''Dancing With the Stars'' pro Julianne Hough recently won an Academy of Country Music Horizon Award in recognition of her self-titled debut album.
G FORCE | JULIANNE HOUGH
Song and dance act
''Dancing With the Stars'' pro Julianne Hough recently won an Academy of Country Music Horizon Award in recognition of her self-titled debut album.
There is a track on Julianne Hough's debut album called "My Hallelujah Song" in which the two-time "Dancing With the Stars" professional champ sings about being grateful for a long-awaited sense of fitting in somewhere. In real life, that somewhere is Nashville and thanks to her recent win of an Academy of Country Music Horizon Award, the 20-year-old Utah native has gotten positive reinforcement that she can have one foot in the ABC ballroom-dance competition while also having a cowboy boot in Music City. She'll take next season off from the show to focus on recording her sophomore album. "That song depicts how I feel right now, I'm the luckiest girl in the world," says a sleepy but chipper Hough on an early morning phone call from a Cincinnati stop on the George Strait tour, for which she and Blake Shelton, serve as opening acts. SARAH RODMAN
Q. Nashville is notoriously prickly to outsiders. With the ACM award does it feel like they're welcoming you with open arms?
A. Winning the award was amazing, even better was going backstage and all the other artists and people in the industry were just so welcoming saying "congratulations girl, we were totally rooting for you!" And then Kristian Bush [of Sugarland] was like "congrats, girl. Welcome to country music!" And I was just like (impersonates herself bursting into tears and laughs). It was awesome. Especially in my situation where I had to cross over from being on a TV show where it wasn't even a music show like "American Idol" and having to show what I got and to have people accept that was really amazing.
Q. One of your sisters wrote "Dreaming Under the Same Moon" that you and your brother, and fellow "Dancing With the Stars" dancer Derek, sing on your album. It sounds like you had a very active and musical family growing up.
A. Definitely. My second sister wrote that song, my oldest sister is a dancer, my third sister, she's a little comedian, and then my brother and I sing, dance, and act. If there was one camera in the house we would all be right in front of that camera trying to be the center of attention. (Laughs)
Q. Who would be your ideal duet partner for the next record?
A. A lot of people do male-female duets and I think it would be fun to do a female-female duet with someone like Faith Hill. Something fun, something girly, and powerful, that would be so cool.
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