Maddy Hudson impressed the American Idol judges so much with her San Francisco audition that Jennifer Lopez said she could win Season 14. (FOX Photo)
In a pre-audition clip, Maddy told us that it’s always been pretty much her and her mom “against the world” and that middle school was the worst because she never felt she fit it.
“I was never popular or cool,” the teen from Pleasanton, Calif., said. “Music was the only place I fit in. It’s given me so much strength and confidence. I feel like my sole purpose is music.”
Once in the audition room, Maddy showed off a wonderful personality and smile. Then she said “Resentment.”
And that was wonderful, too, in a totally different way.
All three judges were beyond impressed.
Jennifer Lopez called her audition “fantastic” and called her “one of her favorites.”
Harry Connick Jr.’s take: “You have all the ingredients to be a superstar. You exude star quality.”
What the show didn’t show: Maddy told her hometown newspaper that she got hooked on singing when she performed at a school talent show in fifth grade.
“I got off the stage, and the kids were asking for my autograph,” she recalled. “It made me happy knowing something that I love to do made them happy.”
Maddy attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, Calif., for three years before turning to home schooling so she could spend more time focusing on her music.
She has been performing at a place called Tully’s Coffee every Saturday moring during a farmer’s market. She busks outside, performing for anyone who will listen for about four hours each week.
And she said she grew up watching Idol and also dreamed of auditioning once she got old enough.
“Ever since the show came on — and I was just a toddler — I was like, ‘I want to do that,'” she said in a radio interview. “My mom and I always talked about it and, ‘It was Maddy, when you’re 16, you’re going to do that and that’s going to start things for you.'”
In a YouTube “meet me” video, Maddy reveals a little more about herself. She loves fuzzy blankets, chocolate and cheesecake and wears pj pants “all the time,” which she has no trouble showing off for the video camera because she stands just 5-foot-2. Musically, she says she listens and sings all genres of music.
Oh, and she turned 17 on Saturday (Jan. 31) and celebrated by performing at Tully’s. “I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to spend my birthday doing what I love with the people I love!” she wrote on Facebook.
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