Idol Chatter & Voice Views

 

you were a fan of the original song called “Roses” that MacKenzie Bourg sang on American Idol, there’s good news.

During a Friday conference call with the media, MacKenzie said the song is going to be released as a single.

He might even be touring to support the new music.

“It’s a moving ball right now trying to get that out and ready as soon as possible,” the 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Lafayette, La., said.

MacKenzie first sang “Roses” during the solo round of Hollywood Week, then performed it again during the wild card round, both times earning high praise from the judges.

It was the latter performance that landed him a spot in the American Idol finals. MacKenzie’s run on the show ended with his elimination Thursday night as a Top 3 of Dalton Rapattoni, La’Porsha Renae and Trent Harmon advanced.

MacKenzie said he entered Thursday’s show “98 percent sure” he’d be eliminated, partly because of the harsh feedback he got from the judges after his performance of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” the previous week.

But he took the elimination in stride, saying he felt like he had already won. He elaborated on that during the conference call.

“The reason why I wasn’t as bummed as I guessed people would have hoped is, I get on Twitter and Instagram and … there are so many people — I don’t even know these people, and they are sending me nothing but love and support,” MacKenzie said.

“Last night, I posted a dumb tweet like I always do and kind of said, “Retweet this if you’re in this for life with me.” I think it’s close to like 7,000 retweets right now.”

The anticipation of his ouster also factored into his decision to sing “Hallelujah” as his hometown dedication song — and the only song he wound up getting to perform on Thursday’s show.

MacKenzie said he learned “Hallelujah” back when he was starting with music. Back when he started performing his first shows and only knew four or five songs. Years later, it’s become something of an anthem for how far he’s come as a singer.

“I had a hunch that I was going to go home last night,” he said “I wanted to go out with something that left a good taste in people’s mouth about me and kind of really encapsulated everything that I’m about. I think I did that and left a good mark on people.

“To me the song was more than just the lyrics,” MacKenzie added. “It’s a reminder of how far I’ve come. I sang it so passionately because I remember five, six years ago when I first learned that song, how bad I was at the song, and how I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d be on the biggest stage in the world performing that.”

Among MacKenzie’s other comments:

* MacKenzie was also scheduled to sing “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac (Scott Borchetta’s pick) and “Take Your Time” by Sam Hunt (the judges’ pick) Thursday night. He said he wasn’t crazy about the latter choice, but was disappointed he didn’t get to perform “Rhiannon.” “I had a pretty cool arrangement for it,” he said.

* The Cheap Trick song was about his fifth top choice on classic rock week. His original plan was to sing “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi or “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

* Don’t except MacKenzie to get too upset about the news that there won’t be an Idol summer tour following Season 15. “The tour would have been fun,” he said, “but it also takes away from taking that first step to being an artist. It would take away from putting an album together and setting up a solo tour thing. I think a lot of the times, people get so caught up in the Idol tour that there’s not a lot of time to put together something meaningful music wise.”

* A former contestant on The Voice, MacKenzie had nothing but praise for his American Idol experience. “I think American Idol has done me so many favors just by not trying to change me, by letting me be myself,” he said. “I feel like me with just a guitar, going up there and singing as if I were in my room, has really resonated with so many millions of people in the country. I’m thankful every day they’ve given me the opportunity to do that and even to perform a song that I wrote — twice — on national TV. I couldn’t have asked for a better time on the show.”