High school student Shelby Lynn Tweten tackled Carrie Underwood’s “Temporary Home” during Idol’s Wednesday night audition episode from Aspen, Colorado.
And talk about making a good impression.
Jennifer Lopez called her voice “beautiful.” Steven Tyler called her “fearless.” And, after she left the room, Randy Jackson says she “has huge potential.”
She also has one of the more interesting back-stories we’ve heard on Idol this season, one a bit reminiscent of James Durbin.
You see, Shelby was diagnosed as bi-polar in March 2011. And she has struggled with depression since fourth grade. And she says she sometimes has hypomanic episodes where she shakes, stutters and can’t control her body.
Music helps, she told Idol. And the show has inspired her to stay on her meds, without which she becomes “incoherent” and isn’t herself.
Shelby said she wants to show that “bi-polar doesn’t define who you are.”
She took a first step as one of the most impressive female voices we heard during the Aspen audition episode.
As for her background, Shelby is a student at West High School in Mankato, Minn., participates on something called the West Orchesis Dance Team and has frequently performed the national anthem for the Makato MoonDogs, an amateur baseball team, according to a story in the Mankato Free Press.
She was 17 at the time of the auditions and labels herself a singer, vocalist and model on her Facebook page.
And, yesterday, she wrote on Twitter: “God works in mysterious ways and when you notice your prayers are being answered your heart beats faster & you definitely can’t sleep.”
If you missed it, here’s Shelby’s audition. If anyone knows where to find pre-Idol music, let me know.
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