Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Of all the singers who auditioned for Hollywood in Season 12, who got the best critique?

Well, you’d have to put 22-year-old Candice Glover at the head of the pack.

After all, I don’t recall Nicki Minaj telling any other contestant: “I want to skin you and wear you.”

Or, “I’m not worthy to critique you.”

That praise came after Candice’s masterful rendition of “Syrup and Honey” that got rave reviews from all three judges who were present.

Heck, Nicki even predicted that Candice would make it to the last round of the competition.

That must have been music to Candice’s ears after last year’s disappointment. She was cut in the Vegas round, even though the judges seemed thrilled with the group performance of “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” that she delivered alongisde eventual finalists Deandre Brackensick and Jessica Sanchez.

“I cried about it a little bit,” Candice admitted in her audition clip. “You don’t want to hear, ‘Come back next year.’ You want it now. But I think I grew a lot between this year and last year.”

And that was her goal. Last March, after her elimination, she told Beaufort Gazette that she’d be auditioning again and that she intended to work “on everything — my image, my interviews and my style — so I’ll be bulletproof.”

Candice lives in St. Helena Island, S.C., and won a Beaufont Idol competition back in 2008, when she was still in high school.

But she started singing long before that, starting at age 4 at Oaks True Holiness Church, where her uncle was the pastor.

“What makes me unique is I can take the craziest song and I’ll make it my own,” she says in her Road to Hollywood video. “Last year, if someone told me to do it, I wouldn’t have done it. I think the difference between this year and last year is, I don’t care what anyone thinks. If I want to change something up, I’m going to do it.”

Here are three videos of Candice performing. For more, go here.

“Someone Like You”

“Bound to You”

“Call Me Maybe”