Meet 2024’s ‘American Idol’ Top 10 Contestants

Born: June 8, 1998 – Dallas, Texas

Musical Influences: John Prine, Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, OutKast, Tyler the Creator, White Stripes, Green Day

First Idol Experience: “I was four when the show started. My parents watched the first season and said we were all going to watch the next year, so I remember Ruben (Studdard) and Clay (Aiken).”

Jack Blocker did not grow up in a musical family. His earliest memories of music are from the traditional church he attended as a child. “Once a month, someone would come in with an acoustic guitar and they would do stripped-down worship music and I thought it was cool. In high school I was listening to older country artists and that’s when I fell in love with music. At 16 I picked up the guitar and tried to learn their songs. I attended a Christian high school and played in a student-led worship band. That’s when I figured out I could sing and started writing songs in my bedroom for fun.”

Blocker is self-taught on guitar thanks to YouTube. He still hasn’t taken any lessons and never had vocal coaching until he auditioned for American Idol. The first song he wrote was “Finally Home,” which he recorded with the band he had in college, Rightfield. They played gigs while attending the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where Blocker majored in communications. “When bands would come through, we’d message them to see if we could open for them. Then we did some traveling and were able to make half a living playing gigs.”

At this point, Blocker had not decided on making music as a full-time job. “I was considering every career besides being a musician. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had no real perception of what having a career in music would look like. Growing up in Dallas, I didn’t really know anyone who did that.”

In 2022, Blocker became a solo artist. “My wife and I and my bandmate Reed Hoelscher moved to Nashville. We weren’t experiencing that much growth in Dallas and so we tried to push ourselves. It was difficult. In Dallas and Arkansas, we were the only people performing alt-rock music. In Nashville, everyone is doing the same thing and probably a little better than you and they know more people than you. Trying to make an impression was a bit of a culture shock. We were competing with all the other artists around us and we were losing. I realized I needed to write. My wife was really supportive. She felt this was something I was supposed to be doing, so I started making music that I really cared about and doing it on my own.”

Blocker has already learned a valuable lesson from his Idol journey. “I have been encouraged throughout the whole process to be myself as an artist, to find your wheelhouse and go 100% toward that. I haven’t been trying to compete with anybody else on the show, like go head-to-head and out sing this one person. I’ve been getting to sing songs that I love and I’ve just been really encouraged throughout the show that people respond to that authenticity. Luke said, ‘If you’re doing Jack Blocker, you’re doing the right thing.’ That meant the world to me.”

Born: Aug. 19, 1998 – Mesa, Ariz.

Favorite Alums:  David Archuleta, David Cook, Lauren Spencer-Smith

Musical Influences:  Adele, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift

First Idol Experience: “I watched the season that David Cook and David Archuleta were on. That was the most memorable Idol for me.”

Born in Mesa, Ariz., and raised in nearby Gilbert, McKenna Faith Breinholt’s earliest musical memory is from when she was seven years old, playing songs by ear on her piano. “I would hear music on television and would go to my little keyboard and pick them out. I thought it was awesome that I could play. My parents thought it was really cool and they bought a bigger keyboard. The first song I played on that was ‘Apologize’ by Timbaland and OneRepublic.”

Breinholt confesses, “I took piano lessons to learn theory. I was cheating the whole time. I wasn’t listening to it, and then I got caught. Yeah, I’m not great with piano lessons! I couldn’t sing very well at the time. I wasn’t really a great singer until I picked up the guitar. My guitar teacher required all students to sing, and that’s how I found my voice.”

By the time she was 14, she was performing in talent shows and in church on Sundays, just with piano or guitar. “I never was accompanied by anyone. I’d always play by myself. Then I sang in my high school talent show and that was probably one of the best performances ever for me. People saw that video and asked me to start working with them after that. Rob Gardner, who Breinholt describes as “a crazily talented musician from Arizona,” had her cover Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” and Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This).” “He had me take great iconic songs and turn them into orchestra pieces with choir and we went around performing in Arizona every year. One of my videos with him (“Hallelujah”) got over 12 million views on YouTube.

Although Breinholt said during her Idol audition that her family has no musical talent, she corrected herself while talking to Billboard. “They were offended when I said that. They all have great ears. My dad can play a little bit at the piano. My grandpa plays the guitar. Everyone can mess around here and there.”

Asked what the most valuable lesson she has learned on her Idol journey so far, Breinholt says, “To have a good time and cherish every single moment and make friends too. Yes, you have to be in a certain mindset when you’re on stage and when you’re rehearsing, but we’re never going to get this opportunity again. It’s all about the people and the things that we’re doing and being in the moment because it’s going to go away real quick.”

The Arizonan already has a vision for her future. “My ultimate goal is to release a song after the show and it takes off and I’m touring and performing in front of hundreds of thousands. I know it’s going to take a lot of work to get there, but that’s the goal.”

Born: July 31, 2002 – Indio, Calif.

