Audrianna Vargas
This 18-year-old from Sioux Falls, S.D., says the first time anyone heard her sing publicly was at a solo competition in Davenport, Iowa. She finished first out of 30 contestants. Not a bad start, huh? Audri — that’s what she goes by — graduated from Washington High School last year, but first participated in the school’s show choir and played Belle in its production of “Beauty and the Beast.” She’s also a worship leader at at New Life Church where a song she wrote, “Because Your Love is Better Than Life,” is a congregation favorite, according to a story in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Link: Go here to listen to a song Audri performed on a local radio station.
Brittany Stone
This teen from White Oak, Texas, says she’s very competitive and likes to win regardless of what she’s involved in, whether it’s “tennis or rock, paper, scissors.” And Brittany played tennis and softball at White Oak High School. As for singing, she says she has wanted to audition for Idol for years and earned the right when she won a session of the American Idol Experience at Disney World. She also plays piano and used to clog. Link: Go here to watch Brittany’s Idol video interview.
Chelsea Chandler
This Tennessee gal has quite the sense of humor. In her Idol video, Chelsea says she has “an impeccable skill at injuring myself.” Which might explain why she’s singing now after showing horses, figure skating and dancing in earlier years. Then there’s the video I’ll point you to in a moment, in which Chelsea sheds a towel in the shower to sing. No worries. Under the towel she’s wearing a rhinestone studded black dress and cowboy boots. Chelsea says she prefers country music, but can perform other genres as well. And she swears she defies the pretty blonde stereotype. After all, she graduated from college at 21 with degrees in psychology and music and was an honors student. Link: Chelsea sings two songs in
Christian Spear
This 16-year-old from Houston is the leukemia survivor we met in the Dallas audition episode. Diagnosed at age 4, she was declared cancer free at age 8. And she’s been wanting to audition since the first season of Idol, but wasn’t eligible until last summer. At age 13, she participated in Sugarland Superstar, an American Idol-like competition in Houston that she calls her most memorable performance. Oh, and she has a birthmark in her hair. Or so she says in her Idol video interview. Link: Go here to hear Christian sing covers of a number of songs, including “Impossible” and “Superwoman.”
Dawntoya Thomason
This gal from Dallas, Texas, says the fact that she’s a black female who wants to sing country music should set her apart from other contestants (except perhaps, Haeley Vaughn from the Denver auditions). Among her other talents, Dawntoya lists acting. And, judging from Tweets I’ve seen, she apparently has a minor role in an upcoming film called The Grace Card, starring Louis Gossett Jr. Back to her singing, Dawntoya recalls wanting to do the solo for “Joyful, Joyful,” when her middle school put on “Sister Act.” She didn’t get it. “I thought, this is going to push me to be the best I can be.” Link: Go here for Dawntoya’s Idol video interview.
Erica Rhodes
You certainly haven’t forgotten 23-year-old Erica. She’s the former child actress in Barney and Friends who showed up in the Idol audition room wearing black leather and carrying a whip. Not sure whether she got the golden ticket for her rendition of En Vogue’s “For Your Mind,” the outfit, or her performance of the Barney theme song while wearing the outfit (the look on Simon’s face was priceless), but she’s bound for Hollywood. She’s also a pretty accomplished actress, judging from her resume and danced for the Dallas Desperadoes (an Arena League football team) from 2005-07. Link: Go here to watch her audition again. To here to hear her sing “Thing Called Love.”
Erynne Hundley
She’s a daddy’s girl from Keller, Texas, so it isn’t surprising that her most memorable musical experience includes her father. In the fourth grade at elementary school, she was part of a medley and sang “I Believe I Can Fly.” “I looked down in the audience and he (her dad) was swaying and humming to the music with me.” Erynne’s grown up now and attending Oklahoma City University, and says folks might be surprised to learn she’s a member of a sorority there. She also told Idol in her video interview that she has “a voice that should be heard.” Link: Go here to watch Erynne’s Idol interview.
Heather Todd
You’ve heard of wedding singers, right? You might call Heather the funeral singer. “My whole life, I grew up singing at every funeral,” she says. “They just nominated me to sing. They didn’t ask me if I liked it or not.” But she said her singing performance at her grandmother’s funeral seemed to put everyone at peace with what had happened, and she ranks that as her most memorable performance. Heather has two children who she says were her inspiration in auditioning for Idol. And she’s a huge fan of the mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship. Link: There’s a http://www.americanidol.com/videos/season_9/golden_ticket_interviews/heather_todd/”>
a link to her Idol video interview.
