Dream Big

Album: Download Only (2008)
Charted: 15
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Songfacts®:

  • Cook chose to perform this entrant for the 2008 American Idol Songwriting Contest on the Idol finale. Randy Jackson commented his performance: "You were singing your face off." Paula Abdul said: "David, a song in your heart, a guitar in your hand … this is a great way to take a song we don't know and fall in love with it. Simon Cowell said: "Using the boxing analogy, it was a bit of a lightweight, actually. Keeping in mind this is supposed to be a winning song, this didn't feel like a winning moment for me. That was a 6 1/2 out of 10."
  • Minnesota native Emily Shackleton wrote this. She told the Minneapolis Star Tribune how the song came about: "I was just having a really bad day. I was lonely and it was raining outside and I was really homesick, trying to remind myself why I'm here, why I sacrificed leaving my family. It started out as a slow song to write just for myself - 'Oh, yeah, it's OK, you can dream' - coaxing myself to feel better. It came at such a pace that I really don't remember writing it. I really feel sometimes like the song was alive before I was."

Comments: 2

  • Theresa from Murfreesboro, TnI wished this song would have been the winning Idol song instead of The Time of my Life.
  • Krista from Carbondale, PaThis song was sung BRILLIANTLY by David Cook!! He can sing the phone book! The guitar playing MADE the song!
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