"My Destiny" is a

pop song Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

performed by ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

contestant

Katharine McPhee Katharine Hope McPhee (born March 25, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. In May 2006, she rose to fame as the runner-up on the fifth season of ''American Idol.'' Her eponymous debut album was released on RCA Records on Janua ...

and written by Harry Sommerdahl,

Hanne Sørvaag Hanne Margrethe Fredriksen Sørvaag (born 27 December 1979) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter. For many years she was based in Stockholm, Sweden, mostly composing for other artists via Universal. Today she works from Oslo, Norway and has a career ...

, and Tim Baxter. McPhee first performed the song on the

penultimate Penult is a linguistics term for the second to last syllable of a word. It is an abbreviation of ''penultimate'', which describes the next-to-last item in a series. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultima. For example, the main ...

episode on May 23, 2006 at the

Kodak Theatre The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. The lyrics are about her destiny—to be with the one she loves and how she finds it difficult to believe that everything that she had always dreamt of is actually happening to her. It was released as a

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

on June 27, 2006, with a cover of

Eva Cassidy Eva Marie Cassidy (February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996) was an American singer and guitarist known for her interpretations of jazz, folk, and blues music, sung with a powerful, emotive soprano voice. In 1992, she released her first albu ...

's unique 1996 version of " Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

. McPhee's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was originally performed during the top 3 finalists' judge's choice round, chosen by

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of ''The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on t ...

. McPhee performed sitting on the stage and wearing red shoes. She sang the little-known opening verse

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

. The judges had high praise for McPhee's performance, and it is believed that the song was responsible for vaulting her into the season's final two. Several critics, including Cowell, consider McPhee's performance to be the best of the entire series. McPhee reprised her performance of the song in the final performance show on May 23. Her version again received rave reviews. She also performed "

Black Horse and the Cherry Tree "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" is a song by Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall from her 2004 debut album, ''Eye to the Telescope''. It is one of many songs that reuses the famous Bo Diddley beat from the influential 1955 song of his own ...

" a second time, though her title was not released as a single. When McPhee's record deal was officially announced on June 6, 2006,

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

announced that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/My Destiny" would be considered a

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

, meaning that radio stations could have the option of playing either song. This reflects the fact that McPhee's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" has become her

signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...

performance, just as it was for

. On June 20, 2006, McPhee's upcoming single was added on the

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, later being removed on June 24. It was made available again on June 27.iTunes Store Link

Track listing

#"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - 3:30 #"My Destiny" - 3:47

Charts

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow/My Destiny" "My Destiny" "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

References

2006 songs 2006 debut singles Katharine McPhee songs American Idol songs Songs written by Hanne Sørvaag Songs written by Harry Sommerdahl RCA Records singles {{2000s-pop-song-stub