ABC/Josh VertucciAmerican Idol returns for its second year on ABC this Sunday night, and Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie are back behind the judges’ tables. Current Idol champ, Maddie Poppe, crowned the winner last April, offers some advice for this year’s hopefuls.
“I would just say, ‘Be yourself,'” she tells ABC Radio. “I mean, I know that sounds really cliche…but it’s what got me where I am. And honestly, I stuck to my guns this whole past year, and I know that I wouldn’t be happy if I was pretending to be something I’m not.”
Maddie also reveals that last year, she taped a comedy bit with Luke, Katy and Lionel which will air this season.
“I can’t really talk about it, but it’s gonna be funny — so you should watch!” she says.
Luke Bryan, meanwhile, says he definitely needs to watch, because a huge part of the show — the video packages showing each contestants’ back stories — is added in after the fact.
“Y’know, we don’t get to see all that,” Luke tells ABC Radio. “We hear small tidbits of maybe some stuff from their past, but we really, truly don’t get to dive into the stories until we get to watch it on TV.”
This season, Luke says now that he, Katy and Lionel are comfortable in their roles, it’ll be easier for viewers to focus on the contestants, and not them.
“I think you can tell this year that we’re locked in, everybody’s locked in,” he tells ABC Radio. “We understand exactly what we wanna go for, what we wanna do. And it just makes it exciting.”
“I mean, I think what [makes] American Idol…so special…is just telling the story of these kids and the backgrounds and where they come from.”
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