don’t remember Ayla on Idol. Maybe these YouTube clips will refresh your memory.

Both are from the season five semifinals, as Ayla sings “Reflection” in the opening round; then “Unwritten” with a spot in the Idol finals on the line.

Oh, guys, and Ayla is available. Her dad said so during his victory speech.

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