TCU alumnus Tim Halperin competed in this season of “American Idol” until getting voted off Thursday, March 4.

Now, one week later, Halperin said he is excited about the next chapter in his career, beginning with a return to Fort Worth.

Halperin, who graduated this past May, has been playing music since high school, but said he really became serious about pursuing his career as a singer-songwriter after enrolling at TCU in 2006.

“There were several moments in college where I had some great opportunities and opened for some great bands,” Halperin said. “I think it was more just the whole mentality of going for it.”

He went for it, alright.

Halperin submitted a MySpace video audition for the show along with 17,000 other Americans. He said only 10 or 15 of those made it to the Hollywood round.

His performance of the song “Something” by the Beatles received rave reviews from the judges, but his last song, where Halperin sang “Streetcorner Symphony” by Rob Thomas left them unimpressed. All three judges said they didn’t think it represented his best work. Halperin, however, said he defended the song choice.

“I feel like it was me, because the stuff that I perform is a combination of rock, pop and soul,” he said. “And I felt like that song played to my strengths.”

Unfortunately for Halperin, he did not receive enough votes from America to continue to the next round of performances.

Halperin said he plans to take full advantage of the recent publicity of being on what is consistently one of the top TV shows in the nation, according to Nielsen ratings.

He returned to Fort Worth on Wednesday to attend numerous interviews scheduled for the next week or more.

He appeared on the Kidd Kraddick show on 106.1 KISS-FM Thursday morning. Afterwards, he hopes to participate in a large event to begin his next phase of promotions, he said.

To show his thanks for the fans who supported him on American Idol, Halperin said he released a free song from his new album, which will be released in September. The song is called “The Last Song” (available at noisetrade.com) and was meant to give fans a sneak peak of the new album. This will be his third album released.

Halperin became a common name on the TCU campus after he wrote the song “We Fight Back” for the TCU-BYU football game this past fall. The game and song promoted Frogs for the Cure, helping raise awareness for breast cancer research through the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The music video for the song has over 30,500 hits on YouTube as of Thursday.

The song was released with a music video that involved TCU students, staff, alumni and breast cancer survivors. Halperin says it was the survivors who made his efforts seem appreciated most.

“I just was so encouraged by survivors and their response to the song” Halperin said, “I was able to get this new refreshing motivation to keep going with music because I saw that it really met a need in people’s lives and that it became this sense of hope for so many people.”

No matter how successful he may become, Halperin said his loyalty will always be with the university.

“Of course when I kick off any kind of opportunity, whether that be small shows in different markets or doing some radio stuff, it will always happen in Fort Worth first,” he said.

“That’s where I like to start things off.”