On Sunday night’s episode of “American Idol,” judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie gave some contestants a second chance during the third week of the reality competition show.
One of them was Kimi, a 25-year-old from Brooklyn, who originally left a divided response from the trio of judges during his audition before finally winning them over.
Originally from Kosovo, Kimi was born during the 1998-99 Kosovo War. He shared the story of how he moved to the United States to pursue a musical career and sacrificed seeing his family for six years in order to make the dream come true.
For his first song, Kimi sung “Heal” by Tom Odell, which he chose because it reminded him of his “inner child,” that didn’t necessarily blow judges away. He also sung “Love in the Dark” by Adele.
Following his initial performance, Kimi got emotional, almost breaking into tears.
“The problem is, you’re being a little premeditated and proper with it. If we can get you to just not think about singing so technical,” Bryan said. “I’m not sure that song really showcases a lot.”
“You’re close to really being a bad-ass singer,” Bryan added.
When Kimi said he was singing for his mother, who is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and still lives in Kosovo, Perry said: “Are you going to sing defeated like that for your mom?”
After some persuasion, Perry convinced Kimi to call his mother in the middle of the night to sing “Kosova Nena Ime,” an Albanian song. Evidently, it was his mother’s involvement that inspired Kimi’s third performance because it ended up garnering three yeses to advance to Hollywood.
“Is this real?!,” Kimi wrote on an Instagram post he shared Sunday night holding up his golden ticket along with photos of him hugging host Ryan Seacrest.
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Saleah Blancaflor may be reached at sblancaflor@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @saleyley and Instagram.