Meet 2021’s ‘American Idol’ High 10 (At the side of a Comeback Contestant)

The unprecedented twist adds a spellbinding footnote to Idol history. Yearly, Billboard asks the discontinue finalists to name their current Idols from previous seasons. This year, Gunn seems as a fave alum and at the the same time is a serene contestant. Billboard requested Gunn if he knew that he became named as a past current by Cassandra Coleman, who talked about him before she knew that he would be joining this season. “No, I hadn’t heard that but. Wow! I correct saw her in the resort whereas I became coming in. That’s awesome.”

Earlier than Gunn’s purchase became presented, the discontinue nine contestants spoke to Billboard by method of Zoom from their Orlando, Fla. resort, as they spent remaining week at Disney World for this Sunday night’s repeat, which became the annual Disney evening, total with songs from the Disney repertoire.

Chayce Beckham

Born: July 16, 1996 – Victorville, Calif.
Licensed Alums: Ruben Studdard, Chris Daughtry
Musical Influences: Van Halen, Green Day, Bob Marley & the Wailers, The Doors
First Idol Expertise: Rising up in Apple Valley, Calif., he watched every episode of every season with his household for “a truly long time.”

Beckham’s earliest memory of tune is taking a scrutinize at the guitar in his grandmother’s home when he became three years dilapidated. Later that very same year, he became strolling along with her in South Gate, Calif., when he fell down and scraped his leg. “I became throwing a match, nonetheless I fell factual in entrance of a guitar shop and my grandmother acknowledged, ‘Let me possess it no doubt feel higher,’ and took me into the guitar retailer and sold me my first classical guitar. I silent contain it and I’ve been infatuated with the guitar ever since.”

Beckham never took guitar classes and is self-taught. “I learned by paying attention to the radio and by watching CMT. I’d look these country tune movies from the 2000s and learned be taught how to remark and play songs by matching tones. I became never appropriate at sports. I can not throw a ball for nothing, nonetheless I can play guitar.”

Describing his childhood as “loopy,” Beckham says he would exhaust separate time with his mom and his dad. “As soon as I became 19 I went to dwell with some pals up the hill in the Glendora/San Dimas home. They had a nice property on an acre. As soon as I moved in, I had drums, bass guitars, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, microphones, you name it. One night we were all partying and all that stuff became in the lounge. We performed a pair songs and we acknowledged, ‘That became barely a pair of enjoyable. Let’s attain that again day after today.’ And then it develop into three instances per week and the next thing , I’m writing songs for this crew and we threw huge events and had other bands play there and we were the well-known event.

“That’s after I fell in worship with performing in entrance of folks and writing and turning in a message to an target market and connecting with folks, because of the it became continuously laborious for me to join with folks rising up. Music unfolded an avenue for me to join with barely a pair of folks straight away. I’m no longer very social factual off the bat and this gave me an avenue to straight away suppose with all individuals. I grew to alter into hooked in to it.”

In his early twenties, Beckham and his band were enjoying gigs and incomes up to $1,000 a night. “Then the pandemic came about and we never purchased to play again, which is a tragedy because of the we were having this kind of appropriate time. But it no doubt led me to doing [Idol]. It landed me factual where I’m supposed to be. Everything taught me to belief the technique. No topic goes to occur goes to occur, and ever since I’ve done that, it be been wintry.”

Casey Bishop

Born: Feb. 9, 2005 – Castle Myers, Fla.
Licensed Alums: Alejandro Aranda, Haley Reinhart, Laine Hardy, Laci Kaye Booth
Musical Influences: Fleetwood Mac, Aerosmith
First Idol Expertise: Began watching with Season 10 when she became six years dilapidated.

Bishop’s earliest memory of tune is paying attention to a pair command songs when she became three years dilapidated, including “December, 1963 (Oh, What A Evening)” by the Four Seasons, “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer and “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies. Consequently of her folks, she grew to alter into responsive to the tune of Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Presley.

