Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Amara Valerio of American Idol Season 21

She impressed the judges and earns a unanimous golden ticket with a sassy version of Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows.”

Here’s more about Amara, who we’ll meet tonight in a special Idol audition episode that airs after the Oscars (about 11:30 p.m. on ABC):

* During her audition, she shares the story of being Kanye’d at the 2019 Yonkers Montessori Academy graduation ceremony. A junior, Amara had been selected to sing the national anthem.

* But as she launched into the song, a senior stepped to the front of the auditorium, grabbed the mic and announced that she thought she had the right to sing the anthem since she was a senior and it was her graduation.

* Turns out, that meant Amara missed out on singing the national anthem at graduation. The pandemic hit during her senior year, meaning there was no public ceremony when she graduated.

* Amara initially shared the story of the graduation snub on TikTok in July, where her video has attracted 1.7 million views. A brief clip from the 2019 graduation has more than 10 million views. And, according to the New York Post, Amara’s story prompted a series of TikToks from the student who grabbed the mic.

* Amara just turned 21 and is a student at Cornell University where she’s an undergraduate student assistant in the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives.

* According to her Cornell University bio, she’s an an aspiring entertainment attorney, majoring in American Studies with minors in law and society, inequality studies, and theatre in the College of Arts and Sciences.

* Since September 2020, she’s been a member of Nothing But Treble, which she describes as the university’s “premier all-female acapella group.” She’s also the diversity and inclusion chairperson for the group.

* And in her LinkedIn online profile, Amara writes that she’s been involved in more than 30 musical theater productions and has also volunteered to help children as young as 4 learn about musical theater, singing, acting and dancing.

* As for her Idol audition, Amara writes on Instagram: “This has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl ”

* Indeed, Amara won the Yonkers Junior Idol crown in 2014, made the Top 5 in the Westchester (N.Y.) Teen Idol competition the following year and was one of three finalists in the 2019 Yorkers Idol competition.

* As for her audition song choice, in a statement released by the show, Amara says: “”I thought that would be a great song to show off my personality and the kind of music I like to sing as an artist.”

Amara on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Twitter
Facebook
Facebook (artist page)
YouTube