Houstonian sings way to ‘Idol’ golden ticket
Hannah Nicolaisen says she has never been afraid to sing in front of an audience.
For the Houston native, being able to grab the crowd’s attention with her voice goes beyond entertainment — she’s communicating her feelings with the audience and it doesn’t matter what genre of music or song she is singing.
“My favorite thing to sing is whatever the person in front of me or the audience needs to hear to connect us and add to their wellbeing,” Nicolaisen said. “If I’m singing in front of three people in a bar who came in to watch a football game, but all of a sudden their attention is on me, there’s just something spectacular about that.”
Nicolaisen recently auditioned for Season 21 of “American Idol,” where she sang Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.” She impressed the judges enough to receive a golden ticket and advance to the next stage of the competition in Hollywood.
“I think some people are born to sing, some people were born to be a star, and now we’ve got to get your brain around it, but you’re definitely born to sing,” country music star and “American Idol” judge Luke Bryan said after she performed.
Nicolaisen grew up singing. She learned to play the guitar around the age of 12 and would sing and play music as a substitute for journaling her thoughts and feelings.
She split her time between the Cypress Woods High School choir and volleyball, but ended up quitting choir to focus on sports.
“I’ve always had a conflict there,” Nicolaisen said. “But then when the time came to graduate, I knew I needed scholarships, and at the time I felt like the more rational thing to do was to go for athletics.”
Throughout her college athletic experience at the University of Illinois, she said she kept music in the back of her mind. After graduating in May 2022 with a degree in exercise psychology, she moved to Montgomery, Ala.
It wasn’t until Nicolaisen got a full-time job working in technology that music came back to her. When she went out for drinks with her coworkers in July 2022, she didn’t know the bar was hosting an open mic. Of course, Nicolaisen sang without fear in front of the
Through connections from that event, Nicolaisen said, she started meeting the people who would launch her singing career, and encourage her to audition for “American Idol.”
“The audition happened in October, and since then I’ve been trying to get more gigs and take singing more seriously,” she said.
In December Nicolaisen quit her job to focus on singing, despite the limited opportunities in Montgomery. She said she has had multiple gigs per week, and she started taking vocal lessons. She is also getting used to having fans.
“After the audition came out, I’ve had so many community members from all the places I’ve lived reach out to me to say how excited and proud they are,” Nicolaisen said. “I’ve found this overwhelming sense of support and community from all these different places and people, it’s really cool.”
Nicolaisen goes to Hollywood to audition again for “American Idol” in a few weeks. The audition should air on television in mid-April.
“For me, singing is just about expressing your emotions and telling a story,” Nicolaisen said.