Meet and hear Josh Holiday of American Idol

Josh Holiday, Season 12

February 12, 2013 By Mark Franklin 2

Josh Holiday is one of the products of American Idol’s small-town tour, launched for the first time in Season 12.

He says a friend invited him to go along and audition when the Idol bus stopped in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Josh was apparently impressive enough to land an audition in front of the Idol judges in Chicago, where he impressed them with his rendition of “Back at One.”

His audition had Mariah Carey clapping and smiling, Nicki Minaj proclaiming that he had a unique tone and Randy Jackson complimenting him on “a lot of talent.”

Josh is formerly Joshua Eric Wright, and a former student at Belmont University where he was one for four singers selected for a School of Commercial Music showcase in February 2010.

His bio on the Belmont University website indicates that he never performed outside his church in Celeste, Texas, before attending Belmont, but had racked up a number of achievements as a student there.

Those included participating on Christian artist Michael W. Smith’s award-winning “It’s a Wonderful Christmas” album as part of the Nashville choir.

From his Facebook page, we also learned that he performed at the opening of the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Dolly Parton and sang the national anthem for the vice president at some point.

In March 2011, he launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to record a Christian music EP. I can’t tell whether it ever came to fruition because both of his websites are currently offline.

There were two at one point because of the name change. Judging from Facebook, he was apparently contemplating one of four stage names and asked fans which they preferred.

But August 2011, Joshua Eric Wright had settled on Josh Holiday.

In his Road to Hollywood video, Josh describes himself as “a hard-working guy from a middle-class family.”

Musically, he says, “I’m white, but I love soul music. I love, love gospel music.”

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

“That Should Be Me”