Nick Fradiani

The winner of the current 14th season of Fox's American Idol is Nick Fradiani. The 29-year-old Connecticut native, took the title over Clark Beckham, becoming the first champion from the Northeast region. His first single "Beautiful Life" was written by Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional. While no specific decisions have been made about producers or other songs for his debut album, Fradiani says he'll be in discussions with mentor Scott Borchetta's Big Machine Label Group and 19 Management over the next several days about specific directions for the album.

Fradiani says "Beautiful Life" was the only option given him for his first single. "As a songwriter, that's very frightening," he says, "especially knowing that's going to be the start of your career and what everyone knows you as. But they did a great job. They really hit it on the head with what I'm looking to do. I lucked out, to be honest with you."

Nick first received regional attention as the lead singer of pop-rock band Beach Avenue when they won the Battle of the Bands at Mohegan Sun in 2011. They gained national recognition in 2014 when they competed on the ninth season of the reality talent show America's Got Talent, although only making it to "Judgement Week".

He will headline the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2015, a 37-city tour over eight weeks featuring the top five contestants. The tour starts this July in Florida and ends late August in California. In the coming days, Fradiani will also perform his single at the FIFA Women's World Cup, present on the CMT Music Awards and appear at Nashville's CMA Music Festival.

"It's pretty much going to be a lot of craziness," he says. "I'm going to have to be creative and make the best record I can possibly make. I'm going to be on tour for a couple months, I'll perform at the World Cup and sing the national anthem at a bunch of places. It's going to be a wild ride, but I couldn't be more excited for it, to be honest with you."

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