Favorite Alums: Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, David Archuleta, Adam Lambert, Jordin Sparks

Musical Influences: Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, My Chemical Romance, Paramore

First Idol Experience: “We always watched the fails. That used to be the greatest part of this show, seeing people absolutely lose their minds in an audition room. I was at my aunt’s house in Idyllwild [Calif.] and I remember looking at Carrie Underwood and telling my mom, ‘I want to do it now.’ And she said, ‘You’re not old enough.’ ‘Well, how freaking old do I have to be?’ I was eight.”

“My mom always sang lullabies to us,” Abi Carter says when asked about her earliest musical memory. “But the first true song I remember is the intro credits song to (Nickelodeon’s 2006 film) Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses. There are no words. It’s so beautiful to me and I wanted to be a ballerina and a singer.”

Carter isn’t the only singer in her family. “My mom got a full scholarship to university. She went on a voice scholarship, but she had kids and that made it impossible for her to continue. All my siblings sing. I was the only one who really loved it and wanted to pursue it and felt a deep connection with music. But we’re always singing around the house.”

As a young girl, Carter says she idolized Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. “I grew up in a really religious family, so we weren’t allowed to listen to all kinds of music, but my mom bought a Carrie Underwood album and it got stuck in our little CD player in our old broken down van and so that was all we could listen to for a really long time. So I love Carrie Underwood. I’m not a country singer, but sometimes I’ll sing something that’s just a little bit country.”

Carter wrote her first song relatively recently. “It’s called ‘Still Breathing.’ I wrote it about a friend of mine who I was very close to growing up. “We would sit in her computer room and talk about the future and about what life was going to be like and how she was going to decorate her apartment when she moved out. When she went away to college, I was so excited for her because she was so excited to start her life and she ended up getting into drugs and it just absolutely changed who she was chemically. I wrote that song about her not being able to respond anymore. I don’t even know if she is still alive. I didn’t know if she was still breathing. I wrote that in late 2020/early 2021.”

Reflecting on lessons learned so far from being on American Idol, Carter explains, “I grew up being home schooled. When I entered high school, I went for less than a semester and had to leave to help my family. And I just assumed that coming to Los Angeles to audition that everybody here was going to be fake. I had a mindset of what Hollywood was like and what the music business was like and thought I was going to be around gorgeous people who are gorgeous because of the plastic surgery and would treat me like I was less than. But what I’ve learned is that friends are so much closer than you think and all you have to do is get out to make them. I didn’t grow up with a lot of friends. I only had one at a time. Any prejudice I had has been sucked out of me because I’m surrounded by many people who are so different and yet we’re all the same. There’s something that you can relate to in everybody. I’ve learned that the world is so much bigger but so much more connected than we think.”

As for her future, Carter says, “I want to be an artist. I’ve never felt so passionately about something. I went to school and got a psychology degree because I figured if I can’t express my emotions through something artistically, maybe I can just help other people express their emotions. I was going to be a family therapist.” But then she was asked to audition for American Idol, and she thought, “I’ve never done something for myself. I had to start working young and leave high school to help my family. When this opportunity came along, I thought, ‘If I get a master’s in psychology and have a stable job, I’ll never have this opportunity to pursue what I love because I’ll have so much more on my plate then.’ I want to perform. I want people to be able to relate to my songs the way that we relate to Taylor Swift songs. I used to be scared about stage presence, like I don’t know what to do with my arms. I’m not a dancer. When you think about a home-schooled kid, I’m about as awkward as they come. But I’ve never felt so energetic before. It’s so much fun.”

Born: March 29, 2002 – Guatemala City, Guatemala

Favorite Alums: Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Wé Ani

Musical Influences: Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Hudson, Cynthia Erivo

First Idol Experience: Always aware of it, her parents didn’t watch TV, so she didn’t see a complete season until last year, when she and her now-fiancé watched all of the episodes of season 21 on Hulu to prepare for a local Idol-type competition.

Julia Gagnon was born in Guatemala and after being adopted, was raised in Cumberland, Maine. There was a grand piano in the house and Gagnon remembers banging on the keys as a two-year-old until her parents bought her a toy piano. While she doesn’t recall, her mother assures her that as a very young child, she would sing around the house and in pre-school. That stopped until middle school, when Gagnon saw two musicals on Broadway – Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera. “Phantom was my favorite and I thought, ‘I really want to do that. It would be amazing.’ I entered a talent show and sang ‘Popular’ from Wicked. My chorus teacher Nora Krainis heard me sing and said, ‘I’m not going to let you avoid this anymore. You need to share this with the world and I’m going to help you.’ She was a very strict woman and I replied, ‘Alright. I’ll do what you say.’ She gave me some solos in our chorus concerts and then I was in some of our high school musicals, like Beauty and the Beast, Sister Act and The Addams Family.” I only sang in school. Competitions made me nervous and I didn’t like the idea of auditioning.”

Like the rest of the top 10, Gagnon’s Idol journey began months before season 22 started airing on ABC. From then until today, what is the most important thing she has learned? “It may sound cheesy, but to be yourself. It’s easier said than done. For a long time during this competition, I was trying to be a heightened version of myself, singing hard-hitting soul songs every time. But then I realized that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you always need to. You can hold back. You can let loose. You can have intimate moments and diva moments and it can all be you. You could be vulnerable. You could be soft. You can change your tone. You can tell a story and that is really important. The last couple of rounds, I was struggling with who I was.”

