Alyssa Wray (American Idol/ABC Photo)
Reaching the final 12 on American Idol has been a bittersweet experience for Boyle County’s Alyssa Wray. She’s thrilled to still be in the competition but also sad for friends she’s made on the show who did not make it to the final 12.
“I am not going to lie. The last five days have been really rough,” Wray said Friday during a phone interview from Los Angeles. “I love being on the show and want to keep going, but the hardest part for me is losing my friends.
“On stage, they are my family. I have been meeting people I am going to know the rest of my life and do songs with and perform with the rest of my life and that chapter had to close for some of them on American Idol and that is hard. It has really been taking a toll on my soul.”
However, she’s got encouragement from fellow performers not to let her feelings for them distract her.
“I still have to work hard and a lot of my friends are telling me I have got to do this for you and us. People call and text me daily encouraging me and I appreciate that,” Wray said. “I have got to keep going.”
The 19-year-old from Perryville got rocked a bit after her performance Sunday of Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” by some comments from judge Paula Abdul. She replaced normal judge Luke Bryan, who was out for COVID protocols. Abdul, one of the original Idol judges, started with praise of Wray’s performance.
“I love how brave you are because it is not easy to take on a song from Whitney Houston unless you are going to have defining moments. And I think you did have some defining moments,” Abdul said.
However, she added more.
“But I also want you to know it’s great to be brave, but in the future of this competition, for everyone, make sure you are picking the songs that allow you to shine in your own unique, beautiful way. You did a great job,” Abdul said.
Wray said she was still trying to figure out what Abdul did not like.
“It really kind of hurt me,” Wray, a freshman at Northern Kentucky University, said. “Growing up watching Idol for so long for her to say that got to me. It seemed like I was the only one she picked on. I think it was good advice, but I also think she just didn’t know me. She had never seen me live or talked to me. Maybe she thought I was imitating Whitney but that is just me.
“What she said does inspire and motivate me. I am going to show I am just being myself. Whether it sounds good or not, I want to be me and let people see me being me.”
Sunday’s show at 8 p.m. will have contestants performing Oscar-nominated songs live hoping to garner the votes from the public to make the top nine. Monday’s show will have “comeback contestants” with 10 finalists from last season returning and one of them will be voted into the top 10. There is no show April 25 due to the Oscars and then one episode will air each Sunday until the finale on May 23.
Wray, a former high school basketball player, knows she cannot look past Sunday’s performance and think about winning. It’s the one-game-at-a-time philosophy.
“Since like the top 40, everyone has been so good. People tell me I can win and I believe that but not because I am the best but because I can inspire other people just like the other 11 finalists can also,” Wray said. “It’s just about who America connects with and votes for.”
Wray initially thought she didn’t need to gear her performances to impress viewers who all have their own likes and dislikes. She has changed her thinking.
“I have to step it up every performance. I am really excited for the song I am doing Sunday. I think it is the perfect one for the live voting and will catch people’s attention,” Wray said.
Wray admits being in the final 12 has already got her more attention on social media and it was not all kind.
“I got the most negative feedback this last week since I have been on the show,” she said. “That is apparently normal as you get a smaller number of performers and you get picked on more. All that is doing is motivating me to prove some people wrong.”
Wray had a rare off-day Thursday that let her relax a bit. Her mother has also been Los Angeles all week.
“It has been nice to get home from the studio and have her there to talk to,” Wray said.
She’s also continuing to do media interviews — she is limited to three per week by American Idol — and is not quite as nervous now as when the show interviews started.
“I enjoy talking and feel like I have more to say now,” Wray said. “I am getting better at articulating what I want to say and I am enjoying the interviews more.”
Her whole American Idol journey has been that way. It was November 2019, that she was performing in the play “Frozen” at Ragged Edge Community Theater in Danville where she had the star role of Elsa. Now she’s a regular on national TV and recently got an Instagram follow from Jennifer Hudson, an Oscar-winning actress, and Grammy-winning singer.
“It was so special of her to take time out of her day to encourage me. I would love to do a collaboration with her one day,” Wray said. “But this whole journey has been insane. I never ever imagined I would be in Los Angeles performing in front of (singer) Katy Perry and America. It’s just hard to explain how incredible this has been.”
