‘American Idol’s HunterGirl Admits She ‘Cried Like A Baby’ Writing Vulnerable New Song ‘Ain’t About You’ (Exclusive)

HunterGirl nearly gave up on her dream of being a singer just days before her American Idol audition in 2021. She went on to compete on the show’s 20th season in 2022 and finish as the runner-up. However, she was able to capture those feelings of doubt in her new song “Ain’t About You,” which she wrote the week before she auditioned for Idol and finally put out into the world on Aug. 11. “A couple of years ago, nothing was really working out for me in Nashville,” Hunter told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “A couple of my friends were getting deals and I’m like…what am I doing wrong? I got home [from a show] and I was like, ‘Why do I feel like I need to write a song?’ So I went into my room, grabbed my guitar and started writing this.”

The 25-year-old said she “cried like a baby” as she penned the lyrics, which she now refers to as her “45 minute conversation with Jesus.” She added, “I’m just being completely honest and personal. I honestly didn’t show anybody the song until six or seven months ago. But I’m working on a project right now and thinking about the songs I wanted to be on it, and this song just means so much to me. It might be the first song I’ve ever released that I wrote 100 percent of.”

Plus, Hunter is hoping that others who may be facing similar thoughts will be able to relate and heal themselves through this track. “I think about all the little girls and social media and all the things constantly in our heads and I’m just putting a voice to it,” she explained. “I just want people to feel like they’re not alone and it’s okay and to just keep going. It’s so wild thinking about the moment I wrote this song and thinking about leaving, and then my life changing a week later. It just shows that you have to just give it another day and tomorrow everything could work out.”

Check out more of our interview with HunterGirl below!

On her upcoming project: Right now, I’m putting together songs, getting ready for a project hopefully sometime soon. It’s just songs that I’m really proud of that are really me as an artist. There’s a few that I know are going to be on there, but I’m still putting it together. I’m really excited for fans to hear my story from the past year.

On her friendship with Noah Thompson, who won her season of ‘Idol’: Coming off the show, the tour [we did together] was so fun. Getting to meet all the fans through the show was so overwhelming because you’re kind of in a little bubble on the show, then you come out and there’s so many supportive people. He’s doing his thing this year and I’m doing mine, but we keep up whenever we’re both in Nashville and everything. I’m so excited for him. I’m excited about everything he’s doing. There’s so many people from Idol that moved to Nashville after the show, so I always have a group I can go to if there’s anything going on. It’s kind of like I never left!

On her advice for future ‘Idol’ contestants: Just really be yourself as much as you can on the show. Show people who you are. There’s people playing music and the music is awesome, but I want to get to know you as a person, too. Don’t be scared. I feel like I wish I would’ve taken a minute some days and just been like…wow, I’m getting to do this and I’m enjoying it. I was always worried about what song I was doing next and making it to the next week. So I’d say really enjoy it, breathe, and realize that this is so cool. Just take a second and be in the moment. I wish I’d done that a little more on my season.

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