Gagnon’s biggest surprise during her Idol run so far is the competition itself. “We’re such a close-knit family, being together for so long and learning from each other. It doesn’t feel like a competition anymore. It’s such a diverse group that I didn’t expect it to be so familial and supportive.” Support is nothing new to Gagnon. “My parents supported my music even before I knew I wanted to do it. My mom put me in piano lessons and I hated it. She had me play trombone and I hated it. But she’s always been pushing me to be artistic and creative. I think my dad just wants me to be me and said he wasn’t really pushing me in any direction but the second I said, ‘Music is very important to me,’ he’s been unwaveringly supportive and in such a dad way too. He cheers on the sidelines like it’s sports. It’s not a theater cheer. It’s like stand up and ‘Let’s go!’ But I love that. They’re both very excited for me.”

Looking ahead, Gagon says, “If I could design my future, I would incorporate the things that are important to me as much as I can into a music career. So still staying close to family and still writing songs that are close to my heart. That would be the dream, to have everything that I need to support me and having enough love to share and give out my music and performance and art.”

Born: June 17, 2008 – Mobile, Ala.

Favorite Alums: Colin Stough, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chayce Beckham

Musical Influences: Johnny Cash, Charles Johnson

First Idol Experience: “I’ve always watched since I was a little boy. My favorite thing was the funny auditions where people would walk in and they would sing and we would just die and then someone would walk in and just blow your mind.”

Raised in McIntosh, Ala., Triston Harper found music before he was even born. “My mama sang nursery rhymes to me when I was in the womb. Later, she taught me how to play ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ on the piano.”

When he was six, Harper sang in church with his grandaddy. “It was homecoming and there was a butt load of people there and they requested for me to sing. So he got up there with me and we sang and everybody loved it. I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” Harper continued to sing in school. “They always put me out front. I sang. I preached. When we moved to Conway in Arkansas, they put me in choir to learn how to read music. After that, I forgot everything, and I’ve been unable to read music ever since. So I just listen and I’ll grab my guitar and pick it up.” Harper wrote his first song when he was seven. “It’s called ‘I’m Yours, You’re Mine.’ It is God talking to me. I still sing it.”

Even though he has watched American Idol all of his life, Harper says he didn’t have the courage to audition until last year. “My grandaddy said, ‘One day, boy, it might be you.’ I never thought it would happen. An ad [for auditions] kept popping up and I kept swiping it away. The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘If you take a step toward me, I’ll take two toward you.’ So I signed up with all my information and I’m here.”

Only 15, Harper has already learned valuable lessons during his time on Idol. “When your mentors and your vocal coach tell you to do something, they’ve got your best interests and they want to see you progress far in this competition. So be yourself and make the right song choices and put your faith in yourself.”

One of Harper’s mentors this season was Jelly Roll, who said the youngster had the soul of a 75-year-old. “I get that a lot,” Harper tells Billboard. “I try to give people a lot of advice and they say I’m young but they take it and go a long way with it. I’ve been through a lot and I know what to do in situations and I give people hope and courage so they don’t turn to drugs or alcohol. My teachers are surprised because I’ve taught them a lot about decisions they’ve made that weren’t the best. They say, ‘I should have listened to Triston.’”

The teenager admits it was surreal standing in front of Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. “The first time I did, I was shocked. The second time I was like, ‘Okay.’ The third time I was getting used to them and now I look at them as aunts and uncles. They’re family now.”

Harper has taken in their advice. “Katy Perry told me about my pronunciation, that she wants to hear what I’m saying and I’ve tried my best in this competition to pronounce my words more than when they first met me. Lionel Richie told me to be me, to keep that old Alabama soul. Luke Bryan smiled at me and said I’m doing what I’m supposed to. When you hear that from people you look up to, it means the world.”

Asked what he wants his future to look like, it was clear he has given the subject a lot of thought. “I’ve got about 60 some acres, living in a nice home. We have four kids and I’ve been married to my wife about 20 some years and last Saturday I performed at an arena with people singing along with my songs.”

Born: May 22, 2003 – Ogden, Utah

Favorite Alum: Carrie Underwood

Musical Influences: Katy Perry, Adele, Carrie Underwood

First Idol Experience: “I watched Carrie Underwood. She was a small-town girl living her small-town life and then her life changed overnight, and I related to her.”

Kaibrienne grew up an hour away from her birthplace, in Henefer, Utah. She describes it as a “super-small town.” She had two gateways to music. “I listened on YouTube, and I listened to my older sister sing. She would jam out in our car to Katy Perry hits like ‘California Gurls,’ ‘Teenage Dream’ and ‘Last Friday Night.’” So what was it like when Kaibrienne first met Katy? “I was freaking out. I could never have imagined that I would have the opportunity to meet her. I haven’t told her yet about my sister.”

Kaibrienne says her parents were not musical, but her sisters had leads and other parts in their high school musicals. “I thought that I would want to do that. I loved watching them in Les Misérables, Hairspray and The Music Man.”

