American Idol 2026: Auditions 4 and Photo Gallery
American Idol Season 24 Auditions 4 airs Monday Feb 16. 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.
American Idol 2026 Spoilers: Top 30, Top 20 Season 24 Contestant List
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.
The final audition episode features a few more front men and women of bands, a few undiscovered talents, a viral TikToker, quite a few talented young singers including an AGT alum, a The Voice dropout, and one competitor that I called one of the best vocalists of the season. It should hopefully be a great night of talent to close out auditions.
It also appears that Season 19’s Mary Jo Young will stop by. She has had a fairly big post-show career with nearly 3 million monthly Spotify listeners. She once was signed by Atlantic Records and now is signed to independent record label, 7Cult.
Abayomi
Abayomi Lewis is a 15-year-old Haitian singer-songwriter from San Francisco, California. She performed at the 35th annual MLK Jr. Rally. She is a Brave New Voices Champion and also an award-winning poet who has been a teen poetry slam finalist. She has raw talent with a pure and soulful voice that is mature for her age. Her audition singing “Black Leaves” by KIRBY was previewed by ABC7 in Los Angeles.
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Tik Tok:
“Elastic Heart” Cover:
Audition Preview:
Bartly
Densmore “DJ” Bartly who simply goes by Bartly is a soul and alternative rock singer from San Marcos, Texas. His original music that he has out shows off a raspy, soulful, and throwback sound including his latest release “Worth The Prize.” He has appeared on local TV and performs a lot in Texas including at local festivals. Bartly is just as talented a guitar player as he is a vocalist.
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Tik Tok:
“Tequila” Original:
Bella Emry
Bella is a 22 year-old indie pop and folk singer from Bend, Oregon. Her vocal style is a bit understated with an effortless sound and pure tone. She has been posting singing videos for 6 years, but according to an appearance on local ABC station KATU, she hasn’t performed outside of talent shows and singing in church.
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Tik Tok:
“Demons” Cover:
Brenna Brigman
Brenna Brigman is a pop and soul singer-songwriter from Mansfield, Texas. She teaches music classes locally, and also performs locally including being a part of the Levitt Youth spotlight where she performed at the Levitt Pavilion in Arlington. She released her EP “Realizations” in April. She has a powerful voice with a big range, but also has the ability to hit soulful runs on softer acoustic tracks.
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Tik Tok:
“If I Knew” Cover:
Chloe Lauren
Chloe Lauren is a pop singer and mom from Lexington, South Carolina. She has a unique tone and big range with a voice that some would consider cursive sounding. There’s no videos of her performing outside of her house, so Idol may be her first time performing on a stage.
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“Die On This Hill” Cover:
Chris Tungseth
Chris is a singer-songwriter from Fergus Falls, MN. Chris was also a talented athlete, playing college basketball. Based on the editing of the preview, it appears he may be the last audition of the season and it appears to be an emotional one with his family joining him at the end of the audition. He performs some at local breweries and also at church. There’s not a lot of videos of singing online, but from what I can find he sings with a beautiful, soft folk tone.
Clare Mairèad
Clare is a hard rock singer from Philadelphia. She is the lead vocalist and frontwoman of heavy metal band Brekker who gigs locally and opened for Lynch Mob, a band who is led by Dokken guitarist, George Lynch. All of her performances appear to be pretty hard rock, so it’s tough to know if she will fit on a show like American Idol.
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Tik Tok:
“The Trooper” Cover:
David Euell
David is a singer from Long Island, New York who now lives in San Diego where he studied Journalism at San Diego State University. He is in the grunge band Mojo Pin, whose song, “Too Blind” has 133K Spotify streams. Their style seems to be similar to bands like Pearl Jam and Creed with David possessing a lower voice with an almost crooner-like sound. Most of the videos he posts on his own page are just him playing guitar solos. He is a very talented guitar player.
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Tik Tok:
“Too Blind”:
Jackson Inman
Jackson is an 18 year-old country singer-songwriter from Amory, Mississippi. Amory, a small Mississippi town, has been known to churn out finalists on the show including Season 15 winner Trent Harmon, Season 21 3rd place finisher Colin Stough and 5th place finalist Zachariah Smith. Jackson posts a lot of original music, and he released an EP in 2025 titled “Too Much on My Mind.” One of those originals that has generated the most views on Tik Tok is about a tornado that destroyed Amory, so there’s potential his backstory could be about this. His music is relatable and he has an easy going country sound.
