Idol Chatter & Voice Views

American Idol Season 8 winner Kris Allen was doing the publicity rounds late this week, talking about his new single, his new video (watch below) and his upcoming album.

The most asked question involves the album title, “Thank You, Camellia.” 

Who is the world is Camellia, Kris has been asked over and over.

Turns out Camellia isn’t a person, but a place. Specifically, it’s the name of a street where some of Kris’ friends live in the L.A. area.

He’d crash and relax there during the process of recording his new album, and the album title is “an homage” to those friends, Kris told Downtown Julie Brown on Billboard.com’s The Music Insider.

As for the dog on the album cover, Kris told The Hollywood Reporter, it’s “his little dude,” “the coolest dog in the world.”

Kris released an impressive new single, “Vision of Love,” a couple of weeks ago, and the music video debuted this week.

Though it really didn’t start off that way, the video took on an anti-bullying theme, Kris says, and it’s a theme lots of fans have responded to.

“Bullying’s something that’s a big deal.  I’m not trying to jump on board or anything, but you can’t talk about it enough,” he told Billboard.  “I want to be part of that discussion.”

As for the new album that comes out May 22, Kris says he’s hoping fans will be impressed by its variety.

“I think that’s the nice thing about this new album.  There’s a lot of versatility,” Kris said.  “People can listen to it, and not get bored.”

You can pre-order the album on Kris’ website. 

Now, the video …