In school, Kaibrienne was active in sports and cheerleading. “Then I was listening to a girl on YouTube sing ‘Hallelujah’ and I told my family I wanted to sing it at a school talent show. None of them knew I had been singing alone in my room so I sang it for them and they said I should definitely do that. My focus at the time was on tumbling but after that I loved singing.”

At the talent show, one of Kaibrienne’s teachers leaned over to her father and said, “She has a God-given gift. She’s going to do big things.”

“There weren’t a lot of opportunities, but my dad tried to find places where I could sing. I struggled with performance anxiety where my hands and feet and face would go numb. My throat would go dry. And so I never wanted to perform. I practiced and I hated it. I thought I sounded so much better than what I was able to give. Things fell apart with cheerleading and tumbling so I was trying to find my place in the world. I tried out for high school musicals and I was in Shrek, Into the Woods and High School Musical.

How did Kaibrienne overcome her anxiety? “My dad posted videos of me singing in the car on TikTok. They started going viral. He told me, ‘Look at all these people who believe in you.’ But I still wouldn’t sing outside of the car. Over the summer I was working in sales, knocking on people’s doors. I’m in the middle of Florida and a pastor opened his door. He didn’t know anything about me. But he said, ‘This isn’t what you were sent here to do. I feel like you have a dream that you are running from.’ I told him he was exactly right. He said, “God wouldn’t have given you this gift if there wasn’t a way to work through it. If you take this seriously, big things are going to happen for you in the next year.’”

That was the last door Kaibrienne knocked on. “The second I got home I started singing alone again. I studied guitar and began writing songs and then Idol reached out to me and everything fell into place.” So it’s no surprise what Kaibrienne has learned from her Idol journey to date. “I’ve learned to love myself in a lot of ways. Being on the show has instilled a lot of confidence in me that I didn’t have before. Even during my audition, I felt insecure. I’ve learned I’m here because I sound like me, not because I sound like anyone else. I’m here because I’m me and not anybody else and I feel like each round, I’ve grown more and more. I’ve worked through so much of the performance anxiety that I never thought I’d be able to work through.”

And what lies ahead? “I’m going to do this forever. I want to write music forever. I’ve always wanted to heal people through music the way that it’s healed me, and so that’s my goal.”

Born: June 14, 2000 – Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Favorite Alums: Chris Daughtry, James Durbin

Musical Influences: Bon Jovi, Journey, Whitesnake, Queen, Ed Sheeran

First Idol Experience: “When Chris Daughtry got voted off, I wrote a handwritten letter to American Idol and said, ‘You made a mistake. This guy’s a star.’”

“I have older parents and they looked in the Yellow Pages to find a piano teacher. My dad said, ‘I want you to teach my son. He’s three years old. And the teacher said, ‘We normally like them to read English before they read music.’ My dad told him, ‘He reads, let’s get him in. We’ve got to start him early.’ So I went to his studio and my little legs didn’t touch the floor. I was swinging off the piano bench and I learned how to read music along with English. When I was 10, my parents asked if I actually liked taking lessons. I said, ‘I’ve been doing it forever, so I might as well keep doing it. It’s a part of my identity at this point.’”

Kayko says he was always a music kid. “I did classical piano competitions for a long time and then I always wanted to change the song and not play what’s on the page, so I did jazz. And I thought, ‘This really isn’t really my vibe. I’m a rocker. I would never do a singing competition, not even American Idol. I would never try out for that.’ And then I did theater.”  

After appearing in musicals like Side Show, In the Heights, Ghost, Cabaret and 9 to 5, Kayko turned to YouTube and Billboard to see what music was popular and was inspired to record cover songs. “I was definitely a YouTube kid and that’s how I learned how to produce my own music.”

Kayko attended Berklee College of Music for three semesters, until he realized he didn’t want go to school. “I quit and moved to Nashville. I needed to write and produce my own songs. I needed to book live shows. I had no mentorship or insight, just a dream of being an artist and putting out music.”

Kayko’s audition for Idol was unlike most other tryouts but he assures Billboard that what was shown on television was 100% true. “I don’t know if the world will ever believe that. One of my very good friends from college, Abby Blake, got a call to do American Idol and they wanted her to prepare two songs but said the accompanist would only play one. She said, ‘I feel more comfortable with you in the room.’”

Kayko agreed to go with her. They woke up at 4 a.m. for the Nashville audition and sat in a room all day without ever seeing the judges. The producers asked Blake to come back the next day and Kayko said he would return with her.

“Abby’s voice was shot and she wasn’t feeling well that day and I was thinking I have to break the ice for her, so I was probably talking way more than any accompanist has ever done before. Abby sang her song and got a yes. Katy Perry looks at me and says, ‘There’s something about you. You look like an artist.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not doing this.’ Abby said I should sing for these three music legends. I played an original song and they look at each other and tell me I’m going to Hollywood. What?!”

