Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Amanda Barise of American Idol Season 23

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

Here’s more about Amanda.

* She’s Amanda Barbarise from New Jersey, now living in New York and describes herself as an alt-jazz / R&B singer and songwriter in her Spotify bio.

* And, yep, you guessed it. That means Amanda has already released music, eight singles since 2020 as a matter of fact. Last year, her songs were streamed more than 600,000 times by more than 225,000 listeners on Spotify.

* Her most popular single is 2023’s “Fall for You” with nearly 800,000 streams on the site. Her most recent is “Can’t Get Enough,” a collaboration with Jules Grant that landed last summer.

* Amanda began singing around age 5 and took first place in the solo vocalist category of the Star Power National Talent competition three years running at age 9, 10 and 11.

* She also won the Future Stars competition at the Apollo Theater twice and became the youngest artist to perform at the Cotton Club in New York.

* Amanda is a graduate of The New School in New York with a bachelor of fine arts degree in jazz and contemporary music. While there, she received the John and Alice Coltrane Award of Excellence.”

* Along the way, she’s amassed a pretty impressive social media following with more than 75,000 followers on Instagram and more than 80,000 on TikTok, where her posts have more than 2 million likes.

* A TikTok post of Amanda covering “Defying Gravity” from the Wicked soundtrack has been viewed more than 100,000 times. You can check it out below.

* In a post thanking fans for their support, Amanda writes: “In many ways, I am Elphaba — an outcast who refuses to let doubt or criticism hold her back from achieving what others think she can’t or doesn’t deserve. Here’s to defying expectations and soaring higher than ever!”

* Judging from a short clip posted to her TikTok, she sings “This is a Man’s World” for the Idol judges. And makes quite an impression.

Keep checking back for more profiles of Season 23 contestants each day between now and the March 9 American Idol premiere on ABC.

Amanda on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube

@amandabarise So excited to see the movie! Im in the hospital with kidney stones but this video gives me joy 🥹 #wicked #defyinggravity ♬ original sound – AMANDA BARISE