He’s the reigning champion. Kris Allen, American Idol winner, released a self-titled album on Nov 17. This debut record will finally test his marketability post-American Idol success.

It will also show how much better his record will sell as compared to fellow Idol finalist Adam Lambert, who also released his debut album at almost the same time.

Allen’s path to victory on the show included memorable performances of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror and Kanye West’s Heartless. Allen was praised by the judges for his original arrangements of such well-known songs.

“What I do is completely forget about the original version and ask myself how I can play the song when it comes to phrasing, chord structure and emotion. I hear what it’s going to sound like in my head and run with it. Hopefully it’s a way that no one has ever thought of doing before.”

Since the finale, Allen has had multiple songs appear on the Billboard charts. “That was crazy!” He exclaims.  “Four months before that we were all unknown. That first moment I knew I had five songs on the Billboard chart was very cool.”

At the same time, his finale song No Boundaries was number one on the iTunes chart. Allen found out when a friend sent him a text message. “I had no idea. That was crazy, too!”

Now Allen is getting ready to travel all over the United States on the ‘American Idols Live’ summer tour. He’s writing songs and preparing to record his debut album for 19 Recordings/ Jive.

It’s been an incredible journey for the 24-year-old who came very close to giving up on having a music career.

“I was going to return to college and get a decent job so my wife and I could have a comfortable life together, which would have been fine. But things worked out a different way, and I’m really happy!”

Allen has writing credits on nine of the 13 tracks on the album, including one solo credit for Red Guitar, a song that he wrote prior to participating in American Idol.

A newly-recorded version of Heartless, covered by Allen during his run on Idol, was included as a bonus track.

The first single Live Like We’re Dying was written by Andrew Frampton, Steve Kipner, Danny O’Donoghue and Mark Sheehan, which was originally recorded by Irish band The Script.

Read about Adam Lambert's debut album For Your Entertainment.