Idol Chatter & Voice Views

La’Porsha Renae was the front-runner on American Idol throughout Season 15.

Original Idol Kelly Clarkson even declared she should win. Not once, but twice.

But the 22-year-old from McComb, Miss., said she wasn’t shocked when Trent Harmon was announced as the winner Thursday night.

“I kind of had a feeling he would be (the winner) so I prepared myself for it,” she said during a Friday conference call with the media. “When he was crowned, I was really proud. Trent deserves it. He works very hard. He’s a genuine person and a real true artist. I was really proud of him.”

And La’Porsha’s consolation prize isn’t too shabby. She’ll be making a debut album with Motown Records in partnership with Idol mentor Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Record.

Borchetta told USA Today he expects the result to be a “killer diva-soul-R&B-pop record.”

La’Porsha described herself as “definitely excited” about the deal with Motown.

“That’s a record label that in my household, if you made it to that record label it was golden,” she said. “Lots of great legends came from that label. I hopefully wish to bring back some of that old-school soul music. I’m really excited.”

During the conference call, La’Porsha also explained why Trent went out of his way to thank her for pushing him so hard after he was announced as the winner of Season 15.

“Trent is a very hard worker. He’s genuine in what he does. He doesn’t like people to lie to him and say, ‘You did good,’ when he knows he can do better,” she explaiend.

“What we did for each other, actually, is during rehearsals we listened to each other’s takes to see if there was anything we could have done better physically as far as movement around the stage or vocally. I would tell him to maybe not use the high note for everything. Maybe sing out a little bit and save it at the end to make it something special.”

“There were all kinds of things, depending on the performance. He’d do the exact same for me if I wasn’t pushing myself enough. We helped each other in that area.”

And La’Porsha sounded as though she wouldn’t have minded a little more pushing from the Idol judges. Harry Connick Jr., in particular, declined to critique her performances on some occasions because he said they were so good.

“There were weeks when I critiqued myself and I knew I didn’t do as well as I could have,” she admitted. “It was evident, and nothing was said about it. I just tried not to let it get to me and critique my own self, better my own self and compete against myself.”