Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The day after finishing second on American Idol, Jena Irene Asciutto was already talking about a debut album.

She’s not certain what it will sound like, she admits. After all, her music has evolved over the past three years and is still evolving.

Jena Irene performs “Decode” at her piano on the American Idol finals. (FOX Photo)

But the 17-year-old Michigan gal who needed a wild card to make the Idol finals, then came within a whisker of winning the title, said that’s part of the fun.

She is hoping one or two of her original songs can be included. It was an original –“Unbreakable Me” — that earned her that wild card berth.

“I’ve probably written about 75 songs,” Jena said in a conference call with the media. “Don’t get me wrong; not all of them are good. If I get just one or two on the album, that would be amazing.”

The teen says she matured during the Idol process. For one thing, she said she realized if she didn’t take the process and her music seriously, the show’s massive production team around her might be less inclined to invest time in her.

“When I made the Top 13, I was very unsure of myself,” she admitted. “My confidence level was not that high because I was a wild card. I was freaking out because America didn’t vote me in. That lit a fire under my butt.”

America apparently wasn’t convinced two weeks later; Jena landed in the bottom three on Top 12 Week. But Emily Piriz was eliminated; Jena survived.

The next week, she sang Paramore’s “Decode” very, very well near the end of the show. She never returned to Idol’s stools of danger again.

Jena Irene sings with Haley Williams of Paramore on the American Idol Season 13 finale. (FOX Photo)

And if she missed out on the Idol title, she turned in what was widely hailed as the best Idol performance of Season 13 — a lovely version of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” — while sitting behind the piano that seemed to be her Idol good luck charm.

“I’ve been singing that song for about two years,” she said. “When I played it for my mom, she cried for the first time in a while. I knew it was powerful, but I didn’t know if that was just because she was my mom. (On Idol), the band wanted to play with me on it, but I wanted to do it just on piano. It was a risk. I’m glad it was taken so positively.”

Ah, and then there’s the name. Jena started the competition as Jena Asciutto, using her last name. Of course, she had a heck of a time getting Idol’s production team to pronounce her first name correctly. It’s pronounced Gina, not Jenna.

When the finals began, she had exorcised her last name and was performing as Jena Irene.

“To be honest, production starting calling me Jena Irene,” she says. “I kept correcting them. Then I just went with it.”

Hey, besides, if everyone was having trouble pronouncing Jena, what’s the likelihood they’d get Asciutto right? Then there’s this: Jena’s middle name is in honor of a grandmother who died before she was born.

“And everyone says she was the coolest lady known to man,” said Jena Irene Asciutto.