It's half past midnight, and "American Idol" champion Ruben Christopher Studdard is in the back of a chauffeured black Ford Excursion with a recording session in Cincinnati behind him and an American Idols concert in Pittsburgh ahead. He's singing along with Donny Hathaway on the speakers, shaking his fists and slapping his thighs, bouncing and singing like he's in church. Studdard calls himself "a church boy doin' R&B" and wants his debut album, Soulful, (to be released by J Records in September) to move you the way gospel music moves him. "I'm pickin' songs that we can turn into concert songs," he says. "If I don't feel I can bring a song to life onstage, I can't mess with it."

Studdard was training for a career in music long before American Idol was even created, so he also hopes to grow beyond the show. His album will have covers of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" and "For All We Know" -- songs he learned from Al Green and Hathaway records -- as well as collaborations with Fat Joe, Missy Elliott and R. Kelly, who wrote what Studdard calls a "power-inspiration song" titled "Send Me an Angel." (Studdard sees nothing wrong in working with Kelly, who's facing child-pornography charges in Illinois. "That's a trip that R. has to deal with," he says. "All I want is a good song.") J Records president Clive Davis, who's working closely with Studdard to shape the album, said that advance orders have already topped one million. "The fact that it comes from a TV show, there's a tendency among critics to be skeptical," Davis says. "But he's a very strong vocalist, and the people at the forefront of the black-music community are eager to be involved, which is totally atypical from any kind of contest-winner stigma."

"We're doin' covers to appeal to the audience that voted me into the position that I'm in," Studdard says. "But also we're tryin' to do songs that appeal to everybody else. Not to break away but just to do stuff different so I can be an artist, rather than just being the American Idol. Because I don't wanna be just that. I wanna be Ruben Studdard."