American Idol: Mooresville’s Shannon O’Hara Advances To Hollywood

MOORESVILLE, NC — Mooresville’s own Shannon O’Hara earned a Golden Ticket to Hollywood Sunday night, after an American Idol audition that left one on panel of three judges stunned by what he described as a ‘soulful’ voice.

From behind a baby grand piano, O’Hara, 17, sang Adele’s “When We Were Young” for judged Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan.

“With that voice, your song selection and your passion, you could be a major threat,” Richie told O’Hara. “I think what I was looking for was some conviction, a little bit of realism, and that was it,” he said.

“You’re like a really old soul,” Perry said. “I think you have an exceptional voice.

“I think she’s a songbird,” Bryan said, agreeing with his fellow judges right before they told her she would be headed to the next round of competition in California.

Sunday night, Richie tweeted to O’hara, “Songbird, you’re going to Hollywood.”

“I’ve always done music my whole life, and I’ve been watching ‘American Idol’ since I was 6, and I’ve wanted to audition forever,” O’Hara, who is a home-schooled high school senior, told the Charlotte Observer. “So, I mean, I feel like it was just kind of meant to be that my first time auditioning for the show, I made it. … I knew for some reason, in my gut, that they were gonna put me through.”

The show runs Sundays and Mondays on FOX from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

WATCH: Shannon O’Hara Auditions For American Idol

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Photo: screenshot from YouTube