18-year-old Kelsie Dolin has quickly become a fan-favorite on American Idol after her audition brought the Idol judges to tears. Dolin’s buzzed about Idol audition found the West Virginia native covering Kelly Clarkson and Adele in honor of her late Grandma.
In a new video shared by Idol, Dolin opened up about her Idol experience and what it was like.
Upon entering the judge’s room, Dolin, wearing muck boots and camouflage hat, admitted that she was all nerves when she was greeted by Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan.
“When I walked in the judge room, I was shaking in my boots. I was so scared,” Dolin shared in the clip.
While performing Kelly Clarkson’s “Piece By Piece,” Dolin said that she couldn’t help but notice Bryan staring at her and Richie being overcome with emotion.
“When I was singing the only thing I saw was Luke Bryan staring at me,” Dolin said. “He was just staring, then I look over to Lionel Richie and he was crying. Lionel said that I was a light and he said that it was genuine or something like that.”
Dolin said she was shocked by the Idol judges’ commentary on her audition as it was completely unexpected.
“The feedback was kind of unbelievable,” Dolin admitted, before adding, “they didn’t say nothing bad, it was just I don’t know, there was a lot of compliments and I don’t get those very often. I hope Hollywood week goes good… I got the hard part over with and already sang in front of them once.”
Dolin’s Audition Brought Lionel Richie To Tears
During her audition, Dolin, who donned a green t-shirt and an orange ball cap on backwards, belted out the lyrics to Clarkson’s “Piece By Piece.”
“Kelsie Dolin, have you ever performed in front of anybody before?” Bryan asked the contestant, which to his surprise she said, “no, I tried to sing in church one time and the music started playing and I just froze.”
“You know what you did? You just survived that,” Bryan said before asking if she could sing another song for the Idol judges. Dolin then performed Adele’s “When We Were Young,” which also earned praise from the three Idol judges, Bryan, Richie and Katy Perry.
“Hey, do you know how many bad notes you hit on that last song?” Bryan asked, before he and Richie said “Zero.”
Dolin’s vocals were so impressive that they brought Richie and Perry to tears.
“It sounded real good,” Perry added.
“We are so emotional and we are so overcome because you’ve been sitting down in West Virginia and you have this pure beautiful voice,” Bryan gushed. “It’s never been challenged, it’s never been pushed. It’s just never been lifted up and loved on.”
“This is the only person I know that has walked in here and messed me up completely,” Richie said, Perry added, “You are very special. You’re worth it and I hope that you can trust us.”
“If we could give you a hug a day to just let you know how beautiful you are, you would understand why we’re crying,” Richie said.
After earning three ‘yes’ answers, Dolin giggled and grabbed her golden ticket before exiting to share the exciting news with her grandpa.
Click above to watch Dolin’s impressive performance.
American Idol airs every Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.
