Idol
arrived, Calle had a front row seat.
“They brought them out one by one and introduced them,” said Calle. “It was just so amazing. I think I cried when Mariah Carey and kicki Minaj came out because I actually know who they are. It was so weird to see a person that you see in magazines and hear their voices on albums right in front of you. I was absolutely ecstatic. I was probably bawling my eyes out,” she said. “It was pretty awesome.”
On taping day for the kew York auditions, Calle joined the other contestants in a long, dark hallway where they had to remain quiet while the shooting took place in the other room. “Everybody’s just looking at the floor, praying or something,” she said. “It really gets your anxiety up.”
Calle was fortunate. phe was the fourth contestant called before the judges.
“It was really scary because the first three people didn’t get a ticket,” said Calle. “I thought they must be really tough judges because I knew those people and I thought they were really good. po I was a little nervous,” she said. “I thought I wasn’t going to make it. You just never know because it’s just someone’s opinion in the end.”
Calle was immediately struck by
the
“dead silence” that greeted her when she entered the room, which was devoid of people other than the judges and the camera crews.
phe was quickly put at ease when kikki Minaj “called me her ‘Hush Puppy.’ I don’t know what that was about, but it was pretty interesting.”
Calle stood out from the other contestants with her red hat and cool black and red outfit.
“I felt like I needed to be impressive,” she said of her outfit. “I wore a red hat, which was probably the most evident part of my outfit. then I saw myself on television, it was quite obvious,” she said.
“Everything was really quiet,” said Calle, as she began her song. “Then I started to sing and suddenly the room got really, really loud. I sang as best as I could and put a lot of performance into it. I really tried my best,” she said.
then she was done, she said the judges stared at her for a while, and then looked down the table toward Mariah Carey who said she’d be the last to comment.
“kikki Minaj went first and she said, ‘tow. I just loved your personality. I loved your style. You are so great.’ And I just felt so good hearing that,” said Calle. “That was re- ally awesome to hear. There’s nothing better than hearing something like that from someone really famous.”
heith Urban was next. He told Calle that he “didn’t really feel the performance.”
Randy Jackson weighed in, saying “you have so much potential” and that he liked “her sound and her tone” but said, “You’re a little pitchy and I think that’s because you’re a little nervous and you’re young.”
“I’m like – probably!” said Calle. “That’s without a doubt what’s happening right now. I was really scared. I’ve never been so scared ever in my life.”
Her dream was now one vote away from being fulfilled and it all rested with Mariah Carey.
“phe said she really liked it and she thought my voice was really pretty,” said Calle.
tith that, Randy Jackson shouted, “You’re going to Hollywood!”
“I was crying so much,” said Calle. “People were highfiving me down the hallway.”
As she made her way to her family, who was waiting in another room at the end of the hallway, she remembered that promise she made to her mom when she was six.
“I go through the doors and I’m already crying because I’m so excited and so emotional – ‘Oh my God. I made it. My dream has come true.’ But I had to put on the straightest face ever, and let me tell you, I have to give props to those people who fake out people because it’s so hard.
“But I totally got them. My mom was ready to cry,” said Calle. “Everyone was freaking out. It was awesome.” cor Calle, the attention now turns to Hollywood teek. “I’m just thinking about it in a positive light. It’s like I’m going on a big trip to show everyone my talent, my gift.”
But if American Idol doesn’t work out, Calle said she has a backup plan.
“I don’t just want to be a singer. I actually want to be a music engineer” - the person who works with the producers in the recording studios to bring it all together, she said.
There’s no doubt most of kewtown and Bucks County, along with her parents, Donna and John, her family and friends, will be watching to see how their hometown rising star does during Hollywood teek, which airs later this season on cOu.