Cumberland resident and University of Southern Maine student Julia Gagnon’s run on this season of ABC’s “American Idol” has stunned judges and audiences alike.
She won a platinum ticket during auditions, which allowed her to skip directly into the top 24, and which made her the first Mainer to make it past the auditions round on the long-running singing competition. She’s made it through six rounds of eliminations, and as of last Monday is in the top ten for the season. This Sunday and Monday, Gagnon will find out if she’s made it into the top eight.
If she impresses the voting public with her performance on the 8 p.m. Sunday broadcast, she could make it into the top eight on the results reveal episode at 8 p.m. Monday — and put her only three more episodes away from winning it all.
People can vote for Gagnon starting at 8 p.m. Sunday by texting 4 to 21523, online on the American Idol website, or on the American Idol app. Fans can vote up to ten times on each platform, for a total of 30 possible votes per fan.
Gagnon made a compelling figure from her very first episode, when she shared her touching story of trying to make both her birth mother in Guatemala and adoptive mother in Cumberland proud. You can hear more about her journey as an adoptee in an interview she gave last month with the podcast “The Lost Quetzels: Guatemalan Adoptee Journeys,” available on platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Gagnon has received praise for her powerful, soulful vocals from judges Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie and Luke Bryan, from guest mentors including Gene Simmons and Meghan Trainor, and from people in Maine including Gov. Janet Mills, who tweeted her support last weekend.
Her performances of songs by artists including Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Adele and Fantasia Barrino have made her a standout old-school soul singer in a season otherwise populated mostly by contemporary pop singers. Gagnon has said that she’s been singing since she was a child, but that she didn’t start doing it in public until more recent years, including competing in last year’s Central Maine Idol in Hallowell.
