Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Two years ago, American Idol seemed to feature an endless stream of 15- and 16-year old singers.

This year, just one contestant under 17 has made the Vegas round — 15-year-old Juliana Chayhayed of West Hills, Calif.

If you watched the final Hollywood episode of American Idol last week, you might remember Juliana.

She’s the young lady who sang a very nice rendition of “Landslide.”

“It’s always been a dream of mine to be on the show,” she says in her Road to Hollywood video. “I’ve been watching the show every since I was a little kid. Finally, when I turned 15, I was ready to audition.”

She says her musical inspiration comes from her family; all of her siblings are musicians.

That includes older sister Andrea, a singer-songwriter; and older brother Roget, who’s been playing piano for 17 years. You can see Juliana performing with them in one of the videos below.

On Facebook, Juliana writes that she’s been singing since age 5 and taking voice lessons since age 7.

About a year and a half ago, she started playing guitar, and now, she, too, writes music.

She says her musical influences range from Glenn Miller and Ella Fitzgerald to Muse and My Chemical Romance.

As for her preferred genre, she lists it as jazz/folk on Facebook.

During a recent interview with MyFoxLA, Juliana admitted one of the things she has to work on at her young age is her stage presence.

That said, Juliana vows that she’s not as quiet as she seems once she hits that stage.

“I think I transform when I go on stage. It’s weird,” she says. “Like two different people.”

Here are two videos of Juliana performing.

“Moon River”

“Safe and Sound” (with sister Andrea)