San Diego's Kristi Krause Advances to Next Round in American Idol

Local teen Kristi Krause advanced to the Hollywood round of American Idol after Wednesday night's San Francisco tryouts.

Krause, who wrote a song in honor of Poway's Chelsea King and who attends , endured three rounds of auditions before coming out with the "golden ticket."

The Krauses returned to San Francisco in November for her third audition, where she sang Etta James’ “At Last” in front of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, recording artist Jennifer Lopez, and longtime AI judge Randy Jackson.

“I felt really good about my audition,” Krause said. “I didn’t second-guess and was more excited than nervous about it. I looked up at the judges when I sang and JLo smiled and Randy said something to her, and at the end, JLo said I had a strong voice.”

Patch was at the 17-year-old's home Wednesday night to watch the show. Read the entire story .