'Idol's' McPhee happy with her successes

When "American Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee heard her co-finalist Taylor Hicks' name called as the winner last year, she seemed to take it well - and her smile wasn't an act.

She actually did handle it with grace and aplomb.

"It wasn't as disappointing for me as you'd think," she said during a telephone interview last week. "I didn't expect to win and I was excited just to be in the final two. I was ready for it and in the end, it's all good."

Cover story It has indeed been "all good" for McPhee, whose first single, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to become the second best seller of the 2006.

This year, her first full-length CD debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart - beat out only by Norah Jones' latest record - and has sold more than 300,000 copies thus far.

McPhee's talents will be on display locally this Memorial Day weekend as the singer joins Dashboard Confessional for a Monday concert at Six Flags New England. (On Saturday, The Wiggles take the stage at the Agawam amusement park, followed by a Sunday show by country artists SHeDaisy. )

While McPhee became known on "American Idol" for her dazzling version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," she didn't realize how much her fans associated the song with her.

Although it became her first single, she said she never planned on putting it on her album, which is much more pop-oriented.

"I never thought about it during the show and I didn't think people might be expecting it to be on the album," she said. "When you're on the show, you just take everything week to week. But I was kind of burnt out on 'Over the Rainbow.' I love the song, but it just didn't go with what we were trying to do on the CD."

When McPhee says "we" in the above sentence, it isn't just a public relations ploy.

The singer said that she was granted a surprising amount of control over the direction of the debut CD, and although some songs were given to her, she also has a hand in writing some of them.

"They let me make the record I want to make,"she said. "I recorded over 20 songs but the ones on the record are the ones I wanted on it. I actually had more control than I realized at the time and could have probably put my foot down even more, but it was all new to me, so it was a learning experience."

One aspect of the CD that McPhee said she might change is the eclectic nature of it. While it largely sits in a modern pop vein, it veers off into various other sub-genres toward the end.

"I wanted it to be cohesive and the first half of it is," she said. "But at the end of the day, it's a learning experience, and I think it's fine for a first record."

Although McPhee seemed extremely confident when performing on "American Idol," she sometimes looked frightened when hearing the weekly criticisms from the show's judges, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. McPhee said both parts of the show were difficult at times.

"I looked confident performing because I've done it, but I was scared out of my mind. I had so much stage fright," she said. "And it was hard to take the criticisms, and I think they were particularly hard on me for some reason. But once it was over, I let it go because I didn't have time to think about it."