ABC
Each season of American Idol brings with it new contestants hoping to make it all the way through to the season finale and eventually win the show. This season, that meant contestant Mary Jo Young had to perform in front of her mother for the first time in order to earn a Golden Ticket to Hollywood.
Young told the judges she hadn’t genuinely performed in front of anyone since her first-grade talent show where she had yodeling as her talent. Then, she amazed them with a huge voice in her audition. She performed for Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and her mother in the new video.
Following her song, judge Katy Perry asked Young to go get her mother so she could hear her daughter sing for the first time.
Luke Bryan Believes Young Will be in the Top Ten
Young was nervous when she first walked into the room with the judges, but her performance proved she had no reason to be.
“I’m Mary Jo, I’m 19, I’m from Cleveland, Ohio,” she shared with the judges. “I guess I’ve been singing since I was little.”
When Perry asked the singer where she usually performed, she said she hasn’t really ever done that.
“So this year, everything started getting hectic,” Young said. “I started posting on TikTok and Twitter, like, just for fun, and now I’m here.”
For her audition, she sang “You Broke Me First” by Tate McCray, and she delivered on the vocal front. As soon as she hit some of the harder-to-hit notes in the song, Perry and Bryan both made faces that showed how much they were enjoying it.
The Judges Loved Young’s Performance
After she sang for the first time, the judges told Young she should invite her mother into the room so she could hear her perform.
“Does your mother listen to you?” Bryan asked, and Young told him she had never sung in front of her before. “We gotta fix that.”
Perry said, “It’d be nice for your mom to finally hear what you sound like in person. I mean, she did create you!”
When Young started singing to her mom, Elizabeth, the latter got emotional and was obviously impressed with her daughter’s performance.
“I’ll go first because I’m kind of in love with the idea of watching you grow actually on the show, you’re gonna learn everything from American Idol,” Richie said. “It’s a yes from me, I’ll be interested in watching your journey.”
Perry shared the sentiments, adding, “Mary Jo, never forget where you came from, no matter how far you end up going, okay? It’s a yes from me.”
Luke Bryan was possibly the most impressed with Young.
“Top ten, I think,” he told the other judges with a wink. “It’s a yes from me!”
Together, the judges told Young that she’d be making it through to the Hollywood round.
American Idol airs on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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