But Kayko had a huge conflict. “I booked a job in New York playing guitar for a new off-Broadway musical, Hard Road to Heaven, and I had this in place for a year. The guy who got me the gig put his neck on the line for me and now I have to call him and say, ‘I don’t know what to do. Katy Perry just told me that I have a thing and I need to go to Hollywood Week and I could get cut and get no airtime and lose this thing, or it could be great.’ He said, “I would never hold you back from doing something like that.’ So I spent a week and a half in New York and flew directly to L.A. for Hollywood Week. The only reason I went was for that chance for airtime and the potential viral moment and for my friend Abby. She got cut in Hollywood and I’m still here.”

It could have been an awkward situation, but it wasn’t. “Abby and I are real friends and we’re both in the music industry and know that it’s not personal. I didn’t take her spot. My dad always said, ‘If Simon Cowell walked into the bar and you’re playing a lousy gig, are you going to blow him away?’ And it actually happened with Katy Perry.”

Born: Dec. 7, 2004 – Gadsden, Ala.

Favorite Alums: Daniel Seavey, Clark Beckham, Nick Fradiani, Laci Kaye Booth

Musical Influences: Dolly Parton, Kelsea Ballerini, Kacey Musgraves

First Idol Experience: “I grew up watching the show. My older sister Sadie loved it. I had an American Idol karaoke machine. I would stand on my mini trampoline like a stage and then sing with my American Idol microphone.”

Born in Gadsden, Ala., Mia Matthews grew up in a very musical family 45 minutes down the road. “My dad was a heavy metal rock star, playing electric guitar. I’m told he toured with Whitesnake. My mom sang with Ernest Tubb and Barbara Mandrell. When I was three, my dad passed away and music was our therapy. It’s how we coped. My mom taught vocal lessons at our house. There’s never been a point in my life where I wasn’t surrounded by music.”

The middle child of seven, Matthews remembers taking road trips with her mother and siblings. “There’s not much to do in Alabama so we would drive around. Mama would play a game with us to see if we could find harmony. It started with, ‘I’m going to hit this note. See where you land.’ And then we sang ‘Jesus Loves Me.’”

Matthews sang in elementary school, but her mother pulled her out of public school and home schooled her children. “Singing was our passion and we would sing for anyone and everyone. My mom led worship at church – she was the choir director. One day when I was 11, we were shopping at Walmart and we sang the National Anthem for the cashier because she was having a bad day. A woman behind us recorded it and posted it on Facebook and it went viral.”

The family booked small shows in Centre, Ala., and performed at football games and festivals. “We moved our way up to Nashville and did shows on Broadway at Ole Red. I was 15 and my little sister was 13.”

Matthews never believed it would be possible to appear on American Idol. “This past summer I felt stagnant. I had just graduated from high school. I wanted to be a singer but how do I do that? What was the next step? I was searching for an opportunity but was it time to open the door to Idol? Then I received a message asking if I wanted to audition and somehow I am here now.”

Mia asked her sister Jacy if she also wanted to audition. “She hopped on some of our virtual auditions and they loved her, too. So we both went to Nashville to audition for Katy, Luke and Lionel. We both got golden tickets and made it to Hollywood. I had been singing with my mom and sister in a trio for years. So we were very comfortable singing with each other but this was a brand-new experience. We were together but we were separate. It was really comforting to have her there because she is my best friend.”

Jacy was cut during Hollywood Week, leaving Mia to compete on her own. “It hurt me, but she took it like a champ. She’s been so supportive. I’m blessed to have such a good relationship with her.”

Born: July 10, 2000 – Douglas, Georgia

Favorite Alums: Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson

Musical Influences: Bob Seger, Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, Blackberry Smoke

First Idol Experience: “In an interview I said I remember the season that Adam Lambert won, and they all looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t win.’ I was a kid, but I remember watching it.”

Growing up in Hazlehurst, Ga., Will Moseley always loved music. “My uncle drove a big semi-truck, and I would go on the road with him. He had a Bob Seger Greatest Hits CD and my mom listened to Shania Twain. There was a Shania CD in her car. We played the fire out of that thing. My dad was an earlier Kid Rock fan, so then we covered that genre and then I loved classic country music. That’s just part of the culture where I’m from. Waylon and Willie, George, Merle, Conway, all of that. As a kid, I remember we would go camping and every Friday night at 9 o’clock there was a local radio station that would play Johnny Paycheck’s ‘Old Violin.’ And so now if I’m playing a show, I’ll take an acoustic break in the middle of a full band show and it’s just me and an acoustic guitar playing ‘Old Violin.’”

Music became an important part of Moseley’s life when he was 15. “You know how parents are when Christmas comes around. ‘What do you want for Christmas?’ I told my mom I wanted a guitar. I thought it would be cool to learn how to play. She looked at me and said, ‘Are you going to learn how to play? I’m not buying something else to put in a closet.’ I told her, ‘I’ll give it a shot.’ She bought the guitar and I picked it up and my fingers hurt. My brain didn’t work with my hand. I didn’t even think they were connected to the same body. And after two days it went in the closet. It was a disappointment to my mom at the time, but a few years later I was in college and I took my guitar to school with me.”

When he ended up with a dorm room to himself for a few months, he started playing around with the guitar again. “I decided to teach myself. After Christmas break I didn’t have a TV in my room so all of my free time went into learning how to play guitar.”

