Lee DeWyze is hoping for the best with album release

Lee DeWyze says he’s always hoping “for the best”. The singer — who won the ninth season of American Idol – releases his album Live It Up Tuesday. And Lee admits he won’t be stressing out over how the record performs in the charts.

“The truth of the matter is, I’ve always put myself out there and hoped for the best,” he said.

“Whether it’s deciding to go on the show or just every day life, for me, it has always been the way my life is. I always tell myself, ‘Things will work out; just think positive, and just throw your hands up in the air.’ That’s kind of what I did for a long time, so that song speaks true to me.”

Lee says he had a tough time convincing label bosses to let him write his own tunes.

“It was a Jedi mind trick with the label,” says the star, who co-wrote 10 of 11 songs on Live It Up, including Sweet Serendipity.

“Truthfully, I told them right out of the gate: ‘I haven’t been in the industry as long as all you guys have, but I definitely think that we’ll have a better album and one that I’ll be happy with and you’ll be happy with if you’ll let me have a hand in the songwriting’.

“It was, like, okay, let’s see how that goes.

“They set up a couple writing sessions. In the first one, we came up with Live It Up. After that, they were like, ‘Okay, have at it.’”