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When Noah Peters auditioned for season 22 of “American Idol,” the crew brought out a barber’s chair and styling tools, as well as surprise guest Colin Stough, so he could sing while he styled the season 21 alum’s hair. The props and famous client must’ve worked because the judges granted Peters a golden ticket to Hollywood on the episode that aired on February 25, 2024.
Known as “The Singing Barber” in Tennessee, Peters, 24, has grown an impressive social media following — including over one million TikTok followers — for the videos he posts of himself belting out tunes while he cuts clients’ hair. And he says it all started with a promise he made to his late wife, Kailee, who died of cancer in 2020 at age 21.
Here’s what you need to know:
‘Idol’ Hopeful Noah Peters Reveals Promise He Made to His Wife Before Her Death
Though Peters grew up in Tennessee, his family moved to Grundy, Virginia, when his dad became pastor of a local church, he told Virginia’s WCYB in 2022. He wasn’t thrilled about the move — until he met his future wife, Kailee.
“God worked it out that I met my wife when I moved down here,” Noah recalled. “The day I met her, I knew I was going to marry her.”
“She became my best friend,” he told the station, “and we got married.”
But shortly after the couple’s wedding in September 2020, the newlyweds got awful news. The cancer that Kailee had beat when she was 16 had suddenly returned, according to WYMT in Eastern Kentucky, where she grew up.
Her family’s pastor, Aaron Butler, told the station, “They discovered that the cancer was back and this time it had come back a whole lot more aggressive.”
Kailee died on December 27, according to her obituary, just three months after she and Noah married. But before her death, he told WCYB, she made him promise that he would follow his dreams of opening a barber shop and making music.
“She passed away from cancer at the end of 2020, and she made me make a promise to her,” Noah told Local 3 News in late 2023. “She knew the dream that I had to sing and to be a barber. She said, ‘You can do it. You just have to keep on striving and don’t give up.’ Every time I wake up, I think about her.”
Noah kept his promise of opening his own barbershop in Grundy in 2021, and started singing to his clients. He later moved back to Tennessee and opened a shop there, per Local 3 News, where he’s become known as The Singing Barber.
“I know she’s watching,” he told WCYB. “And that’s why I keep going.”
Noah Peters Has Found Love After Losing His Wife
Though his promise to Kailee still inspires him to keep pursuing his dreams, Noah has found another reason to keep going. Three years after his wife’s death, Noah shared a TikTok video that revealed the details of his new love story with a woman named Krista, to whom he’s now engaged.
Over photos of Krista, Noah wrote that when they met and fell in love, he noticed she was often hungry and “ate a lot.”
“Turns out she was 5 months pregnant when we met and didn’t know it,” Noah wrote. “We stayed in love even through the circumstances… but that circumstance turned out to be my best little buddy.”
Noah and Krista got engaged in May 2023, he shared on Instagram, and are raising Kyzer together, according to Chattanooga’s News Channel 9.
In early February, Noah wrote on TikTok that after Kailee’s death, “When I needed a family the most, life brought me a beautiful fiancée and baby at the same time!! I love life. And I love spreading joy to my fans!!”
Season 22 of “American Idol” airs Sunday nights on ABC. Most likely, Peters will next be seen during the show’s notorious Hollywood Week episodes.
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