Julianne Hough sets aside her dancing shoes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When "Dancing With the Stars" champ Julianne Hough came to town to make her debut album, Nashville's songwriters went to work churning out a bunch of songs about — what else? — dancing.

Big mistake.

"Each one that said dancing (in the title), I said 'Nope, sorry,' Hough, 19, recalled over coffee recently.

For now at least, Hough, whose self-titled CD came out Tuesday, wants people to forget she's a dancer and think of her as a singer.

She's been doing both since she was a little girl and had actually begun pursuing a career in music before "Dancing With the Stars." She had reservations about doing the show in the first place.

"I didn't want to get pigeonholed as being a dancer, and then when I start in music people think 'Oh, just because she got this exposure, now she thinks she can sing,"' said Hough, a blonde with a bubbly voice and sparkly blue eyes.

The youngest of five children, Hough comes from a family of dancers and singers in the Salt Lake City area (her sister Marabeth Poole co-wrote one of the tunes on her CD, and her brother Derek, who was also on "Dancing With the Stars," sings on it). She was playing bongos and singing in the family's country band by the time she was 4.

"We're all blond and we were kind of known as the blond Osmonds," she giggled. "We were known as White Lightning because of our hair. It's kind of embarrassing now. But we were in these bold Spandex and black cowboy boots and black fringe vests and black cowboy hats."

She studied dance in Utah and then in London for five years. But by 14 she yearned for a more conventional life back home with her family, and she realized that it was singing, rather than dancing, that was her greatest passion.

"I knew if I stayed in London my whole life would be dancing. I'd won almost every major title you can. I thought 'This really isn't my passion. I really want to sing,' and I knew I wouldn't be able to if I stayed there."

She returned to the United States and began pursuing music seriously — until "Dancing With the Stars" came along and was too good to pass up.

Hough joined for the show's fourth season and won with her partner Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno. She repeated the next year with Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves. For her third season, she teamed with comedian Adam Carolla but was eliminated in April.