Lucy Hale’s first turn at TV wasn’t “Pretty Little Liars.” In 2003, the actress competed in a spinoff of “American Idol” — a kiddie singing competition called “American Juniors.”
“A lot of people don’t know that I actually started out in music,” the 24-year-old Hale tells The Post. “After that show, that was when I knew I didn’t want to do
anything else. I wanted to be a performer.”
The then-13-year-old sported clear braces and a thick Southern accent on the Fox show. After Hale’s audition, in which she sang a song by British group S Club 8, her mom, Julie, proudly said to the camera: “Ten years from now, I think everybody will know Lucy’s name.” (Hale was a finalist on the show and went on to record an album with the other winners called “Kids in America.”)
It’s been more than a decade since that audition and, thanks to ABC Family’s enormously popular “Pretty Little Liars” — on which Hale plays Aria Montgomery — millions do know her name. And now, after a years-long hiatus from singing, Hale’s ready to return to her musical roots with the release of her first country single, “You Sound Good to Me,” on Tuesday.
Hale grew up in Memphis, listening to the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain, and taking singing lessons. Music took a back seat when she moved to Los Angeles after her “American Juniors” win, as she quickly scored acting roles on “The O.C.” and “Drake and Josh.”
But her career really took off in 2010 with “Pretty Little Liars.” Her portrayal of Aria — the artsy character who dated her high-school English teacher — has netted Hale legions of fans (3.3 million followers and counting) who hang on her every word on social media.
The show’s summer finale set a record for most tweets during an episode of scripted TV: 1,973,418, to be exact.
“The fans are . . . really passionate, that’s for sure,” Hale says, laughing. “One Halloween] I dressed up as a unicorn, and there were pictures on Twitter. So people bring me stickers and unicorn heads and unicorn outfits.”
Another craze Hale had a hand in was the feather earring phenomenon. Aria regularly rocked the oversized accessory a few years ago, and fans flocked to get their own. But the actress admits she was skeptical of the look at first.
“During the first season, nobody had seen anything like that,” Hale says. “And I’m thinking, ‘Why am I wearing a bird on the side of my head?’ ”
January is proving to be a busy month for Hale: The same day her album drops, “PLL” returns. It was revealed during the summer finale that her character’s love interest, Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding), could be the show’s villain, “A,” which sent Twitter into a frenzy.
“It definitely came as a big shock, but I actually like it,” she says. “It gives both Aria’s and Ezra’s characters a dark place to go to. I know the audience is a little upset about it.”
And she promises to keep her fans hot and bothered: “This next part of the season is some of the juiciest stuff yet!”