Bishop started singing karaoke when she became in pre-college. “I loved singing and I did a excellent-searching appropriate job for a 5-year-dilapidated. In center college I grew to alter into shipshape-serious about it and knew here’s what I wish to attain.” Even supposing she wished to attain paying gigs, she never did in these early days. “In main college, I became in student plays and talent reveals. Later, I auditioned for The United States’s Acquired Skill and The Disclose and it became ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ And then in high college, I became in two talent reveals for the length of my freshman year, nonetheless I became correct so anxious. I became nowhere near the arrogance level I’m at now.”

Bishop attributes her mumble to paying attention to the judges’ advice. “When Katy [Perry] acknowledged to possess that stage mine and acquire no doubt gritty, I believed I became. But I guess I did that in my subsequent performance because of the she told me that became my finest performance. So I improved.”

Bishop makes her possess trace in American Idol history, as she became born at 3: 12pm on Feb. 9, 2005. No longer up to 5 hours later, the seventh episode of season four aired, that contains Carrie Underwood, Bo Bice and the leisure of the discontinue 10 competing for the length of Hollywood Week. No other finalist has been born as dumb as 2005, making Bishop the handiest high 10 contestant in the series’ two-decade history born as dumb because the center of basically the well-known decade of this millennium.

Cassandra Coleman

Born: Might maybe maybe 15, 1996 – Kingsport, Tenn.
Licensed Alums: Phillip Phillips, David Archuleta, Arthur Gunn, Kelly Clarkson, Katharine McPhee
Musical Influences: The Chicks, Avril Lavigne, Enya, James Taylor, John Denver, Stevie Nicks, The Autos, Certain, Bustle
First Idol Expertise: Staring at the Season 6 contestants purchase Golden Tickets to Hollywood and thinking she wished a Golden Keep of her possess at some point.

“I contain a definite memory of basically the well-known time I spotted that tune became one thing I felt within me,” Coleman tells Billboard. “My household had barely farm. We lived on a hill and there became this diminutive valley at the irascible of our hill. I became strolling with my mom after I became 5 and he or she started singing a hymn, ‘The Lily of the Valley.’ I became harmonizing along with her with out realizing what I became doing. She turned spherical and acknowledged, ‘You are harmonizing.’ I did now not know what she meant so she tried to point to me what harmonizing became and ever since then, I knew tune has continuously been what I’ve identified.”

Coleman’s embrace of tune would be genetic. “When my mom became rising up, she became the woman who became in musicals and plays and became customarily the one who purchased the well-known role. She sings on a customary foundation. She wrote poetry loads. Over the remaining four years she started doing songwriting as effectively. So tune became continuously in the home. All my siblings remark and my dad can, too. When we party for Thanksgiving, all of us worship to remark ‘Purchase Me Dwelling, Nation Roads’ because of the some of my household is from West Virginia.”

Coleman remembers how she would answer as a toddler when folks requested her what she wished to attain when she grew up. “I’d either advise I wish to be a mom or I wish to be a singer. But rising up, I allowed my insecurities and my be troubled to declare me that that became one thing that would possibly maybe maybe never be achievable, so I shifted my desires to proudly owning a espresso shop. About six months ago I spotted this would be one thing that would possibly maybe maybe pan out for me. I continuously knew it became what I wished to attain, nonetheless I felt worship it became a pipe dream or one thing that is never any longer lead me to having a cheerful existence, and I became okay with that. I shop at Goodwill and worship to thrift. I acquire no longer care about money, nonetheless I did now not remember that there would be folks who would want to bewitch tune from me. And the songwriting project became very daunting to me. I’m silent having a laborious time grasping that this customarily is a actuality for me.”

Asked if she studied tune in college, Coleman responds, “I became home schooled up till seventh grade and then I became in a shrimp public college with 30 college students. So there had been scattered talent reveals. The key time I ever performed on a stage, I became nine years dilapidated and I sang ‘Breakaway’ by Kelly Clarkson and I forgot the lyrics. I handiest did half the tune, nonetheless I did now not run off the stage. I correct acknowledged, ‘That’s all I have in mind,’ and all individuals stood up and clapped. Then in seventh grade I sang an Alicia Keys tune. I’d’ve loved to had been in a position to be in some theater or musical classes, nonetheless my college became so diminutive. We had a choir and I purchased to be in it 300 and sixty five days and I loved every little bit of it.”

