IDOL BACKSTAGE: Jordin gets "Tattoo"-ed (Backstage Pass)

For a singer, few things match the first time they hear their song on the radio and American Idol Jordin Sparks was still buzzing after hearing her debut single “Tattoo” on Z100 when I caught up to her backstage at Nassau Coliseum. jordin

“I was sitting on my bed and I was crying,” she says, laughing. “I was like, ‘It’s on the radio! It’s on the radio!’ After it was done, my nana came running down the hall and we were just jumping up and down and hugging each other. I can’t believe I have a song on the radio.”

Sure, Sparks had her “American Idol” coronation song “This Is My Now” released on radio, but “Tattoo” is the first one she truly feels is her own.

“This song was one of the first songs that was pitched to me,” she says. “I didn’t even get through the first chorus and I was like, ‘I have to have this song. I need it. I want to sing it on the album.’ I think I recorded it in less than three hours. I worked with Stargate, they wrote it and produced it, and we just worked really well together. I finished it right when the tour started so I’ve been going, ‘When is it going to come out? When is it going to come out?’ and now it’s here.”

However, her debut album, which is supposed to hit stores before Thanksgiving, is not. After the American Idols Live tour ends and Sparks gets “one really long nap,” she will hit the studio to focus entirely on it. At this point, she only has four songs done, with a deadline looming – a fact she doesn’t want to think about.

“Yeah,” she says, with another laugh. “No pressure.”