Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Sheldon Riley, 26, Melbourne, Australia, “Brother” by Matt Corby: He’s a veteran of several singing shows thanks to a costumed character he created. He wants to see if he can do well on Idol without that character. He performed with tons of passion and showed off great range. Yep, his voice should be enough. Luke Bryan called him “crazy talented.” Lionel Richie called him “an artist” with great stage presence. He sailed to the next round.

Here’s more about Sheldon:

* He’s 26-year-old singer-songwriter Sheldon Riley Hernandez from Sydney, Australia and truly is a veteran of many singing competitions.

* His long list of appearances on singing shows started with The X Factor Australia in 2016. One of his mentors on the show was former Idol standout Adam Lambert.

* In 2018, he competed on The Voice Australia with Boy George as his coach and made the finals, finishing third. He wound up competing on The Voice Australia twice.

* He’s also appeared on America’s Got Talent twice. The first time, in 2020, he was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

* Sheldon returned for 2024’s America’s Got Talent Fantasy League and made the semi-finals. Check out his performance of Loreen’s “Tattoo” below.

* He was also runner-up on the fourth season on the Masked Singer in Australia as Snapdragon.

* In addition to all of that, he represented Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022. The song he released, “Not the Same,” has been streamed more than 10 million times on Spotify alone.

* The song was based on a letter Sheldon wrote to himself at age 14. On Spotify, he describes it as “a letter of pain and hope for a new beginning, a reminder that ‘the light shines bright through those who broke inside.'”

* In fact, several of his singing show performances are on streaming sites, and his performance of “Frozen” from The Voice Australia has been streamed more than 5 million times.

* Sheldon has combined his performances with an Avant-garde style, sometimes even hiding behind a mask. “Forget normal, I want magic,” he writes on his social media accounts. He describes his music as “painful lyrics, heavenly sounds.”

* Sheldon told Idol he created the persona after his very first singing show audition in Australia 10 years ago. He didn’t make it and let doubting if just he and his voice were enough. He said Idol appealed to him because it’s a show with “no smoke” and “no mirrors” and was eager to prove his voice was good enough to make it without the wild costumes.

Sheldon on social media:
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