She got three yeses from Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan Sunday night. But believe it or not, 20-year-old Kaibrienne Richins has had her struggles with stage fright.
“I really never thought I would be able to do music full time because my hands and face would get numb and I would never be able to sing how I practiced—just because the anxiety was so bad," she told KPCW.
She discovered her passion for singing when she was 12. Before that, she’d watched her older sisters in school musicals and would come home, watch singing videos on YouTube and learn to sing herself.
“Then they had this sixth-grade talent show coming up—a talent show for my middle school—and I just decided that I wanted to sing one of the songs that I had heard on YouTube,” Richins said.
Richins said the feedback she got from friends, family and teachers that day inspired her to keep singing. But she’d get stage fright, and for a while, she said she ran away from her dream.
“But during COVID, my dad actually started uploading these videos on TikTok,” she said, “where he would drive around in the car, and I would sing.”
Even though she’s never taken more than a couple voice lessons, those videos went viral, and Richins caught the eye of American Idol’s casting producers.
A few auditions later, she made it to the big one: in front of Idol’s celebrity judges. She performed “Something in the Orange” by Zach Bryan.
“I think singing for the judges really put me in a position where I was forced to grow under pressure, and just give it my all there,” Richins said.
While on Idol, Richins also shared her story of overcoming Hashimoto's disease, which she was diagnosed with in the 4th grade. The thyroid condition makes it difficult to regulate moods and can cause heart problems.
She just wrote her first original song, too. Richins hopes to release it on music streaming platforms in a couple weeks.
Her audition aired Sunday, Feb. 25, on ABC.