Deshawn Goncalves

Born: Jan. 10, 2001 – Youngstown, Ohio
Licensed Alums: Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard
Musical Influences: Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, John Myth
First Idol Expertise: At age three, watching Fantasia on Season 3.

Goncalves’ earliest memory of tune goes to church with his grandmother, who died when he became four years dilapidated. “She would contain me wear the church robe and remark in the choir. I have in mind working across the church tripping over stuff for the rationale that robe became so long and I became so diminutive. They did now not contain child-dimension robes.”

Goncalves became in the sixth grade when he first realized he had musical talent. “I picked up the trumpet and came upon I could maybe maybe attain obvious issues that weren’t approved for other folks. I’d play some tune and I could maybe maybe declare folks what the notes were, by having ideal pitch. Relieve then, I believed all individuals would possibly maybe maybe attain that. As time went on and I advanced musically, I knew I had a present and that became before I started singing.”

As a seventh grader at the A+ Arts Academy college, Goncalves met a tune teacher named LaJoyce Daniel-Cain. “She sat me down – no, no doubt, she told me to upward push up and remark. She acknowledged, ‘You are going to originate. I stare that that you can maybe maybe maybe in fact contain a swear and I’m going to possess you employ it.’ She saw that in me before I saw it myself. That pushed me to alter into an artist. I started singing and watching her play the piano and I’d strive to emulate what she became doing, whereas creating my possess kind.”

Seventh grade became a pivotal year for Goncalves. “I started doing all of it that year – being in plays and college capabilities worship The Evening of the Arts and honor roll assemblies. Of us started to acknowledge me at some stage in the metropolis. I gigged spherical and after I became 16 I went to the Apollo Theater where I acquired Newbie Evening at the Apollo, singing ‘Feeling Correct,’ which I sang on Idol this season.”

The 20-year-dilapidated says he has already learned loads from his Idol walk. “I’ve grown so worthy from after I first walked into that [audition] room, worship merely doing what makes me delighted the least bit costs. That’s what matters. If I attain that, folks will gravitate toward me. Or no longer it is a truly laborious thing, because of the at some stage in my existence I contain continuously cared about what folks needed to state about me, what folks notion and what folks felt about what I did. I’m no doubt breaking out of that now and I remember it be very obligatory going forward to be that individual.”

Caleb Kennedy

Born: Oct. 21, 2004 – Spartanburg, S.C.
Licensed Alums: Bucky Covington, Caleb Lee Hutchinson, Gabby Barrett
Musical Influences: Jason Aldean, George Strait, Hank Williams, Hank Williams, Jr.
First Idol Expertise: Staring at with his household after church on Sundays.

Kennedy’s first memory of tune is rocking on his childhood rocking horse (which he acknowledges would possibly maybe maybe had been a rocking donkey) to Rate Adkins’ “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.”

Beyond the rocking horse (or donkey), Kennedy grew up in a household where tune became ubiquitous. “My mom plays piano. My dad picks guitar and sings barely bit. My grandmother’s brother performed guitar and correct about any instrument.” Kennedy became 5 when he became given a drum kit. “I did now not exhaust too worthy time on it. I learned to play the drums after I became 10. Three years ago, after I became 13, I started enjoying guitar. It became my birthday and I purchased the shining thought to exhaust my birthday money on a guitar and I fell in worship with enjoying it. I couldn’t place aside it down for one thing. I’d play it till my fingers bled.” Kennedy taught himself to play by watching movies on YouTube.

At remaining Kennedy started performing tune in a public home. “I started off avenue busking. My sister would lunge downtown along with her company and I’d take a seat in the market with my guitar. The key time I did that, I sat for eight hours and made a buck.” But Kennedy wasn’t dark. “I loved it so worthy. And then gigs roughly advanced as folks started to grab my name. The leisure repeat I performed before traveling to California became in a restaurant called Wings And lots of others. and it became packed. There wasn’t an empty seat.”

Kennedy has already performed two of his customary songs on Idol. “The key tune that I have in mind writing is named ‘Mine.’ I became 13. Or no longer it is about this lady that I became loopy about nonetheless she would never let me date her. The hook became, ‘I will correct preserve hoping and wishing that at some point you are going to be mine,’ nonetheless I never pulled that off.”

