Maddie Poppe, the winner of American Idol’s inaugural ABC season back in 2018, recently dropped her new song, “The One that Got Away.” On the show, Maddie presented herself as an indie/folk type artist. But eventually, she began to wonder what her musical direction really should be.
While quarantining during the pandemic, and after Hollywood Records/19 Recordings dropped her contract, Maddie did some soul searching. She decided to make some radical changes.
“I dyed my hair black,” Maddie told People, where “The One That Got Away” music video premiered. “I just kept on thinking to myself that if I was really going to start over, I better start over completely.”
Finding her musical style meant finding herself.
“I feel like for a while, I just wanted to do what other people wanted me to do,” she told People. “I lived to please other people. And I felt that since people voted for my folk/Americana sort of sound on American Idol, that was the sound I was meant to have, because they were the ones that put me here, you know? That’s when I realized that I needed to love what I was putting out.”
Maddie wrote the song in the summer of 2021 with Connor Pledger and Scott Robinson.
“I wanted to get the same feelings from the music I put out that I would get from listening to some of my favorite artists,” said Maddie. “But it took some time to get there. There were times that I was really frustrated. I didn’t even know who I wanted to be and what I wanted my sound to be. But then we landed on this song, and I knew this was it.”
The new music video includes a familiar face. Maddie’s long time boyfriend, Caleb Lee Hutchinson, who also competed on American Idol season 16 and came in 2nd place, appears as a detective who tosses Maddie’s character into jail. He also came up with the video’s concept.
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Caleb was the “genius behind the whole thing”
“Caleb is so creative and good at everything he does,” Maddie said. “But also, we were on a budget. He worked for cheap! But yeah, there was never a question he would be in the video. We needed a detective and I think he was perfect for the role.” Caleb and co-director Sam Aldrich filmed the video not far from Caleb’s home in Nashville.
“Originally, I had a whole different idea in the works, and it was just feeling very overwhelming,” said Maddie. “But then Caleb was like, ‘Screw it… why don’t you just do this?’ He really came up with the whole concept and directed it and directed me and told me what I was doing wrong and what I should be doing better. He was the genius behind the whole thing.”
Maddie and Caleb were seen together most recently performing a duet of “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers on the “Great Idol Reunion” special which aired earlier this month.
Maddie will bout out on tour this summer. For information and tickets, check HERE.
