The single was released on Friday, May 14, and beat out Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa and Luke Bryan as it climbed to the top of the iTunes charts. In truth, “23,″ in which he shares his personal story and relationship with alcohol, shot to No. 1 on both the iTunes U.S. all genres charts and the country charts and is currently sitting at No. 2, including more than 20,000 paid downloads. “That is a song that I wrote that is about a piece of my life,” Beckham told Parade.com after performing it on last Sunday’s semifinals. “It’s what I do best—tell the truth about how I feel.” So, it’s no surprise that it means everything to the Apple Valley, Calif. native that the song is selling on iTunes and people are hearing what he has to say. “It is all I ever wanted in my life, to put out music that people listen to,” Chayce continues. “So, I am grateful that with this song I was able to do that. What a blessing from the point that I wrote it to the point I am at now—the way that my life has changed and a lot of it has to do with that song.” In addition to “23,” for his second song, Chayce performed “You Should Probably Leave” by Chris Stapleton, which he had performed on Hollywood Week, but didn’t feel as if he did it justice, even though it was enough to get him into the Top 24. “I scratched on one of the notes and that bothered me this whole time,” he said. “So, I was able to go out there and hit the note I scratched on last time and that is a huge achievement for me to be able to do that. It was nice to go back and revisit something that had me so stressed out at one point in my life and have fun with it.” Whether he wins or not, Chayce has his plans in place for after all the hubbub of American Idol has passed and life is a little more normal. But the one thing he is hoping to not have to do is return to his job as a heavy machinery operator. “I am most excited to hit the ground running with music and to go record and put songs out,” he says. “I love what we’re doing here at American Idol, but music to me is the meat and potatoes, so being off TV, I don’t think it’s such a drag. It is going to be nice for a little while. I’m just going to put music out and focus on that. That’s why we’re all here.” The American Idol season 4 on ABC finale will air Sunday, May 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Next, Make Your Vote Count! How to Vote on American Idol 2021
