Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Brant McCollough of American Idol Season 22

Idol returned to ABC on Sunday, Feb. 18 with the coaching trio of Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan back intact.

Here’s more about Brant.

* He’s a country artist and a teenager from Samson, Alabama, attending Kinston High School.

* While he’s been playing guitar since he was about 8 years old, he didn’t start singing until about a year and a half ago and didn’t start performing in public until December 2022.

* “I’ve always been told I could sing, so I just kind of listened to them and got out of my little shell about a year ago,” Brant says in a July 2023 interview.

* The interview was a result of Brant’s participation in the Southern Lights: The Search for a Star ’23 competition.

* Competing under the stage name Michael Brant, he was one of 16 performers to make it to the July 2023 finals.

* He was one of six competitors to win awards and walked away with two, the Audience Choice Award and the Brethren Video Project Award.

* He’s continued to perform as Michael Brant. In fact, he’ll be using the stage name in April when he opens for former Idol standout Colin Stough at the Geneva Festival on the Rivers in Alabama. Colin finished third on Idol last season.

* And when country artists Ernest performed at the National Peanut Festival in Dothan, Alabama, in November, he summoned Brant to the stage to perform with him.

* Brant told News4 in Alabama that he plays country music from multiple eras. One of his inspirations is the late Keith Whitley.

* Brant has more than 14,000 followers on his TikTok where one of his most popular posts is a cover of Sam Barber’s “Straight and Narrow.”

Brant on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube

@michaelbrantmusic Straight and Narrow – Sam Barber #fyp ♬ original sound – Brant McCollough