The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
‘AMERICAN IDOL’ WINNER AND GUILFORD NATIVE NICK FRADIANI
In 2015, Guilford-native Nick Fradiani made the Nutmeg State proud as he won the 14th season of “American Idol.” From national tours and a Broadway show to virtual concerts, Fradiani has continued his music career. Most recently, Fradiani release a single titled “Never Gonna” last May.
Before “American Idol,” Fradiani was the lead singer of the Milford-based band Beach Avenue, which won the “Battle of the Bands” at Mohegan Sun casino in 2011. The band also competed in “America’s Got Talent,” making it to Judgment Week in 2014. A year after, Fradiani started his solo career on “American Idol” becoming the first winner from the Northeast. Fradiani’s winning song was an original titled “Beautiful Life.”
Upon winning “American Idol,” Fradiani was received with a parade in his hometown Guilford. Fradiani’s fan Facebook group was created in May 2015 and it is still active with more than one thousand followers.
Q. You won American Idol back in 2015. How has your career evolved since then?
A. A lot has changed since then; I had to figure out how to make a long-lasting career. You kind of get shot out of a cannon on that show and you have to figure a lot of things out. I think I’ve become much more of an artist over the years, really focusing on my songwriting and putting original music out — focusing on making this a career and hopefully doing this for a really long time. And so far, so good, it’s been, it’s been a lot of ups and downs. But luckily, I’m still doing it. It’s an amazing experience.
Q. Do you currently reside in Connecticut?
A. I do. I’m from Guilford, but I bought a house in Branford so I am still a full Connecticut resident. I’ve lived all over the place [the] last five years, but now I am officially back to [being a] Connecticut resident, which is cool because I’ve always loved it.
Q. Do you get recognized in your hometown?
A. I still get people here that will recognize me from ‘Idol’. I mean, nothing like it was, you know, six years ago or five years ago, but it’s still pretty good. It’s cool.
Q. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your career?
A. It was definitely brutal but we had to make things work. I was doing the national Broadway tour of “A Bronx Tale.” We were in Costa Mesa, Calif., in the middle of March. They sent us home and we thought we’re going get like two weeks off and ended up canceling the remainder of the tour, obviously. I started doing a lot of virtual concerts that did really well, which is a really cool thing. I feel like I got to interact with a lot of my fans [from] all over the country. And I started to put a lot of effort into making the virtual shows as good as I could, going into a studio and getting a real videographer to do everything. So it was fun to have that content. And now, luckily, the next couple months are really busy. Things are starting to pick up again, I keep my fingers