{"id":14962,"date":"2025-04-09T20:22:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=14962"},"modified":"2025-04-09T20:22:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:22:21","slug":"a-17-year-old-american-idol-hopeful-stepped-onto-the-stage-determined-to-make-her-hardworking-father-proud-she-shared-how-he-works-tirelessly-as-a-maintenance-man-by-day-and-cleans-apartments-at-nigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=14962","title":{"rendered":"A 17-year-old American Idol hopeful stepped onto the stage determined to make her hardworking father proud. She shared how he works tirelessly as a maintenance man by day and cleans apartments at night, calling it \u201ctoilet cleaning.\u201d Wanting to honor his sacrifices, she began her audition clapping along to a song, but the judges stopped her, urging her to dig deeper. After a brief pause, she chose a simple church song instead. The moment she started singing, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan lit up, telling her, \u201cYour personality is in the church song!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"heading-container flex flex-col md:flex-row md:mt-4 md:mb-8\">\n<div id=\"article-heading\" class=\"mb-6 md:0 md:max-w-[350px] lg:max-w-[575px] md:mr-8\">\n<div class=\"font-body font-light text-lg line-clamp-4\">Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan felt that Gabby Barrett was not being herself during her audition and wanted her to try something else.<\/div>\n<div class=\"hidden md:block md:mt-6\">\n<div class=\"flex\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-image\" class=\"w-screen inset-x-2\/4 relative margin-x--50vw mb-6 md:m-0 md:max-w-[500px] md:inset-x-0\">\n<div class=\"sbly-image-wrapper \"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-screen md:h-[500px] md:object-cover md:rounded lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.seeitlive.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/26144429\/gabby-audition-american-idol-featured.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.seeitlive.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/26144429\/gabby-audition-american-idol-featured.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"lg:flex content-container\">\n<div class=\"hidden lg:block w-[400px] content-gutter\">\n<div class=\"max-w-[335px] rounded overflow-hidden px-5 md:px-0 mb-6 shadow-rail flex flex-col md:shadow-none\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<article class=\"lg:max-w-[700px] lg:pt-8 content-article overflow-hidden\">17-year-old Gabby Barrett has always been a daddy\u2019s girl and she loves her father.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI\u2019ve never come from a wealthy family, I think going through hard times made us a lot closer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Her father is a maintenance man for Good Will during the day and at night he cleans apartments, which he has called \u201ctoilet cleaning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gabby\u2019s father, Blase, once told her, \u201cI wanna know before the day I die that I gave you everything I could to make your dreams come true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He is her rock and has sacrificed so much for her, so, she wanted to go to her\u00a0<em>Americal Idol<\/em>\u00a0audition and make him proud. She felt that the judges would have to pick her.<\/p>\n<p>Gabby felt that auditioning for\u00a0<em>American Idol<\/em>\u00a0would make a huge difference for her family and all of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native gushed to the judges about how much she loved the show. She has idolized\u00a0<strong>Carrie Underwood<\/strong> for years.<\/p>\n<p>So, it should come as no surprise that she chose to sing a Carrie song for her audition. Gabby chose \u201cGood Girl,\u201d a song off of Carrie\u2019s 2012 album<em>\u00a0Blown Away<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Without any music, just her two hands clapping away, she began her audition and got through a few lyrics before<strong>\u00a0Katy Perry<\/strong>\u00a0stopped her.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"article-ad-horizontal center-xs flex flex-col items-center\">\n<div id=\"desktop-below_fold_content-depth-2\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gabby Barrett big Carrie Underwood fan sings Church Song Audition American Idol 2018 Episode 6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/buTzqHLHhGw\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"350\" data-origheight=\"235\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Katy wanted her to try a song that would help her dig a little deeper into her singing. Katy wanted a second song choice.<\/p>\n<p>When Gabby suggested she sing \u201cChurch Bells\u201d by Carrie Underwood, Katy asked her to choose a different singer. She then suggested \u201cRedneck Woman\u201d by\u00a0<strong>Gretchen Wilson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Luke Bryan was quick to shut that song down as well. Lionel Richie then chimed in to explain why the judges were being so critical of Gabby\u2019s song choices.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cYou have to understand something, we are looking for you! We\u2019re not looking for, as Luke would say, the jukebox. Every time you go and say \u2018I\u2019m gonna sing a Carrie song,\u2019 you go to the personality.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Luke then explained to Gabby that by trying to sound country, Gabby wouldn\u2019t sound country. Instead, she sounded gimmicky.<\/p>\n<p>It took her a minute, but then Gabby figured out what she wanted to sing. Rather than go with a famous singer\u2019s hit from the radio, she went simpler. She picked a church song!<\/p>\n<p>All Gabby had to do was sing a few bars and the judges were instantly sold.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Luke Bryan quickly confirmed, \u201cThat is you, am I, right guys?\u201d To which Lionel agreed and told Gabby, \u201cYour personality is in the church song!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The judges felt that once she stopped pretending to be someone else, she was on fire. And all they needed to know that was hearing her sing just a few words!<\/p>\n<p>After all of that, the judges voted and agreed right away that they wanted to see Gabby go to Hollywood. Luke even felt that Gabby could make it big in the competition.<\/p>\n<p>As if her audition wasn\u2019t a big enough whirlwind, Katy wanted to take things a step further. She wanted to prank Gabby\u2019s dad!<\/p>\n<p>Katy came up with the idea that she would go out and tell Gabby\u2019s father:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cShe didn\u2019t make it through and she\u2019s really upset. But she needs your support!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Gabby swore that the prank might make her father faint, but was excited to do it. Luke and Lionel got involved by pretending they were consoling Gabby when her dad walked into the room.<\/p>\n<p>You can see just how Gabby\u2019s dad reacted after Katy Perry broke \u201cthe bad news\u201d to him!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Please\u00a0<b>SHARE<\/b>\u00a0this adorable audition with your friends and family on Facebook today.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan felt that Gabby Barrett was not being herself during her audition and wanted her to try something else. 17-year-old Gabby Barrett has&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A 17-year-old American Idol hopeful stepped onto the stage determined to make her hardworking father proud. She shared how he works tirelessly as a maintenance man by day and cleans apartments at night, calling it \u201ctoilet cleaning.\u201d Wanting to honor his sacrifices, she began her audition clapping along to a song, but the judges stopped her, urging her to dig deeper. After a brief pause, she chose a simple church song instead. The moment she started singing, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan lit up, telling her, \u201cYour personality is in the church song!\u201d -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=14962\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A 17-year-old American Idol hopeful stepped onto the stage determined to make her hardworking father proud. She shared how he works tirelessly as a maintenance man by day and cleans apartments at night, calling it \u201ctoilet cleaning.\u201d Wanting to honor his sacrifices, she began her audition clapping along to a song, but the judges stopped her, urging her to dig deeper. After a brief pause, she chose a simple church song instead. 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