Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Mackenzie Sol of American Idol Season 22

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

Here’s more about Mackenzie.

* He’s a 23-year-old pop singer-songwriter Mackenzie Sol Williamson from North East, England, in the U.S. seeking international fame.

* And he arrives with an impressive social media following — 1 million followers on Instagram and nearly 800,000 on TikTok.

* While much of his content is focused around music, it’s mixed with a touch of comedy, including Mackenzie pulling kitchen pranks on his mother.

* “Probably the most important thing to know about me is that I want to be a superstar,” Mackenzie writes on his Reverb Nation page. “That’s been my dream for as long as I can remember. I aspire to be a triple-threat with music, acting and dance and my goal is to make it happen.”

* That said, he adds that “music is my passion. It moves me and puts me in another world. It’s an amazing thing. A good song can change my mood and make me smile. And I want to share that with other people. I want them to be as happy as I am by listening to MY music.”

* They can already do that, because Mackenzie has released about a dozen songs on his own stretching back to 2015 and been part of a handful of collaborations as well.

* One of the latter, a song called “After Midnight” with Slushii, has been streamed more than 1.4 million times on Spotify. Three of Mackenzie solo singles have more than 400,000 streams, including “Happy Ever After All” from last year. Below, check out a snippet of his latest single, “Can’t Sleep.”

* Both of Mackenzie’s parents are singers who performed all over England, and Mackenzie said he traveled with them whenever possible growing up.

* He made his TV debut at age 4, auditioned for The X Factor UK in front of Simon Cowell in 2005. Simon told him to come back in 12 years.

* This won’t be his first foray to the U.S. He performed in seven U.S. cities, including New York and Philly, as part of a What’s Next tour last summer. And he was called on-stage to sing at a Teddy Swims concert last fall.

Mackenzie on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube