Emmy Russell on Moving on From 'American Idol' With Her New Single

Emmy Russell

Emmy Russell isn’t going to be the next American Idol, but she did make the Top 5 and her time on the singing competition helped her to find the confidence she needed to pursue her music career.

“I feel like you just get more comfortable,” Emmy told a small group of reporters after her American Idol performance. “I’m starting to become the girl that I am in my bedroom singing. [The judges] start literally like your friends, so you already come in feeling accepted. I think that’s my thing, is I am loved and accepted, and I walk on the stage feeling loved and accepted. I think I’m starting to feel that, so more confidence.”

Step one after America Idol for Emmy begins today with the release of an original single, “Redemption.”

“I wrote 'Redemption' because I process life through music and this song is what came out of a painful breakup,” Russell says. “There was a time when I placed all my value in someone else's hands. But eventually, I had to realize I was constantly being tossed between 'I love you' and 'I don't love you.’ I wrote this song with Lauren McLamb & Rob Sewell.”

Listen to “Redemption” here.

“This song represents my decision to no longer be the person you come back to when it’s convenient. In my telling him, “It’s over,” I found my redemption in being alone and admitting to myself, ‘I don’t deserve this,’ which led me to a door I’d been craving to open… I finally realized my worth by looking to God, then letting the truth that ‘I am loved,’ sink in. Now I know, no guy, nor anyone else, can take that away from me. I am loved and now, that’s my redemption.”

Related: Emmy Russell on How American Idol Gave Her the Confidence to Sing ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’

Emmy will be returning to American Idol for the May 19 finale, but on being voted out she talked a little bit about her experience on the singing competition.

"It's like a marathon," she said in a group interview. "You get off the marathon and I just let out a little cry and I was just like, 'Oh, it's over. It's a high.' So, you get to come off the high and then there is that kind of emotional-ness that comes to that too."

The 25-year-old Nashville native is a descendant of music royalty as the granddaughter of the late country legend Loretta Lynn. She became a fan-favorite on American Idol following the viral audition performance of her self-penned song “skinny.”

American Idol returns for the finale on Sunday, May 19 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC when the Top 3 will take the Idol stage for their final performances and then the winner of Season 7 on ABC will be revealed.

Next, Who Will Win 'American Idol' 2024? After Watching Every Episode, Here Are Our Predictions