Southwest Georgia native Phillip Phillips attended Lee County High School in Leesburg before graduating from Albany Technical College with a major in Industrial Systems Technology. Phillips auditioned in Savannah, Georgia for American Idol with a performance of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." He advanced to the final despite being taken to a doctor for possible kidney stones after the Top 13-performance night. Phillips was declared the winner after a record-breaking total vote count of 132 million in the finale on May 23, 2012.
Phillips' victory over Jessica Sanchez meant all 11 victorious finalists were the ones listed second alphabetically by first name. He was also the fifth male winner in a row.
The guitar-strumming southerner sang this rootsy ballad as his coronation song. It was penned by songwriter Drew Pearson, who's previously worked with American Idol alums Adam Lambert, Casey Abrams and Lee DeWyze and Scottish-born, English-raised singer Greg Holden. It was originally intended for Holden, but was pitched to Jimmy Iovine as a possible finale song by Pearson's publishing company, Pulse Recordings.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.