American Idol 2026: Auditions 2 and Photo Gallery
American Idol Season 24 Auditions 2 airs Monday Feb 2. The new season features a NEW night (No Sundays), a new format and more. Lionel Richie, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan return to the judges desk, while Ryan Seacrest hosts as he has for all 24 seasons.
The cast headed south as the auditions took place at Belmont University in Franklin, Tennessee and “Hollywood Week” transformed into “Nashville Week” as the round took place in Music City.
American Idol Season 24 Episode 2 features a reality star’s niece, a couple of singers whose upbringings were in family groups, a singing competition veteran, quite a few more country hopefuls, and some impressive vocalists.
Braden Rumfelt
Braden is a 22 year-old singer from Murphy, North Carolina. He has released music as a part of family Christian music group, The Rumfelt Family. This includes two albums with the latest being their 2024 album, “He Set Me Free.” His twin brother, Kellen, who also is a part of the family group, appears to be accompanying him at his audition. His Dad is a pastor who has 30+ years of music experience. Braden has prominent parts in many of their songs. As a solo artist, he tends to perform soulful pop songs with a radio ready pop tone.
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“I’m Not The Only One” Cover”:
Carmen Lorell
Carmen Lorell Martin is a pop singer from El Dorado Hills, California. She is a talented songwriter who often sings ballads in an emotive way. In the preview for the week, it shows Britani Bateman who is Carmen’s aunt, and a Real Housewife of Salt Lake City who has been a part of some controversies. Britani was a part of the musical group, The Martins, growing up with her parents, and four siblings. That means one of Carmen’s parents was likely in the group. Britani also has been re-exploring a music career, releasing a Christmas album and starring in a cabaret show, so I expect her to join Carmen in singing during this audition.
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“What is Love” Original:
Hannah Harper
Hannah is a country singer from Willow Springs, Missouri. Her audition has been previewed where she talks about dealing with postpartum depression after having her youngest child, while trying to raise her three boys. She wrote a song titled “String Cheese” about it which she has released under the name of Hannah Noelle. She sings the song in her audition. It shows off a voice with great range, and a sound that harkens back to some of the female classic country singers. Hannah also is quite experienced as she was a part of The Harper Family, a Gospel Bluegrass group which she toured with as a child in which she sang and played fiddle alongside her parents, two brothers, and sister-in-law. They were best known for the song “Through It All” which has 1.7 million Spotify streams. She also has a solid following on socials with 220K followers on Facebook and 128K on Tik Tok.
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Audition Preview:
“Dive” Cover:
Jakob Stobaugh
Jakob is a 25-year-old country and southern rock singer from Schertz, Texas who works in realty. He sings in a duo called Jake N Rey with partner Rey Rogers. The two play a residency at a local restaurant in Spring Branch, Texas, and released their first song in 2025 titled “Summer Nights.” Jakob often shows himself singing covers in the car or at gigs. His voice has a ton of grit and power to it.
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“Santeria” Cover:
Julian Kalel
Julian is a 19-year-old Americana and country singer and mental health advocate from El Paso, Texas. His original, Surrender has 343K Spotify streams. In an article of the El Paso City Magazine, he described a head-on collision as a life-changing event, transforming his perspective on life. He uses music as an outlet and a way to explore those themes. Julian could be a contender this season. He’s a super talented songwriter, and his style transcends genres and is likely to have crossover appeal.
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“Surrender” Original:
Kamryn Palmer
Kamryn is a 26-year-old country singer from Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. She moved to Nashville at the age of 19, and has played shows in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Her song titled, “Call Me When You Hear This” that she released in 2025 has 272K streams. Her country style is very modern with elements of pop in her music that make her sound radio ready.
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“Beautiful Things” Cover:
Makiyah Mustiful
Makiyah is an R&B singer from Pine Bluff, Arkansas who works in finance at a bank. She gigs often, locally in Arkansas, and she won a local Idol competition competing against winners from several weeks at Gigi’s lounge. She can flat out sing, and has a bit of a throwback R&B sound with the ability to hit impressive runs and belts.
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“I’m Going Down”:
Matthew Holiday
Matthew is a singer-songwriter from Orange County, California. He attended the Musical Theater Academy of Orange County. His style is very vintage with a crooner like vibe, but he is able to make it sound more modern on his originals. He has had some viral videos, often a bit humorous, including one of him singing and playing harmonica on Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” It has racked up 3.1 million views and 680K likes.
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“Piano Man” Cover:
Michael Garner
Michael is a 16 year-old country singer from Forrest City, Arkansas. He is a bit raw in that his voice seems to still be maturing, but that taps into his raspy country voice that has a surprising amount of range. It appears he plays quite a bit locally including talent shows and gigs.
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“Iris” Cover:
Ruby Rae
Ruby Rae Nieman is a 16-year-old pop and musical theater singer who is based in LA. According to her backstage profile, she has been doing theater since the age of 4 and has starred in over 20 musicals. She has a very strong theatrical voice with a huge range. She doesn’t have many contemporary covers posted outside of a cover of Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush.” A video of her starring in a production of Chicago and singing “They Both Reached for The Gun” has 16.1 million views and 1.8 million likes on Tik Tok.
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“They Both Reached for the Gun”:
“Girl Crush” Cover:
Sheldon Riley
Sheldon Riley is a 26-year–old veteran singing show competitor from Sydney, Australia. He is a pop singer that is very much into dramatics with both his stage presence, outfits, and his voice. His voice is big and booming and contains elements of theater in it, making it great on power ballads. It appears for Idol, he is dialing it back based on the pictures from his audition. His song “Not The Same” has 10 million streams. Also even with his extensive competition history, it doesn’t appear he has ever landed a major record deal as his only label released music happened when he competed on The Voice Australia as part of the show’s Universal Music partnership.
Sheldon’s competition history:
- X Factor Australia S8 (2016), placed in boy band Time and Place after Boot Camp, eliminated in the 1st live show.
- The Voice Australia S7 (2018) 3rd place
- The Voice Australia S8 (2019) (All-Star Contestant) semi-finalist
AGT S15 (2020) Quarter-Finalist - Eurovision 2022 representing Australia, made finals, finishing in 15th place.
- The Masked Singer S4 (2022) Australia Runner-Up
- AGT Fantasy League (2024) semi-finalist
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“Tattoo” from AGT Fantasy League:
Tianna
Tianna Roberts is a Gospel singer-songwriter and vocal coach from Sumter, South Carolina. She has performed at numerous worship music events. She is an extremely gifted vocalist, able to tackle songs using a lot of power. But she also knows how to sing with restraint and hit beautiful runs.
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“Can’t Give Up Now”:
Tinayeshe Manyika
Tinayeshe is a Christian music singer from Charlotte, North Carolina. His song “Walk With Me” with The Porter’s Gate and Sandra McCracken has 174K Spotify streams. He often sings duets on his Tik Tok, and his cover of “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us” with Ella Porter has 364K views and 56K likes. He has an understated style with a beautiful almost folksy tone.
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Tik Tok Duet:
Trace Casanova
Trace is an actor and crooner from Charlotte, North Carolina. He has performed at the Children’s Theater and also gigs there. He likes putting his crooner spin on pop songs. It appears for his audition, according to a promo, he may be singing Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” It remains to be seen if he is just a joke contestant or a legit competitor. His only released original song is titled “Voluptuous Woman”.
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Promo:
“Nothing But The Best Is Good Enough For Me” Cover:
