Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Drew Ryn of American Idol Season 23

American Idol returned Sunday, March 9 with Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie returning as judges. They’ll be joined by Carrie Underwood, who replaces Katy Perry.

Audition episodes will continue to air each Sunday until Hollywood Week begins.

Here’s more about Drew.

* She’s Drew Ryniewicz, a 28-year-old singer-songwriter from Chino Valley, Ariz., now based in Nashville.

* And she burst onto the music scene 14 years ago, using her full name as a 14-year-old contestant on the first season of X Factor.

* A huge fan of Justin Bieber at the time, she sang his song “Baby” for her audition, won over the judges and wound up finishing sixth on the show.

* Now she’s about to try another singing show under her stage name Drew Ryn. And she has a brilliant new song out about her first singing show experience.

* Actually, she called that experience “an unbelievable journey.” What wasn’t so great was the online bullying she endured as a teenager. That bullying inspired the song “Walk on Water.” You can check it out below.

* It’s the second recent single from Drew, who released “Shine,” a moving tribute to her late grandmother in December.

* Those are just two of a bunch of songs Drew has released since appearing on X Factor. “Orchestra,” released in 2020, is one of her most popular with more than 3 million streams on Spotify alone.

* That song stemmed from a three-word challenge on TikTok. Given the words “oppose,” “chest” and “orchestra,” Drew wrote an addictive pop tune in about 30 minutes.

* Oh, that TikTok attracted 14 million views. Drew has more than 2 million followers and more than 49 million likes on the site.

* As for her Idol audition, Drew says she used to watch every episode of the show growing up and still has the voting number from back then memorized.

* Oh, and new judge Carrie Underwood was the headliner at the first concert Drew ever attended. She still has a piece of confetti from the show in her childhood journal.

Drew on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube