Scotty McCreery

After winning the tenth season of American Idol at the age of 16, country crooner Scotty McCreery forged an impressive career throughout the 2010s. Beginning with his chart-topping 2011 debut, Clear as Day, the North Carolinian followed in the footsteps of fellow Idol winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson to become one of the more consistently successful artists to emerge from the show. McCreery remained in Billboard’s Country Top Ten through the 2010s as he closed out his contract with Mercury Nashville. Once he moved to Triple Tigers for 2018′s Seasons Change, he racked up an impressive string of four number one Country Airplay hits — “Five More Minutes,” “This Is It,” “In Between,” and “You Time” — spread between that album and its 2021 sequel Same Truck.
McCreery began singing as a child in Garner, North Carolina. School performances eventually gave way to local competitions, and McCreery won a singing contest in the nearby town of Clayton before trying out for American Idol as a 16-year-old. Auditioning with Josh Turner’s “Your Man,” he made good use of his country twang and deep baritone vocals, prompting the judges to compare him to Randy Travis. McCreery passed the audition, became an audience favorite, and eventually won the competition in May 2011. Lauren Alaina, another teenage country singer and a close friend of McCreery’s, took home the second place title.
McCreery’s coronation song was “I Love You This Big,” a country ballad that sold nearly 175,000 copies during its first week of release. The song also cracked the country charts at number 32, making it the highest-charting debut single in country music history, and helped stir up anticipation for his full-length album, which he recorded while preparing for American Idol’s summer tour. Clear as Day appeared in the fall of 2011 from Mercury Nashville, debuting at number one on the Billboard Top 200 the week of its release. It went on to be one of the better-selling latter-day Idol-related records, earning a platinum certification and producing another hit single in “The Trouble with Girls.” The following year, McCreery released the seasonal Christmas with Scotty McCreery in time for the 2012 holiday season.
In October 2013, he returned with his second official studio album, See You Tonight. Produced by veteran producer Frank Rogers, the album moved McCreery into bright contemporary country-pop. It was a success, debuting at number one on Billboard’s Country Albums chart and earning McCreery’s the Breakthrough Artist Award at the 2013 American Country Awards. In 2015 he issued a new single, “Southern Belle,” and toured with Rascal Flatts.
In 2017, McCreery signed with Triple Tigers, a new imprint distributed by Sony Nashville. Seasons Change, his first album for his new label, arrived in 2018 and gave him three number one hits on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart: “Five More Minutes,” “This Is It,” and “In Between.” In 2020, he released “You Time,” which went to number one on Billboard Country Airplay, setting up the 2021 release of its parent album Same Truck. An 18-track deluxe edition of the LP appeared in 2022 and included the singles “Nothin’ Right” and “Small Town Story.” ~ Andrew Leahey