Kennedy says he grew to alter into a good songwriter once COVID hit. “All I did became take a seat on my own and write and write and write. Then I co-wrote with other folks who were staying home and that helped me so worthy, rising my recordsdata of writing and learning extra about country tune.

Grace Kinstler

Born: Aug. 3, 2000 – Woodstock, In downhearted health.
Licensed Alums: Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Katharine McPhee, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Jessica Sanchez, La’Porsha Renae
Musical Influences: Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera
First Idol Expertise: Staring at along with her folks when she became a younger child. “I’d advise, ‘I wish to attain that at some point,’ and my dad would declare me, ‘You are going to, you are going to.'”

“I became continuously drawn to tune,” says Kinstler. “I started enjoying piano after I became four. I became correct fidgeting. I doubt that it sounded appropriate. I became with out a doubt no longer a prodigy. I became in kindergarten after I started to bounce and in 2nd grade I started piano classes and took them for two years. As soon as I became in fifth grade I did musical theater and continued by method of main and high college. And I loved to remark with the American Idol Wii sport.”

Kinstler’s musical theater abilities incorporated roles in Hairspray, Wide Fish, Annie, Shrek, Tarzan and Joseph and the Unbelievable Technicolor Dreamcoat. Her early work in musical theater convinced Kinstler that she became meant to be a singer. “That’s after I spotted folks revel in watching me attain this. Or no longer it is no longer correct one thing I worship to attain; folks no doubt acquire one thing out of it. I wished to preserve pushing, to preserve rising. Even supposing other folks were enthralled with what I became doing, as artists we are perfectionists and we are hyper-predominant of everything we attain. I’ve continuously been that method. But I wished to possess obvious that critiquing myself became positive and no longer toxic.”

Kinstler’s father encouraged her to write her possess songs nonetheless she became reluctant because of the she believed she wasn’t very appropriate at it. Then at age 14, she determined to lunge for it and wrote her first tune, “The World Would now not Wait.” “I launched it because of the I became getting my feet moist. I wished to acquire the abilities. Then I launched songs every year and after I became 17, I launched my first EP. And then in the summertime of 2019, I launched my 2nd EP, which is principally the most up-to-the-minute thing I’ve launched to this point.”

And what does she remember is the highlight of her Idol walk to this point? “My duet with Joss Stone. That became a truly special elephantine circle 2nd for me because of the I had a repeat factual after my dad handed and I became supposed to remark one amongst her songs, ‘Rotten.’ That repeat became canceled due to COVID. I have in mind rehearsing that remaining year and then a year later to be where I am now – I’m in this kind of larger plot mentally and to remark with Joss became fully unbelievable.”

Hunter Metts

Born: Sept. 12, 1998 – Nashville, Tenn.
Licensed Alums: Jason Castro, Gabby Barrett, Scotty McCreery, Jonny West, Francisco Martin, Louis Knight
Musical Influences: Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts
First Idol Expertise: Staring at Jason Castro remark “Over the Rainbow” in Season 7.

Earlier than he became born, Metts’ folks moved to Nashville to pursue tune. “My dad became in tune publishing for a truly very long time, working at companies worship Curb, Malaco, Starstruck and Author’s Den. My mom moved to Nashville when she became older and he or she ended up singing demos. When she met my dad, she determined she wished to be a preserve-at-home mom. When she had my sister and me, she gave tune up to purchase us.”

Metts became in eighth grade when he first picked up the guitar. “I wished to remark and I believed I obligatory to accompany myself – that it goes to sound higher if I can play guitar. YouTube became my finest teacher. Even now, for production tutorials or one thing, I use YouTube.”

When Metts tried out for Idol basically the well-known time, he became getting a appropriate reaction till he talked about that his sister worked at Disney World, enjoying a quantity of characters, including Belle, Snow White, Mary Poppins and Ariel. Since Idol is broadcast on ABC and ABC is owned by Disney, that became a appropriate war of passion and Metts became told he couldn’t proceed. Being a supportive sister, Mett’s sibling quit her job so her brother would possibly maybe maybe take a study for Idol again. After she returned home to Nashville to lunge to nursing college and a elephantine calendar year had handed, Metts became in the end eligible to near succor for an audition.

