‘American Idol’ Runner-Up Jessica Sanchez Finally Gets That Record Deal

Following her time on American Idol, runner-up Jessica Sanchez could boast a run of amazing live performances and even a forthcoming multi-episode arc on Glee, but what she didn’t have was what every aspiring singer really wants: an album deal. Well, the 16-year-old finally has it all, as she has inked a deal with Interscope Records, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Though it took longer than usual for the deal to take place, Sanchez’s album is on the fast track — she’s already in the studio, with an expected release date of October.

Details on the LP are still under wraps, though THR says the album will carry an “urban flavor”, and won’t be saddled with the type of power ballads and diva-ready numbers Jessica performed during her run on Idol.

It looks like Interscrope is shaping the teen to be more R&B than pure pop, perhaps a way to mirror the post-Idol career of Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks. And that’s just what Sanchez wants. “I want to do pop, but, like, just a sprinkle of it, not a whole bucket,” she recently told MTV.

Sanchez also has an interest in hip-hop and rap, evidenced by her dream collaborator being Eminem. “He has so much conviction and emotion in the way he raps; every word that he raps, you feel it,” she said of the MC. “And I think our talents would mesh. So, hopefully, it could happen, and I would just die if he’d collaborate with me!”