Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Keri Lynn Roche is the singer who kicked off the American Idol audition episode in Detroit.

Jennifer Lopez’s reaction: “What a way to start the day.”

Keri Lynn Roche earned a golden ticket to Hollywood for American Idol Season 13 at the Detroit auditions.

Keri Lynn, a 24-year-old waitress from Detroit, breezed into the Hollywood round with three yes votes.

But her audition room success shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise. She also made it to Hollywood in Season 12.

And while she works as a waitress, she’s also a singer-songwriter who’s been working at music for a good while.

On her Facebook music page, she describes herself as an indie-rock artist and she released a single called “Generation Kill” to iTunes last March.

She’s one of only a handful of artists we got to hear two songs from during the audition episodes.

She played “Radioactive” with guitar and sounded great. She sang “I’d Rather Go Blind” without the guitar and perhaps sounded even better.

“Right now, my main focus is to learn more about the new generation of music,” Keri Lynn says in her Road to Hollywood video. “I think what I tend to do is sing old songs.”

Not that she’s about to change her musical style. “Just because it’s new music doesn’t mean I have to sing it the way they sing it,” she says, smiling.

Among her musical influences, she lists Katy Perry, Tori Amos and Fiona Apple. And among Idols, she admires Phillip Phillips and the individuality he maintained on the show.

If you’d like to follow Keri Lynn, here are links to her Facebook music page and her Twitter account (@kerilynnroche).

I’ve embedded three of her performances below, including a pair of originals. You can hear more on her YouTube channel.

“All of Me” (John Legend cover)

“Ugly Ramone” (original)

“Better” (original)