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Pia Toscano · On with Mario Interviews

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: With Mario Lopez.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: What's up everyone, Mario Lopez. Joining me right now, you
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: know her from the 10th season of American Idol, the
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: incredibly talented singer and songwriter, Pia Toscano.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: How you doing, Pia?
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: I'm good.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: I'm well.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We were just talking right before we came on air.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: You're in LA at the moment, but you live in Nashville.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: How do you like it out there?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I love it.
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  Speaker 3: I feel, I mean, I, I, I always love the,
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: any chance I get to come back to LA because
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: I called it home for over 10 years, but Nashville
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: is just very peaceful for me and.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I, I love it. Yeah. It's very cool.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Very cool people out there.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I saw you do a Oh, I love her. She's
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: become such a good friend of mine.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's super cool. Please send her my love next
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: time you all speak right there. So you've got this
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: cool new single out called Redirected.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Tell me about it. So I've been through quite the
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: journey in my personal life, in my music career.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: And so I developed this mantra. Whenever things like.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: That I've prayed for and opportunities that I really want,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: were working towards didn't work out. Lots of things, lots
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: of music, things that, you know, kind of didn't pan
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: out the way I had hoped. I would always say
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: rejection is redirection. Rejection is God's protection. And, um, that
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: kind of carried me through and like soothe my soul
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: so I can keep going. And I, you know, I
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: just felt called to write a song called redirected, you know,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: for anybody that's experiencing something.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Like that in life. It just like, I just, it
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: just kept coming to me and I kept.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Saying it and I was like, you know what? I
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: think I want this next chapter of music to, especially
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: my album. Like, I think I want to call it redirected.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: And then, so I wrote the song redirected with Stacey
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Kelleher and it's kind of just been my mantra for
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: the past couple of years, past like 10 years of
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: my life.
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  Speaker 2: That's a great mantra and very relatable. A lot of
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: people I'm sure it'll connect with. And you mentioned a
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: possible album. Is that what we're looking for? More singles
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and eventually an album?
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're definitely working towards that right now. I have
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: like Almost 13 songs that are complete. And I think
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: by next year we'll release a full album. I'll have
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: another single in the next couple of weeks. Nice.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Then we'll talk again then.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Has living in Nashville influenced your career as far as
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: the music scene? You're getting a little more country western?
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Actually, yes.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, I've always been so drawn to country music
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: and it's so sad today.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: We just, we lost Dolly Parton today.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I know, legend. Yes, of course.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like everybody's a little heart, a lot heartbroken
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: right now. I know that I am. But I was
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: always drawn to those big country voices, especially.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, I was influenced by Celine Whitney and then Shania, Martina,
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  Speaker 3: Leanne Rimes, Dolly Parton. So it's like, It's it's always
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: been a part of my life, but I.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Always did those like big power ballads and stuff.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: But when I moved out to Nashville, I loved going
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: to the writers rounds and the songwriting in Nashville is
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: just it's just a little different. It's so honest and
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: vulnerable and so storytelling. And you could strip every song
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: down and hear it. and just its natural raw beauty.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: And so that's what really influenced me. I had gotten
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: a little discouraged for a little while and I hadn't
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: done a writing session or written any new music since,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: you know, I had lived in LA.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And then when I came out to Nashville, it totally
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: re-inspired me.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: And now I'm writing with some of the most incredible
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: writers and producers that.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Create such a safe space for me.
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  Speaker 3: And I feel like now my music is the most, like,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: authentic it's ever been. Um, but yeah, it definitely has
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: a little bit of a, a Western country influence for sure.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Especially in the production. All right. And I like it.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And please forgive me for not leading with this, but
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: you're also expecting your first child, right?
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Yes. And she's, she's probably, she's very excited right now
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: because she keeps kicking me.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Congratulations. I have that effect on women. They want to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: kick me.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I love their videos with your kids. Oh, thank you.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it. It gets so much fun. So you're
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: having a little girl, obviously. That's awesome.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: And even though you're pregnant, you're going to still be
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: performing live, right? As a matter of fact, with Andre
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Bocelli this fall?
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I go out on tour. I think it's next week.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: It's September 7th. I leave. We do the Holly, we
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: do two days at the Hollywood bowl. We go to
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: red rocks.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: We're all over.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, those are great venues. Oh, that's going to be
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: one of the Hollywood bowl too. Do you have a
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: particular favorite song or a couple of favorite songs you
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: love to perform live?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I always love performing. So I work with
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: David Foster as well. And he's always been such like
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: a huge supporter. And like, since I was a little girl,
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: I always dreamed of working with him. Um, but there's
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a song that he re-imagined called All By Myself that
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Eric Carman wrote. And then Celine Dion made huge like
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: it was just became huge.
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  Speaker 2: That's a tough song to sing what that i said
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that's a tough song to sing well for me it
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: is not for you i'm sure oh.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Gosh no no it's still tough for me but i've
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: been working on it since i was a kid i'm
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: like that was like the pinnacle for me i'm like
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  Speaker 3: i need to hit that note and so i i
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: did it on american idol and then it became kind
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: of this thing um performed it on, on David's tour.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: And I'll be performing that with Andrea, um, on, on
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  Speaker 3: Andrea's tour. I have like a solo song and then
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  Speaker 3: I do some of Andrea's duets, but I love those
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: big challenging songs, um, that scare.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Me a little bit. And all by myself is definitely
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: one of those songs. You gotta, you gotta be locked in.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: You just mentioned American Idol.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: And I remember.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Watching in, in your, uh, your elimination is probably one
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: of the most shocking moments in the show. in their history,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I remember the judges being like visibly upset and stuff.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Looking back, because it's one of those things that you're like,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: it shouldn't happen really, right? But then you just don't
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: know how people, sometimes they think that, okay, they've got
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: enough votes or maybe they're kind of pulling for this
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: other person because, oh, I feel sorry for them, whatever
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the case may be.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
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  Speaker 2: But how did that end up sort of shaping you
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: as a person after that moment?
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  Speaker 1: You know, that was.
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  Speaker 3: First of all, that was like a total life changing
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: experience for me. But I had started auditioning for that
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: show when I was 16 years old. And I kept
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: getting rejected. Simon Cowell wasn't like a huge fan of mine.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: And then they switched the judging panel to Jennifer Lopez,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson. And so it took me
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: five times before I actually made it. And in that moment,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: I remember thinking, oh, my God, like my career, like
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  Speaker 3: I finally got a taste of it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: And now it's it's over.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: But it happened like in the opposite way where it
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  Speaker 3: was like the best thing that could.
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  Speaker 1: Have happened to me. And, you know, I got signed
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: with Interscope. And then I went through a whole other journey.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Roller coaster of life, but, um, it was, you know,
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  Speaker 3: so many blessings, so many doors opened and, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I was able to put out new music and, and
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: finally live out my dreams, but it really, really grew
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: me and strengthened me because I did not have thick
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  Speaker 3: skin at all.
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  Speaker 1: And, um, you know, it made my dreams come.
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  Speaker 3: True and taught me so much about myself, but yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it was, it was a great experience, but it came
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: with a lot of learning and a lot of growth.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's awesome. And listen, I want everyone to
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: be sure to check out Pia's new single, Redirected. You
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: can get it wherever you stream music, and you can
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: keep up to date with everything going on by following
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: her on IG, at Pia Toscano. Pia, again, congratulations.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Mario. Okay, you got it. Hope
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to see you soon, sweetie. Thanks for checking in. Bye.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: On with Mario Lopez.