If there was a Triple Crown award for entertainers, Julianne Hough would be high in the running.
To borrow a sports analogy, she has completed the hat trick of performing arts. She sings, dances and acts ... and does them all on an extremely high level.
Consider:
Hough won the first two seasons of "Dancing With the Stars," and "20/20" called her "one of the very best dancers on the planet."
Her 2008 self-titled debut album was No. 1 on the U.S. country charts and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
Hough has been selected to play the role of Ariel in Paramount Pictures' remake of the 1984 film "Footloose."
The hardest part for Hough may be deciding which form of entertaining she likes best.
"I don't know if I have a favorite," she told the Deseret News by phone recently during a tour stop in Fargo, N.D. "I've always wanted to entertain. I love the feeling of using the talents God gave me. I can't imagine doing anything else."
With music, Hough said she loves the close interaction with fans, "because you wouldn't be where you are without them."
Dancing, she said, is very uplifting. And with acting, she said it's fun to step into another character and step away from the world for a little bit.
"They're all different, and I love doing all three," Hough said.
For the next several months, it's music that will be consuming Hough's life. She's on the road this summer, opening for country-music legend George Strait, who is playing his first Utah show since 1998 at the USANA Amphitheatre tonight.
"It's definitely a dream come true, going out there and performing for his audience," Hough said. "Every song he sings has been a huge hit, and he doesn't even get through all of his number ones."
Doing a music concert tour is much different than the "Dancing With the Stars Tour," she said.
" 'Dancing With the Stars' is not very interactive with the fans. That's why I like the music. It's so interactive. I get to see faces and touch hands and sign (autographs) after the show," she said.
Not only is the onstage interaction different, but the whole atmosphere surrounding the two tours was different, Hough said. The dancing tour was "very very luxurious," she said. Every night was a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton hotel, and if a tour stop was more than four hours away, the tour bus had to stop after four hours to allow the dancers to take a break.
"Now, I'm on a real tour," Hough said. "This is where we stay in Motel 8s if we even have a day off. Some days, we have 18-hour bus drives. This is the fun part."
With such high standards, it's very difficult for Hough to do all three of her disciplines at once. Her music suffered when she was doing "Dancing With the Stars," for example, she said.
"I don't like doing anything halfway," she said. "That's why I'm taking next season off, so I can really focus on the new record."
But Hough's music will be taking a back seat next spring, when shooting begins on the remake of "Footloose," which starred Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer.
"I'm ecstatic. I'm thrilled," said Hough, who was born four years after "Footloose" was released. "Who doesn't love the original? It's such a classic. Hopefully, we'll do a great job. It's an honor."
The movie will be filmed in Georgia, close to Hough's current home in Nashville, Tenn. As most Utahns, including Hough, are well aware, parts of the original "Footloose" were filmed in the Beehive State, including the dance scene at the end of the show at the Lehi Roller Mills.
"I used to drive past there every day. That was on the way between my house and my dance studio," said Hough, a Utah native who graduated from Alta High School in 2006. Hough's father, Bruce Hough, is a former chairman of the Utah Republican Party.
Maybe one of Hough's best-known "acting" roles so far, however, was the prank she pulled on her boyfriend and fellow country singer Chuck Wicks.
The prank, which became a smash hit on YouTube, came when Wicks and Hough were the opening slots on the Brad Paisley tour. During Wicks' set, renowned prankster Paisley came onstage to show a video of Hough telling Wicks (in front of the crowd) that she was breaking up with him.
"He pranked my boyfriend like every single night. I was kind of disappointed he didn't prank me. I may have to go on tour with him again so he can prank me," she said.
If you go...
What: George Strait, Blake Shelton, Julianne Hough
Where: USANA Amphitheatre, 5400 South and 6200 West
When: July 17, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $39-$79
Phone: 801-467-8499, 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
e-mail: preavy@desnews.com