Hope Johnson
We met Hope at the end of the “Road to Hollywood” episode. She’s the 19-year-old waitress and bartender from Pollard, Ark., who says that her parents were so poor when she was growing up, she didn’t realize it wasn’t normal not to have dinner every night. She impressed the judges with a performance of Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance.” Given her voice, it’s clear to see country music is her forte. She lists writing and drawing among her talents and says she caught the singing bug during her senior year of high school when some friends organized a talent show and she finished third. Link: Go here to watch Hope’s Idol audition.
Kellye Vetter
This Edmond, Okla., resident vividly recalls the first time she sang in public. Her four brothers were wrestlers, and she was attending a tournament they were in. “My Mom grabbed me by the hand. She said, ‘The soloist didn’t show up. Do you know the words to the national anthem.’ I’m this little 8-year-old. I’m like, ‘What’s the national anthem?’ So my mom’s in the corner of the gym, and she’s feeding me lines. And I’m looking over at her, and we’re going back and forth. I’m sure it was hideous. But it was really exciting.” She also made it to Hollywood in season eight, when she said her favorite genres were pop and jazz. Link: Go here to listen to two songs Kellye has posted on YouTube.
Kimberly Carver
This Texan’s audition was the centerpiece of the portion of the Dallas episode where Neil Patrick Harris and Simon Cowell were disagreeing on everything. This 26-year-old from Denton dared sing an original song — “Every Good Woman Needs to Find Herself a Real Good Man” — to win her way to Hollywood. In her Idol video, Kimberly says she sang with a band for five years and also traveled to Nepal where she worked in an orphanage for a month. For the record, Neil Patrick liked her audition; Simon didn’t. Link: Go here to hear Kimberly sing “At Last” in what appears to be an Idol-like competition.
Liette Kraper
Just a normal teenager is the way this Orlando resident describes herself. She was auditioning for Idol for the second straight year; last year she didn’t make it to Hollywood. She lists singing at her high school graduation as her most memorable performance and also dances and plays piano. As for her most memorable Idol moment: That was watching Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard on tour after they dueled it out back in season two. Link: Go here to watch Liette’s Idol video interview.
Maegan Wright
This 21-year-old from Richardson, Texas, is the gal from the divorced family who showed up on the Dallas audition episode with her 10-year-old brother. She says they’re extremely close, even though they’re 11 years apart in age. As for music, Maegan says on her MySpace she started playing the piano at 4, singing soon after and has been writing songs since age 14. She classifies her music as pop, R&B and hip-hop. And she has performed in a cover band called “Signed, Sealed and Delivered.” Idol’s blue bar identified her as a cosmetologist. Link: You’ll find five of Maegan’s songs on her MySpace page. Go here. Make sure to check out “Love Is.”
Megan McCallon
She has not one, but two CDs to her credit — the 9-track “Missing Piece” released in 2006 and the 10-track “June Bug” released last August. On MySpace, she classifies her music as pop / folk / acoustic and explains how it helps her cope. “When I’m mad about something, I don’t scream about it. I sing about it. When I’m hurt by someone, I write about it. When I’m filled with inexpressible joy, I play it out.” She plays piano and guitar, which helps in the writing process, and laughingly tells Idol she auditioned because “I’ve pretty much exhausted the other ideas for my life.” Link: Go here to listen to several of her songs and watch a video for one. “June Bug” and “Cold Night” are especially good.
Paige Miles
This 23-year-old from Houston recalls making her stage debut at age 7. “At that moment, I knew I loved having the microphone in my hand. And I haven’t put it down since.” Paige is a 2004 graduate of the Community School of Naples (Fla.), a college prep day school, where the drama teacher still raves about her “big belty voice” in here to watch Paige’s Idol video interview.
Rachel Hubbard
Another 16-year-old who just couldn’t wait to audition for Idol, Rachel says she’s been wanting to do so for the last four years. She’s also been singing lead vocals for a teen band called Flipswitch. And she says she writes music “a little bit. That’s a talent in the making.” Rachel is adopted, has seven brothers and says her most memorable performance came when she sang in front of about 850 people, including Christian artist Mark Schultz, at her parents’ ministry fundraiser. Link: Go here to watch a video of Flipswitch performing in the Boerne-Champion High School (Texas) talent show.
Savannah Low
Another 16-year-old who auditioned because she’s finally able to. But Savannah assures us in her Idol video that she’s “not as naive as some might think just because I’m 16.” For one thing, her mother is a 13-year cancer survivor. Savannah says her most memorable performance came at a breast cancer awareness event. She also dances and acts and considers herself born to perform. “Performing is what I do,” she says. “It’s in my blood and my bones. It’s what I breathe.” Link: Here’s a video of Savannah singing a song from “Rent” in the 2009 Texas Thespian Festival.
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