One among basically the most indelible moments of this season became Metts’ performance of “Falling Slowly,” the Oscar-profitable tune from the film As soon as. Shut to the discontinue of the tune, Metts forgot some lyrics and had a visceral reaction – he broke down in tears. “I believed I had been doing effectively, namely the remaining couple performances and I became so in the 2nd and I believed I blew it and I believed it became method worse than the actuality of it,” Metts tells Billboard. “In that 2nd, it be no doubt laborious to affirm that feeling, because of the you scrutinize out and there are all these cameras and the judges. Or no longer it is your 2nd and also you acquire no longer wish to mess that up. I came so shut to a personal goal and I fully messed it up factual at the discontinue. Staring at it succor, it wasn’t as severe as I believed nonetheless I’d no longer purchase it succor because of the I attain care that worthy.”

Willie Spence

Born: June 18, 1999 – West Palm Shoreline, Fla.
Licensed Alums: Fantasia, Jessica Sanchez, Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson, Katharine McPhee, Phillip Phillips, Candice Glover, Burnell Taylor
Musical Influences: Whitney Houston, Yolanda Adams, John Myth
First Idol Expertise: His household loved the repeat and he started watching Season 2 and then performed the American Idol sport with his household.

“I never notion I’d be on a singing repeat,” Spence confesses. “I’d’ve never imagined this because of the I continuously taught myself. I did now not worship competition – I’m no longer the kind of one who competes. But since I’ve done it, it has no doubt been one amongst the categorical experiences of my existence. Or no longer it has been an unlimited walk to this point and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be on this form of platform.”

Spence remembers first being responsive to tune at the age of three, hearing his mom and dad singing across the home and at church. Each and every folks sang for enjoyable and no longer professionally and his father performed guitar. Younger Spence furthermore performed an instrument. “I wished to be a drummer before I wished to be a singer. They couldn’t acquire me off the drum situation nonetheless then I started leaning extra toward singing.”

Spence started singing in his grandfather’s church in Florida. “Then I moved to Georgia after I became six and I joined an organization called 4-H. Or no longer it is a statewide choir and I had the opportunity to remark in entrance of thousands of folks. We performed at barely a pair of faculties in Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky and Arkansas. That became an implausible abilities for me.”

Spence says the highlight of his Idol walk to this point became the massive name duets repeat, when he sang with Season 5 alum Katharine McPhee. “I told her, ‘I’m anxious before every performance.’ She told me she’s the the same method and he or she acknowledged it be okay.” Spence says that McPhee gave him some advice that he’s going to preserve with him for the leisure of his occupation. “She acknowledged, ‘Get no longer be troubled too worthy. Proper dwell in the 2nd.'”

Taking a scrutinize to the long term, Spence has some clearly outlined targets. “I wish to half my swear with the field and accomplish what I worship. And worship I acknowledged in my audition, maybe confidently purchase a pair of Grammys at some point and be on the Billboard charts and the Billboard Music Awards. I want my tune in utter to attain the field.”

Alyssa Wray

Born: March 30, 2002 – Boyle County, Kentucky
Licensed Alums: Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood, Fantasia, David Archuleta, Jordin Sparks, Lauren Alaina, Katharine McPhee, Crystal Bowersox
Musical Impact: Carrie Underwood, Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson, Whitney Houston
First Idol Expertise: “My mom tells all individuals she introduced me home from the effectively being facility and we watched basically the well-known season with Kelly Clarkson. So technically, I’ve been watching since I became born.”

Indulge in lots of singers, Wray says one amongst her earliest reminiscences of being responsive to tune is from attending church. But she furthermore has a extra command recollection: “I have in mind having a VHS of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Whitney Houston and Brandy after I became shipshape diminutive.” And there would possibly be extra: “One among my earliest tune experiences became watching American Idol after I became younger and desirous to be on it. The key year that I can have in mind watching became the David Archuleta and David Cook year (Season 7). I had the largest crush on David Archuleta after I became six.”