Moseley worked at a printing company during the COVID years, when a lot of people were laid off.  “They never brought me back and I had a lot of time on my hands so I played guitar and learned more songs and developed my singing. I found little places that would pay me a couple hundred bucks here and there to play. That’s how I paid my way through college.”

Moseley graduated from Georgia Southern in May 2023 with a degree in biology. He had enough gigs lined up to pay his bills for a few months. “If I didn’t give being a full-time musician a shot I would regret it. So I gave myself a year and said if it wasn’t working by then, I’d get a real job. Eleven months later I’m working with Gene Simmons and Meghan Trainor. If you told me that a year ago, I would have called you a liar.”

Moseley says he has learned a lot during his time on Idol, especially from mentors Jelly Roll and Gene Simmons. “They both said the same thing: ‘You’re in the right lane. You just have to own it. You’re here for a reason and you have the voice to do this for the rest of your life.’ Of course, there’s going to be turns and hills and ups and downs and all that, but the biggest thing I’ve learned so far truthfully has probably been humbleness and that connections will take you further than anything else in the music business.”

Moseley has a clear eye on the road ahead. “All I want to do is get on a bus and drive around the country and play music for a living. If I play music until the day I die, I’ll die happy.” 

Born: Jan. 10, 1999 – Nashville, Tenn.

Favorite Alums: Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson

Musical Influences: Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus

First Idol Experience: Watching on her bed, singing along. “I loved the funny auditions.”

“I was supposed to be born on March 12,” says Emmy Russell. “I was a preemie born on Jan. 10, my meemaw and grandpa’s anniversary.” (Meemaw being the legendary Loretta Lynn). “I was in an incubator for 30 days because of an undeveloped lung. Ironically, I sing.”

As soon as Russell was out of the incubator, she was on the road with her mother, who managed Lynn. “Meemaw took me on stage and showed me to everyone, saying, ‘This is Emmy Rose.’”

That was one introduction to music. “My first memory of music was when I was two, seeing a piano player. I was singing my ABCs and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” When I was four, I wrote stories and then I wrote my first song for a second-grade talent show. It was called ‘Try Again,’ about not giving up.”

Russell continued to write songs at this early age, including “Identity.” “Which is ironic,” she says, “because that’s been my war – what is my identity? In school, all the girls would be chasing boys and I was writing songs. I was a bit overweight, wearing big T-shirts and being quiet. I was bullied a lot. I started playing guitar and put my stories into songs.”

Russell’s grandmother had a huge influence on her. “She had this charm about her. She wrote the truth. It must be embarrassing writing a song about your husband cheating on you all the time, but she did. People would ask her about that and she would say, ‘I still love him.’ Her gutsiness is the thing I’ve taken the most from her, but I didn’t realize that until recently. She made you feel like she was so likeable. She would sing ‘Fist City’ but it was never hateful. She smiled whenever she sang it.”

In middle school, Russell was in the chorus. During her high school years, she continued to be on the road with her meemaw. “I opened up for her.” That actually started when Russell was in fourth grade. “She’d call me up and I’d sing two songs. I had an original and then one everyone knew. She’d tell me, ‘People want to hear a song they know. Until you have a song that’s your original one, people want to hear a song that they know so they can sing with you.’” During those high school years, Russell would open with five or six songs. “When I was 15, she passed me down her guitar. It started to feel like we were business partners and that created a lot of pressure. I quit when I was 18.”

Asked about lessons learned while on Idol, Russell says, “Trust your spirit. For some people, it’s God. Just trusting that little voice inside. Being true to yourself is the biggest lesson I’m learning right now. Because when I’m not, my voice gets really pitchy. I get more nervous when I’m not myself.”

Looking ahead, Russell says she wants to travel to different countries. “I love kids. Music is my passion, but I want to use that to help other people. If you’re not, then what’s the point?”

Born: Dec. 16, 2004 – Melbourne, Australia

Favorite Alums: Adam Lambert, Kelly Clarkson, Lauren Spencer-Smith, Iam Tongi, Guy Sebastian (Australian Idol)

Musical Influences: Ed Sheeran, Adele, Sam Smith, Bruno Mars

First Idol Experience: “When I was younger, I used to watch the compilation videos like ‘The Best of American Idol’ or ‘Craziest American Idol Auditions.’ I loved them as a kid. I thought that could be me one day.”

Jordan Anthony has heard this story from his mother but finds it hard to believe: “When I was one and a half I’d be in my parents’ car and when this certain song came on the radio, I would sing along and hit this one note pitch-perfectly every time. That is the moment my parents realized I might be a singer.”

Anthony grew up around music. “My dad was a vocal coach. My parents met doing musical theater, so I’ve always been in that world.” When he was five, his parents put him into musical theater shows. “I realized a couple years later that wasn’t really the thing for me.” At seven, he wrote his first song, “Wait,” about being bullied at school. “I had some tough times at school. I’d come home from classes and sit down at the piano. I was never good at talking about my feelings, so for me, music was an outlet because I could express those things.”

