Sophia Zamani of American Idol Season 24
Idol returns to ABC on Monday, Jan. 26 with the judging trio of Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood.
Here’s more about Sophia:
* She’s a 19-year-old singer-songwriter who describes her music as “straddling country and alternative sensibilities.”
* Sophia told Voyage L.A. she began taking piano lessons at age 5. She wanted to learn guitar. Her parents agreed, but only if she continued piano lessons, which she hated at the time. As a songwriter, she says she’s now grateful to have learned both instruments.
* But the songwriting is something she kept private “for a long time, like years and years.” When she began sharing her music, one of the first people to recognize her talent was Ron Aniello, a producer for Bruce Springsteen. She calls Aniello “my biggest mentor.”
* And she’s certainly made up for lost time. Since 2023, she’s released 21 singles and a pair of albums. Several of the singles, of course, also appear on the albums.
* Those albums include “Shelter from the Rain” from 2024 and “Start Again,” which dropped in June 2025.
* And she’s released three more singles since — “Mistakes That I’ve Made,” “He’s a Show” and “Montauk Highway.” The latter was inspired by her boyfriend. And she released her first of 2026, a wonderful tune called “Collateral Damage,” on Jan. 9. Check out “He’s a Show” below. She has a wonderfully distinct singer-songwriter style.
* Sophia is from California and has been studying advertising at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
* But she’s also traveled to Woodstock, N.Y., (during the pandemic) and Nashville to work on music and collaborate with other artists.
* She told the Pepperdine newspaper that Woodstock is one of her favorite places to write songs. She recorded her first album at Blackbird Studios in Nashville.
* The goal behind her music? “Ultimately, we as humans really want something to connect with — whether that’s experiences or people or places — and I think that I’m just trying to do my part to help people connect to something,” Zamani told Pepperdine Graphic.
* Sophia already has more than 25,000 followers and more than 3 million likes on her TikTok.
Sophia on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube
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