Last night Caleb Johnson was named the winner of this season of American Idol, gaining more votes than the runner up, Jena Irene. Johnson has already announced a release date for his first debut album. The album will be released on Aug. 12 of this year.
Billboard reported that the The self-titled effort will be released on 19 Recordings/Interscope Records.
The upcoming record will feature the single "As Long As You Love Me," which was written by Justin Hawkins of The Darkness.
In recent interviews following his victory, Johnson explained that he wanted to break away from other Idol winners and write his songs and create a new type of musical sound.
Recording for the record will start immediately and Johnson is putting his full focus and passion into this album. He describe the sound that fans could expect to hear on this record following his Idol win. "It's going to be really soulful; it's going to have a lot of depth to it. It's going to be heavy, and that's the record that's going to come out."
Even with a August release date set, Johnson will also be going out on tour with Idol. He and the other finalists from the show will be setting out a tour that starts in late June and ends in late August. The tour will feature smaller venues and more fair like events, as opposed to the stadium tours that Idol used to fill.
ABC added that fans can already pre-order the album on iTunes.