When he was 10, his family moved from Melbourne to Perth. “I busked on the streets there. My mom was my roadie. There’s nothing scarier than standing in a random spot, singing to people walking by. But it helped me develop my confidence and my stage presence. I sang for money and saved up until I had enough to record my first album, One Word, when I was 12.”

Anthony still lives in Perth, so he had a long journey to come to America to audition before the judges on American Idol. But this is not the first time he has performed for millions of viewers. When he was 14, he represented Australia at the 2019 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, performing a song he co-wrote, “We Will Rise.” “I looked very different back then,” he tells Billboard. “It was unbelievable to perform on a world stage in an arena full of people with Australian flags flying everywhere. It was incredible and I met incredible people, other young artists like myself from all around the world and I made friends everywhere. It was such an honor to be able to do that.”

Although his Idol journey came to an end on Sunday (April 21), he says he learned a lot during his time on the show. “One skill that I’ve learned is to control my energy and my emotions and my nerves. There are a lot of ups and downs. One minute we’re going onstage. It’s high energy and then you might be sitting around for a few hours and then you’ve got to be ready for showtime again. I’ve been lucky to always have a good head on my shoulders and be able to manage my emotions, but in the pressure cooker environment, it gets tough sometimes.”

Helping Anthony along the way was sage advice from Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. “They’ve mentioned that even when I was singing a cover, they felt my artistry through the performance. That meant so much because I always want people to see who I am through the emotions I’m conveying and the song I’m singing.”

Born: Sept. 18, 1999 – Natchitoches, La.

Favorite Alums: Haley Reinhart, Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez, Joshua Ledet, Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson, Tori Kelly, Kelly Clarkson

Musical Influences: The Clark Sisters, Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin, Andre Crouch, Timothy Wright, John Legend, Blossom Dearie, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker

First Idol Experience: “I was a bit young when Kelly Clarkson won. Then I saw Ruben Studdard and Fantasia.”

Roman Collins is a worship leader who grew up in Coushatta, La. “Most people say I started in church,” he tells Billboard. “I’m still in church, where I am also a choir director. I’m told that when I was three years old sitting in my mother’s lap, I got up, grabbed a mic and sang Vicki Yohe’s ‘Because Of Who You Are’ in front of everyone in church.” When he was a little older, Collins was always asking his teachers if he could sing in class. “How annoying is that?” he laughs. “I would hate to be a classmate of mine. “I have to study for this test and Roman wants to sing. Can we not do that?”

Collins was only aware of religious music until the third grade. “My uncle is a great musician and he would say this artist was doing R&B and I thought R&B was a group. I didn’t realize there were other genres besides gospel. Then I found out about Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston. Eventually I heard Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse, Blossom Dearie and B.B. King.”

Moving to Los Angeles in 2007, Collins went to a small high school that didn’t have music classes until he graduated. “Thanks a lot!” he exclaims. “When I was 16 I started going to open mics at places like Tha Juice Joint in Hollywood and the Pocket in Culver City. I would watch people from all different walks of life share their gift. It was the best thing ever. I would sing Musiq Soulchild, Marvin Gaye, John Legend and Gnarls Barkley. That opened me up to more R&B and awakened my creative bones.” Then Collins started to get paying gigs. “In December 2018 I sang behind Childish Gambino at the Forum [in Inglewood, Calif.].”

Auditioning for American Idol was always in the back of his mind, he says. “But I did not pursue it. When I was 14 there was a woman visiting our family’s church. She told me, ‘Young man, I want you to write American Idol and put it on your door and look at it every day.’ I never did it, but I never forgot her prophesizing that to me.” But that door opened on a Wednesday in November 2023 when Collins was asked to submit a couple of his videos to the show. “By the following Tuesday I was in front of Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. That changed my life forever.”

The main lesson Collins has learned since starting that journey is that “rest is vital,” he says. “I want to do this for the rest of my life and it is important to rest when you can. I have also learned that I have a platform that God has allowed and to use it for the better. I’ve changed by being more consistent vocally, doing what I have to do to get my voice ready. I’m eating better but I miss my ginger ale.” And what lies ahead? “Changing the world through love,” he answers without hesitation. “Changing the world through music. People ask me why I am so passionate. Because I had a second chance at life. When I was three, I was pronounced dead. I was in a coma for two weeks. The doctor said there was a 97% chance I was going to die. If I did come out of the coma, I would be brain dead for the rest of my life. So when you see me jumping, when you hear my laugh, I’m laughing at fear. I’m alive. I’m doing what I love. Some people are impacted through my gift. We have a saying in church, ‘The joy that I have, the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away.’ I want to import the same joy that He has given me.”

Born: Sept. 26, 2001 – Washington, D.C.

Favorite Alums: Michael J. Woodard, Catie Turner, Grace Kinstler

Musical Influences: Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Journey, Queen, Mötley Crüe

First Idol Experience: She started watching season 3, the year Fantasia won.

“My grandparents had a rule: No TV until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. You could either play outside or listen to the oldies on the music channel they listened to. That’s what I grew up on. My whole family sings and some of my earliest memories are singing with my grandma at the piano. She taught me how to play the piano. When she and my grandfather were 19, they were in a band. They went to an audition in New York and she got scared and didn’t show up. Then she gave birth to my mom. My mom also sings, but never professionally.”