Wray held on to the premise of auditioning for Idol for years. “I became in eighth grade when the repeat became canceled [by Fox] and I became devastated. I wished to audition for reveals and I’d contain loved to purchase a scrutinize at out for The Disclose nonetheless American Idol became special to me. I continuously wished to audition because of the it became my dream for therefore long. I became no doubt saddened when it became canceled and the next year, they presented they were bringing it succor on ABC. I auditioned basically the well-known season it became on ABC.”

Many Idol alums contain gone on large name in Broadway musicals and it acquired’t be a surprise if Wray follows swimsuit. Professing that she would worship to purchase a Tony (besides a Grammy, an Oscar and a Golden Globe), she recalls that she saw her first play when she became six years dilapidated. “It became a parody called Snow White and the 47 Dwarfs and the woman enjoying Snow White became this younger Shaded lady and he or she looked worship me and I have in mind thinking, ‘I wish to be in a play.’ A pair of weeks later, my grandmother place aside me in a summer season camp at that very same crew theater. I did my first musical in fifth or sixth grade and then in eighth grade, I did High College Musical Jr.” Since then, Wray has looked in Legally Blonde, Sister Act, Frozen, Minute Store of Horrors, Mary Poppins and Shrek.

Thru her future, Wray is never any longer handiest thinking of herself. “I wish to half my art and advocacy with folks. I’m very huge on activism and I wish to be an imply for representation. I wish to work for what’s factual and acquire folks the justice they deserve. You need to contain a obvious kind of empathy to be an artist, and I wish to use my platform for appropriate.”

Proper as this year’s Idol high contestants sat down for individual Billboard interviews, season 18’s Arthur Gunn did the the same remaining year. Right here is his profile that became incorporated with the finalists from 2020:

Arthur Gunn

Born: Oct. 24, 1997 – Kathmandu, Nepal
Licensed Alums: Alejandro Aranda, Laine Hardy
Musical Influences: Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin/Jimmy Page, Joe Cocker, Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Harm
First Idol Expertise: Watched on-line whereas rising up in Nepal.

Born Dibesh Pokharel in Kathmandu, Nepal, the American Idol finalist now identified as Arthur Gunn moved to The United States when he became 16 to reunite with contributors of his household who had been living in Wichita, Kansas, for 5 years. He had already learned to talk English in Nepal. He grew to alter into serious about tune as a toddler, singing with his household. “My mom gave me my first guitar. My brother and cousins listened to barely a pair of recordsdata and I saw them enjoying tune and I wished to attain that too.” A year before he arrived in the U.S., he grew to alter into extra serious about his tune, enjoying pubs and bars in Kathmandu.

As soon as he became in Wichita, Gunn sold a fresh guitar and performed native coffeehouses. “I hung spherical musicians in Wichita and made barely a pair of company. I traveled and performed on avenue corners.” Gunn busked in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Contemporary York and spent a total summer season enjoying tune on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Md.

Gunn became responsive to American Idol in Nepal, no longer from watching it on broadcast television nonetheless from on-line viewing. “As soon as I came to The United States, I had no plans [to be on it]. Then I purchased barely a pair of scrutinize strain from musical company who acknowledged I must are attempting it. I became no longer so obvious. All I wish to attain is play tune and that is the rationale all I do know be taught how to attain. I’m prepared to be taught extra and I believed this would be an unlimited platform and so I believed I’d give it a shot.”

What’s it worship being in the competition as in opposition to watching it on-line? “It is unbelievable,” Gunn professes. “I’m silent attempting to bewitch all of it. I’ve learned so many issues about performing and being an artist and the tune industry.” And the tactic in which did Dibesh Pokharel change into Arthur Gunn? “I became reading poetry by Arthur Rimbaud [a 19th century French poet who influenced modern literature]. His words were so up-to-the-minute and I believed his name Arthur would be a appropriate stage name. Quite a pair of folks know me as Dibesh nonetheless Arthur is easier to use as a stage name. The Gunn came from me desirous to possess enjoyable of ‘gun.’ Of us use weapons in strive in opposition to nonetheless you acquire no longer want weapons to attain issues.” And does he answer when folks name him Arthur? “It fully depends on who’s calling me. But now I contain to answer.”