You’ve talked in the past about struggling to balance your career with your personal life and family life. It wasn’t really her career that I wanted to model - she’s had an amazing career, don’t get me wrong - but in my head it was more of, “I want to reach people like she has.” When she sings, you stop and listen. I wanted to sing songs that made people feel something, and I saw Kelly doing that.

I was watching the first season, saw Kelly Clarkson win and put it together that I really wanted to do that. I didn’t think of it in that way, actually. Were there any previous contestants that you wanted to model your career after following your time on the show? So I think on Idol, because how crazy it became, I can get it done - everything in terms of “you need to learn this song now” or “the client wants you to sing this song this way.” I don’t think without Idol I would have been able to handle all that. Working under pressure is the main thing that really blossomed on Idol, but I was doing that before Idol because I was and am still a huge procrastinator. I still use everything that I learned from Idol in terms of dealing with crazy schedules, early mornings, pressure and timelines. Looking back, it was like a boot camp for media training. Is there anything you learned from Idol that’s still relevant to your life? Top 100 'American Idol' Live Performances of All Time Looking back, was the pressure overwhelming for you? You became one of the most recognizable faces in America at the age of 17.

Sparks says this upcoming album, her fourth, will be a fusion of pop and R&B - and one she’s confident her longtime fans will be excited about.īelow, Sparks tells Billboard about what she learned from her time away from the spotlight, the pressures of her Idol days and what to expect from her new music. The album didn’t live up to the commercial heights of her previous LPs, but it also garnered some of the best reviews of her career.

While her biggest hits have been pop ballads, Sparks’ 2015 album Right Here Right Now saw the singer dip into the R&B/hip-hop world. With a family of her own, the singer says she’s tapped into a “never-ending, deep, deep love that you don’t even realize is emanating from you.”Īll that has inspired her to get back in the studio, where Sparks is at work on her next LP. Now 28, Sparks is happily married to Isaiah (the two wed in July of 2017) and gave birth to her first child, DJ (Dana Isaiah Thomas Jr.), in May. Jordin Sparks Reveals Photos of 8-Week Son DJ, Talks Reasons for Natural Birth

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