Season 9 Update: Siobhan Magnus, Lee Dewyze

By On 02/21/2010 · 16 Comments · In AI Season 9, American Idol

We know all about Top 24 contestant, Katie Stevens and her Alzheimer’s afflicated grandma, but she’s not the only semi-finalist with a compelling family-oriented backstory.

Siobhan Magnus has a disabled father and mom who works in retail.  As the oldest in her family, she became responsible for her younger siblings.

Siobhan explains her backstory in the WB web-only reality show called High Drama: Against All Oz.  Cameras followed a production of  The Wizard of Oz at Barnstable High School in MA where Siobhan was a student. The web series  debuted on October 8, 2008.

  • You can hear Siobhan discuss her family troubles in Episode 7 HERE.

Siobhan has to skip rehearsals sometimes, because of her responsibilities.  She brings her younger sisters to rehearsal with her, and refers to her extra-curricular activities as an “escape” from her real life.  In her Golden Ticket interview Siobhan hints at having to grow up fast.

It will be interesting to see if the Idol producers work her story into her video packages.  It’s not unusual for the producers to blow off a contestant’s backstory–especially if they don’t expect them to stick around long.

Lee Dewyze has a CD available on Amazon called So I’m Told. Check it out here: So I’m Told – Amazon.  And here’s Lee performing a self-penned song on You Tube, called “Predicament”  HERE.  The video looks professionally made, his album and video are distributed by Wuli Records.

ETA: Lee has two albums available on iTunes:

Slumberland (1/7/10):

So I’m Told (7/3/07)

Hm. Not sure what’s going on there. (I like the song!)

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  • chessguy99

    Thanks for posting this MJ. I’m really worried TPTB have a place under the bus waiting for Siobhan on Tuesday. The clip sure explains her over-exuberance when they showed her going down the stairs after getting her Top 24 news. Also, good to see she’s very down to earth, and not the dark emo type that some Idol forums are portraying her. I wish her luck on Tuesday.

  • Valentin432

    It will be interesting to see if the Idol producers work her story into her video packages. It’s not unusual for the producers to blow off a contestant’s backstory–especially if they don’t expect them to stick around long.

    Yes, that reminded me immediatly of Mellissa McGhee from Season 5 who also had family problems, but her backstory was ignored while Kellie Pickler got tons of screen time as the tough luck southern belle.

    Siobhan is one of the contestant I’m the most curious about seeing on Tuesday, hope she brings it.

  • http://twitter.com/maxsmom61 CathyMK

    Lee has 2 albums available on iTunes, one of them just added 1/7/10.

    Slumberland (1/7/10):

    So I’m Told (7/3/07)

    Get ‘em quick, before they’re gone!

    I really like Lee’s voice. Hope he lasts a while.

  • St.Lucia

    Siobhan has kinda intrigued me. I kinda liked her quirkiness and she seemed to have a fantastic voice underneath it all. I’ve kinda hoped she would be one that would surprise along the way.

    It never ceases to fascinate me which sob stories get swept under the rug and which ones get drawn out to the point of annoyance. I can’t decide who gets the fault for that, the contestant or the producers. Probably both.

    I’ve watched this show long enough to loathe back stories to the point that I always want to root for the contestant who may have one but doesn’t necessarily have it put out there to the point that it takes precedence over the actual talent of the contestant(see: Kellie Pickler,Danny Gokey, etc).

    I like that Siobhan’s family drama isn’t in the forefront for now. This makes me appreciate her more than any girl whose had all their sadness aired on the show so far.

  • CRB

    I watched (some of) the top twenty four interviews on the “official” site and this Siobhan was the only one I watched twice. She talks almost like she is a bit slow witted but I found her very charming.

    The fact that they had Ellen telling her that she “looked/seemed old” in Hollywood makes me think she’ll be gone pretty soon, likely, the first week with the girl with the bad teeth.

  • TwigLA

    Seeing Siobhan’s story makes me hope the kid can get a break. I noticed something deep and sort of mysterious about her during Hollywood and wondered why we weren’t hearing more about her.

  • cheese

    I really like Siobhan’s voice and she seems like a cool girl. She’s definitely getting a fodder edit, but I hope she puts up a fight and survives at the expense of some of the girls who can’t really sing.

    Some of Lee’s stuff recorded sounds pretty decent, but he hasn’t impressed me at all on the show. Isn’t he the one that basically hummed “Ain’t No Sunshine” at his first audition? That was weird, and his “You Found Me” was worse. I don’t know, he just seemed really blah so far.

  • cookcricket

    I wasn’t able to get all of the way through the vid on Siobhan for some reason. It kept stopping on me and then going onto the next one. I am curious to see her on the show for the same length of time as all of the others.

    This thing with Lee seems pretty weird. I agree with cheese on him, the Predicament it pretty good, but he hasn’t done much for me on the show yet. His ‘getting to know’ vid on AI seemed pretty serious and he talked the whole time about not over thinking things. I think he might psyche himself out.

  • alxsavage

    Siobhan might as well end up being a dark horse. I need to hear more from her, I didn’t love the performance we got to see this week, but a good voice is there for sure. Is it just me, or she looks better with long hair?

    There’s a lot of indy influence this season. I can’t tell yet where it is standing in terms of talent, but there are a bunch of indy kids who seem to be more passionate about music than looking for attention. We’ll see.

  • http://mjsbigblog.com/luvadamlamberts-american-idol-tour-2009-washington-dc-re-cap.htm luvadamlambert

    Hmm I don’t have a definite opinion on Siobhan yet.I want to see more of her on Tuesday…

  • templeton

    Lee is my favorite of the top 24, so far. Floved his cover of Sex is on Fire. Really nice voice and hope he goes far.

  • Ms. KB

    I really like Siobhan after watching this. I have two teenage daughters of my own, and my heart goes out to her. She seems to have a great deal of integrity. She also is charming and has a lovely voice. I’m hoping she does well!

  • monleo1705

    I have alot more respect for Siobhan now after seeing this instead of that Disney character Katie Stevens. Who knew if it was Katie’s or the producers’ idea to pimp her backstory? Either way, I hope Siobhan makes it at least further than Katie. She definitely has a much bigger voice and bigger personality, compared to Miss Disney.

  • sr4mjc

    Just listened to the previews of Lee’s songs on itunes. His voice is ok, but I hope he can step up the tempo, most are sleepy. With title’s like ‘Another Sleep Song’ I want to snooze.

    I liked Siobhan’s voice from what I heard, I hope she brings it.

  • Little Boy Blue

    SOME SIMILARITIES WITH PAST FINALISTS ( Which means they are unlikely to win this season ) :

    Lee Dewyze = Kris Allen 2.0 ( But we can only have one Kris)

    Casey James = Bucky Covington 2.0

    Ashley Rodriguez = Older version of Jordin Sparks ( even the mouth looks similar)

    Katelyn Epperly = Kristy Lee Cook 2.0 ( Canon fodder )

    Janel Wheeler = Haley Scarnato 2.0

    Didi Benami = Brooke White 2.0

    Lilly Scott looks like Daryl Hannah in the film BLADE RUNNER

    Aaron Kelly = Anthony Federov 2.0

    Haeley Vaughn = Jasmine Murray 2.0

  • Grammie Kari

    I also hope Siobhan does a nice job and am curious if she will remake her song with a different tempo.