Megan Hilty (Photo: Richard Ascroft)Fans of the hit NBC musical drama Smash know that star Megan Hilty has things locked and loaded in terms of stage performance. The actress has proved herself not only on TV, but also in musical theater (her best-known roles being Glinda in Wicked, and a truly Dolly-worthy turn as Doralee Rhodes in 9 To 5). However, there's one world that the multi-talented artist hasn't traveled, and that's making an album.
And not just making an album. Hilty is actually making inroads into the pop world with her first solo record, It Happens All The Time, which is set for release on March 12. We at Yahoo! Music have the first look at her debut video from the project, "No Cure," right here for your pleasure and perusal!
For those fans who may be surprised that Hilty decided to pursue a pop route rather than what she has displayed so excellently to the public--musical theater--rest assured it took a while for her to make the decision to take that route.
Indeed, she hesitated at the idea of making an album at all. "For the longest time, I didn't want to—because I didn't know what music I wanted to make!" Hilty laughs.
Surprisingly, she wasn't immediately drawn to what most would conclude was her most familiar genre. "I come from a very strong musical theater background, and the idea of making a musical theater album for me really didn't make sense," she explains. "It wasn't something that interested me. Not that I don't like them, I happen to own hundreds of them! But for me, it never sounded appealing. I never thought that I would do one well."
Hilty was approached by a major record label to consider making her own pop record, and she decided ultimately that the concept made sense. "By then I'd been doing pop songs for Smash; and I thought, well yeah, if I did do an album, I'd want to go to music like this," she relates. "It just kind of worked. It was supposed to be an album of covers...It started out as a movie theme—songs from my favorite soundtracks."
As the song selection continued, Hilty found that she was being offered more and more original material to consider--and that she really liked it. "It made sense," as she explained. "[The album] ended up being a kind of 50-50 album. Like half originals and half covers. I’m really excited about it."
"It’s the first thing I've ever done that isn't connected to a character or a show—it's just me," the actress enthuses.