Elise was six years old when she wrote her first song. “I was in the back seat of the car and was mad because I was told to do something and I didn’t want to do it. That was kind of the vibe of the song: ‘I’m going solo, solo, solo.’ Sometimes it will pop into my head and I think I should do something with it.”

When Elise went to live with her mother, she started listening to music on YouTube. “I posted some covers. The first video that went viral was ‘Skyfall,’ the Adele song. It got 40,000 views in one month. My most-viewed video is me singing the gospel song ‘Take Me to the King.’ I was 11 and it has eight million views now.” That led to more performances at different churches and that same year, Elise joined the children’s group Kidz Bop. “We covered ‘All About That Bass’ and Meghan Trainor sent us a video message saying she couldn’t believe we were covering her song. And now I got to meet her because she is our mentor for Billboard’s No. 1 Hits.”

After touring with Kidz Bop, Elise attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in the District of Columbia. “That’s where I became classically trained,” she says. “I sang opera there but I also learned how to actually sing. Before I was just going through the motions but my teacher Daphne Dunston Wharton taught me how to breathe correctly.”

Two years ago, Elise wanted to rebrand herself from the little girl singing with Kidz Bop. Having just moved to Los Angeles, she thought about auditioning for American Idol. She tried out for season 21 last year and went as far as the Showstoppers round during Hollywood Week.

“I definitely had my reservations about auditioning again. I saw people who came back last year and they didn’t make it as far as they had before. It is a risk coming back. But I knew that I had grown and that I had a better handle on everything.”

Elise says her most outstanding moment with the judges this season happened during Final Judgment, when the field was narrowed down to a top 24. “Hearing Lionel say you’re not a background singer anymore and that I made it into the top 24 was my goal. I was talking to another one of the contestants and she said, ‘After you get to where you thought you were going to make it, everything else is a gift.’ That put things in perspective for me, because getting to this point is an opportunity I’m really grateful for.”

Born: Nov. 10, 1995 – Fort Meyers, Fla.

Favorite Alums: Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood

Musical Influences: Whitney Houston, Victoria Monét

First Idol Experience: Watched season one and decided she wanted to be on the show.

“Every Sunday when I would hear [the music of] Sade I knew it was our cleaning day. Mom and I would go to the laundromat. Throughout the day we’d listen to Barry White and African music. That’s my earliest memory of loving music and wanting to dance around and it made the chores seem like fun.”

It may be difficult to believe now but Nya grew up in a family that didn’t want her to become a professional musician. “My family would not pay for any type of music lessons because in my culture in Kenya, it is considered a hobby. It’s not really a life choice or a life career. I grew up in America, but I lived a very strict Kenyan lifestyle. At school, I was in the marching band. I was in band. I taught myself how to play instruments. I started off with clarinet. Went to saxophone, piano, guitar, and did a whole bunch of band-related instruments as well like trumpet. Vocally, if you’re playing an instrument, you can learn so much. So I knew if I learned these instruments that it would only help my voice even more.

“I was going to school to become a lawyer. I was on the student court. I was a very smart kid and didn’t really have to be in school to get good grades and manipulated the system in that way. I started doing school plays. I got a scholarship through playing the clarinet. They wanted me to come and then once I got there, they heard me sing and said, ‘You’re not playing clarinet. You’re going to sing.’ That was the first moment that I thought, ‘I can sing and this is what I want to do.

“At college, I was in an a cappella group, Voices Of Lee, as in Lee University. I lost my voice, singing with a group of people and having to blend, learn other people’s voices and make a group sound good. It was a toxic environment.”

Four years later, Nya moved to New York. In school and summer camp she had been in Ragtime and Shrek. Now she was going to try her hand at Broadway. First, she went home and told her mother that she wanted to pursue a career in music. “She wasn’t having it. She came here from Africa with nothing and wanted the best life for me. In her head, that meant going to school to become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer. I did not want to be a singing lawyer.”

Nya moved to New York City with nothing and within three years, she was in her first Broadway show, Caroline, or Change. She had the lead in an off-Broadway show, Cleopatra, and then played Nina Simone in an Israeli production of Soul Doctor and Martha Reeves in a touring production of Motown: The Musical. In Beautiful, the Carole King musical, she portrayed Little Eva and sang “The Loco-Motion.” Most recently she was in the off-Broadway hit Titanique.

Post-Idol, Nya intends to continue with her Broadway career. “Oh yes. I don’t have a Tony yet, so they’ve got to have me back. One of the shows I really want to do is Hamilton. I want to write my own musicals. I want to do TV, film, all of the above. Have my own beauty line.”

Nya’s father passed away in Georgia when she was 16, and when she sang “Georgia on My Mind” on Idol, she dedicated it to him. And her relationship with her mother now? “It’s good. She just really wanted me to succeed and I think whatever that would have been, she would have been happy with. Now that I’m an adult, I feel like she is way more open and really proud of me. To hear her say those words knocks me for a loop.”