{"id":118445,"date":"2026-01-25T17:03:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T22:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/american-idol-contestant-with-severe-stutter-leaves-judge-carrie-underwood-in-awe-over-beautiful-approach-118445"},"modified":"2026-01-25T17:03:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T22:03:41","slug":"american-idol-contestant-with-severe-stutter-leaves-judge-carrie-underwood-in-awe-over-beautiful-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/american-idol-contestant-with-severe-stutter-leaves-judge-carrie-underwood-in-awe-over-beautiful-approach-118445","title":{"rendered":"‘American Idol’ contestant with severe stutter leaves judge Carrie Underwood in awe over ‘beautiful’ approach"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A new season of “American Idol<\/a>” is upon us and the talent just keeps getting better and better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an extended sneak peek<\/a> of the upcoming season, Jesse Findling \u2014 a 20-year-old college student with a severe stutter \u2014 left judges Carrie Underwood<\/a>, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan<\/a> in awe after giving a “beautiful” performance despite the debilitating condition that has left him feeling embarrassed at times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve been singing ever since I was little with my brother and sister,” Findling told the judges. “We would pull up karaoke tracks, and we would just sing with each other, and since then I did choirs in school. If you haven’t noticed, I have a stutter and that’s really where kind of my love for singing came.”<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a stutter ever since I was little,” Findling said during his confessional. \u00a0“It’s something that I’ve struggled with since elementary school. It was something embarrassing for me, and it was something that I really had a hard time with. I wouldn’t raise my hand in school, and it was just something that made me feel alone and something that I felt like I had to hide. So it was definitely hard.”<\/p>\n

‘AMERICAN IDOL’ WINNER IAM TONGI REVEALS DRAMATIC 115-POUND WEIGHT LOSS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Findling said that singing has always “felt freeing” to him because his stutter disappears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When I sang, it was a way for me to express myself in a way where I didn’t have to worry about being embarrassed or what people would think, or if somebody would laugh,” he said. “It was an outlet for me when I was little, and it’s still an outlet for me now.”<\/p>\n

LIONEL RICHIE REVEALS HE ALMOST BECAME A PRIEST BEFORE ONE FAN’S COMMENT CHANGED HIS LIFE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Walking out with a golden ticket would mean that everything that I’ve struggled with in the past, it’s all led me here, and I can do whatever I want if I work hard,” he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before going into his own rendition of Bensen Boone’s “In The Stars,” he told the judges, “I’ve come a long way with it, and it doesn’t hold me back.”<\/p>\n

During his performance, all three judges were visibly shocked at his approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I blinked one time,” Bryan said after the audition. “I mean, wow. You’re a real singer. Thank you, man. I’m really proud of you. I love this show. I love this show because we get to meet kids like you.”<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Your voice is beautiful,” Underwood added. “You have a beautiful vibrato, a beautiful tone. We could understand everything you were singing, and you were in the song emotionally, which just took us right there with you, so it was beautiful.”<\/p>\n

“Problem. What problem?” Richie asked. “You don’t have a problem. The only thing wrong with you is you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to navigate this career.”<\/p>\n

LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Before sending Findling through to Hollywood, she told him, “I think you could go really far in this competition. We just haven’t had voices like yours coming through those doors.”<\/p>\n

While holding his Golden Ticket, Findling told the camera that he’s proud of the progress he’s made.<\/p>\n

“When I was singing that song, I was thinking of younger me who wouldn’t speak in class, who was scared of what people thought of him and the fact that I got this is just proof that everything’s working out how it should,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“American Idol” returns Monday, January 26, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source – https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/american-idol-contestant-severe-stutter-leaves-judge-carrie-underwood-awe-over-beautiful-approach <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new season of “American Idol” is upon us and the talent just keeps getting better and better.\u00a0 In an extended sneak peek of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[16563],"tags":[],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-118445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n'American Idol' contestant with severe stutter leaves judge Carrie Underwood in awe over 'beautiful' approach - Wall Street PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/american-idol-contestant-with-severe-stutter-leaves-judge-carrie-underwood-in-awe-over-beautiful-approach-118445\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'American Idol' contestant with severe stutter leaves judge Carrie Underwood in awe over 'beautiful' approach - 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