From Dancing to Singing Country Music

12/4/2007 Stephen L. Betts Julianne Hough (pronounced Huff), who has won the past two seasons of ABC's Dancing with the Stars with her celebrity partners, has signed a record deal with Mercury Records. The Tennessean reports she is expected to release her first single in early 2008. Julianne, who has been singing, dancing and acting since she was a child, moved to London at age 10, and studied acting and singing at a performing arts school, returning to the U.S. five years later. "I've grown up in a house full of country music," Julianne says. "I've always wanted to do country music." Scott Siman, who works with Tim McGraw, is co-managing Julianne with Irving Azoff and Jared Paul. David Malloy is producing her album. When she moved to Los Angeles last year with $2,000, Julianne took dancing jobs to help pay the bills. "I really didn't have any connections with singing or acting," she says, "and that's why I moved out there, to sing." She almost didn't take the Dancing gig because she feared it might make people more skeptical of her singing abilities. "I almost didn't do it because I've wanted to sing and act more than I wanted to dance. I want people to take me seriously as a singer. I have a different sound that will hopefully set me apart from other people."