Now that you’ve won American Idol, what are your immediate goals and expectations?
Seeing Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood and how they’ve done so amazing—just off the charts—it puts that kind of pressure on me to do the same. But I want to do the same. [I’ve learned from them] to stay true to yourself, put great songs on the album, stay persistent and work hard. I know how cliché that sounds, but it seems that’s what they’ve done.

You sing pop; you sing R&B. Do you have a preference?
I love all different types of music, so I would like to incorporate all of that. I love Kelly Clarkson’s pop-rock edge meets Beyonce’s little bit of R&B meets Carrie Underwood, if you can imagine all that. I generally think it will work for the pop [market], but I would love for it to cross over to R&B.

You’ve worked with songwriting team Stargate. What was that like?
They’ve written so many hits and I was so excited to meet them. They were awesome to work with in the studio and they were very nice. It was really easy and chill and relaxed and really fun. I can’t say any details, but I can’t wait to get it out there for everyone to hear.

Are you writing your own songs?
I have a notebook of lyrics and poems that I write, things I think of. I’ve had it for a while. I don’t know if I’ll write on this album. I would love to, but if I can’t, that’s okay. Maybe the next one. I want to sing songs that tell stories that people can relate to. I don’t have a specific audience, I don’t think. I would love to reach everybody from little girls and little boys to the older generation. I want to reach everybody.

How is singing onstage different from working in the studio?
I love putting emotion into the song, and I think I do both when I’m in the studio and when I’m on stage. But it’s different when you’re on stage because people can see your face and they can see the emotion you’re putting into it. When you’re in the studio, you have to really work hard because people can’t see you with the song so you have to really work hard to get that emotion out and convey it just with your voice.