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Tik Tok:
“Time Flies By”
Jake Thistle
Jake is a 21 year-old singer-songwriter and Rutgers University student from Paramus, New Jersey. He is quite accomplished for his age. According to an article from Rutgers, he recorded his first album at 16 and had some sort of contract with local Gold’n Retriever Records. His latest song is titled “Alone, Together.” His music is a blend of soft rock and pop rock and contains some throwback, almost 1970s vibes. The Boston Herald labeled him as a “Rising Music Star.” He is one of the more experienced contestants from a live performing aspect as he has toured a lot, including a tour of Europe.
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“Rolling Away” Original:
Jayson Garner*
Jayson is a 17 year-old Christian music singer from Emory, Texas. In 2024, he released an EP titled, “Beautiful God.” His tone is surprising with quite a bit of power behind it and a bit of a Southern Rock sound.
*shown in previews for the episode but not in images.
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“On My Knees” Cover:
Jorr
Jordan Johnson, also known as Jorr, is a 16 year-old R&B singer from Jacksonville, Florida. He won the local competition, Jax Idol Season 17. Jorr has an extremely soulful voice with a rich tone and the ability to sing difficult runs.
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“Dancing In The Sky” from Jax Idol Finale:
Julia Sienna
Julia Santiago, also known as Julia Sienna is a 20 year-old pop singer from Sea Girt, New Jersey. She is a police officer in Sea Girt, and it appears she showed up in her police officer uniform to her audition. Julia appears to have been pursuing music for a few years with some originals out, dating back to 2022. She has a soulful sound with a surprising deep alto voice. She has a few viral covers including one of Raye’s “Oscar Winning Tears” which has 679K likes and 3.6 million views on Tik Tok.
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Tik Tok:
“Oscar Winning Tears” Cover:
Landon Hughes
Landon Hughes is a bluegrass and country singer from Bluegrass country, Hazard, Kentucky. He is also a D2 soccer player at Lake Erie University in Painsville, Ohio. On his website, he lists his mom and her siblings as big inspirations as they are musicians as well. His first song, “Coal Town” was recently released. His style is kind of taking bluegrass and modernizing it a bit. He also plays the guitar using a unique technique called flatpicking.
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Cover Me Up:
Landon McGraw
Landon is an 18 year-old country singer-songwriter from Wheelersburg, Ohio. He sings a mix of old and current country and has a relaxed sound featuring country twang.
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“Colder Weather” Cover:
Matty Reynolds
Matty Reynolds is a 23 year-old folk pop singer-songwriter from Pelham, New York. Matty released an EP in 2025, and he is a viral Tik Toker known for the viral Tik Tok song, “(another) hotel party” which has 12.5 million Spotify streams. He has 186K followers on Tik Tok, and in 2021 a video he posted of the song went viral with 588K likes and 2.6 million streams. He is a true artist with a playful style, so it is no wonder why he went viral.
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Tik Tok:
“(another) hotel party” viral post:
Mia Soleil Sanchez
Mia is a 15 year-old pop singer from Franklin, New Jersey. She may look familiar as she appeared on America’s Got Talent in Season 19, and performed a standout audition singing “Happier Than Ever”, but she was cut in the deliberations, surprisingly, so we never saw her again. She has also appeared on social media personality Cheryl Porter’s vocal coach page. Since AGT, she has released two songs including her latest titled “Friends.” Mia has a lot of power behind her voice with the ability to belt.
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Tik Tok:
AGT Audition:
“Back to Black” Cover:
Mor
Mor Ilderton is a country folk singer-songwriter from Teays Valley, West Virginia. He was a The Voice Season 26 contestant, a member of Team Michael Buble but got stolen by Gwen Stefani in the Battles. He then dropped out prior to the Knockouts. He has a bit of an unorthodox voice featuring a raspy sound. His song “Welcome Sign” has 471K Spotify streams. Idol seems to be the better show for him as he is a skilled songwriter with a unique artistic sound.
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The Voice Audition:
“Fill My Lungs” Original:
Rae
Rachel Boyd, who goes by Rae, is a pop and R&B singer from Baltimore, Maryland. She has had residencies at restaurants in both DC and Las Vegas including performing with Nation Band at events. It also appears she has experience competing in pageants. Rae has a smooth sound that fits in with the big pop divas, and she may be one of the best vocalists of the season. She has the ability to adlib in a way that few can do.
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“Next Lifetime” Cover:
Vika
Vika is a rock singer from Spokane, Washington, who was adopted from Russia as a baby. She is the front woman and lead singer of Vika and the Velvets. They have played festivals in the Pacific Northwest, including one where they opened for Kansas. Her song, “70s Haze” has 4.6 million Spotify streams which she recorded at the age of 16 after winning Battle of the Bands. A cover of her singing “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon to her cat racked up 16.1 million views and 4.7 million likes. She has the ability to sing ‘70s styled rock as well as jazz music.
