Benson Boone, Tori Kelly, Kane Brown and More Singers You May Have Forgotten Auditioned for American Idol

Benson Boone

Long before he had the internet buzzing about his Grammys jumpsuit, Benson Boone tried his hand at American Idol. However, the “Beautiful Things” singer quit after making it onto season 19 of the singing competition.

“The reason I quit American Idol is because I wanted to do music,” he said on the Zach Sang Show back in 2022. “I don’t want people to be like, ‘Oh, Benson Boone, American Idol blew him up. Like, that’s where he comes from. No. I want to be Benson Boone ’cause I write smash hits and they love my music … I just didn’t want that label on me.”

His wishes came true, as the Washington native scored his very first Grammy nomination for best new artist this year.

Kane Brown

One of the biggest country stars out today, Kane Brown auditioned for American Idol more than a decade ago but was rejected. The singer was following in Lauren Alaina’s footsteps, a friend of his from school choir who had found success after coming in second in season 10.

However, Brown told Billboard the show rejected him, saying “they didn’t need another Scotty McCreery,” he recalled.

He went on to audition for X Factor but exited after they tried to put him in a boy band.

Lauren Daigle

Lauren Daigle‘s road to the Super Bowl LIX was no easy feat.

The famed Christian music singer auditioned for the singing competition not once, not twice, but three times before she made it big.

She first tried out for season 9 in 2010 but got cut before the top 24 were selected. She tried again for season 10 in 2011, but didn’t make it to Hollywood. Her last attempt came in 2012 when she was eliminated in the Las Vegas round of season 11.

And while rejection would be discouraging to most, Daigle said it helped motivate her to keep going. “I remember thinking, ‘My whole plan has just flipped upside down…'” she said of the first time she got a “No.”

“I knew right then, sitting in that moment, I’m going to have to decide whether I’m going to get back up and start trying or if I’m gonna let that just determine the course of my life,” she told Cosmopolitan.

Luckily, she chose to keep going and will now be one of the performers at the 2025 Super Bowl on Feb. 9. The Louisiana native will be singing “America the Beautiful” ahead of the big game.

MIckey Guyton

Under the name Mycale Guyton, the country star auditioned for season 7 of American Idol but didn’t advance.

“I did [audition], and they threw me away,” she said on an episode of Watch What Happens Live. But since her career blew up, she said she’s heard from judge Randy Jackson, and “he’s been very lovely to me.”

Tori Kelly

Nowadays, Tori Kelly is selling out venues across the globe, but long before she was a chart-topping superstar, she too, auditioned for American Idol. The singer auditioned in Denver, Colorado and though she made it to Hollywood Week for season 9, she wasn’t selected to go further.

Five years following her time on Idol, she released her debut album Unbreakable Smile in 2015. The rest is history.

Jax

Jacqueline Cole Miskanic Gregg, who is mostly known by her stage name, Jax, came in third place during season 14 of American Idol in 2015.

The following year, the then-20-year-old New Jersey native was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

“We were at the grocery store when I first felt something wrong in my throat,” she told PEOPLE back in 2016. “But I’m always getting sick, so we thought it was a sinus infection.”

Though doctors initially thought the same, precautionary x-rays revealed she had 18 tumors in her throat, 12 of which were determined to be cancerous. Despite worries that she would lose her voice, Jax underwent surgery and had her entire thyroid removed, along with the cancerous tumors and several lymph nodes.

She hasn’t let it slow her down; in fact, her career has only blown up since. In June 2024, she released her album Dear Joe, which featured the viral hit “Victoria’s Secret.”

Bebe Rexha

Bebe Rexha also revealed she had auditioned before and was sent home before she even made it to the judges.

“I was with my mom, we waited 12 hours,” she later told idol judge Randy Jackson and host Ryan Seacrest on an episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan.

Needless to say, Rexha is doing just fine; the singer has since put out hits such as “I’m Good,” “Me, Myself and I,” as well as “In the Name of Love” and garnered four Grammy nominations, including best new artist in 2019.

Amber Riley

There are many great Amber Riley Glee moments to list, but hardcore fans never fail to mention her renditions of “I Will Always Love You,” “And I Am Telling You,” and “Bust Your Windows,” as her top moments.

But before she had us all awe-inspired on the Ryan Murphy-created show, Riley auditioned for Idol when she was just 17 years old.

“[It felt] like my world had ended,” she told Jason Lee while on his show. “We had driven all the way to San Francisco — my mom, my dad and my sister. It was freezing cold. We waited hours and hours and hours just to be seen, and it was an immediate ‘no,'” she recalled.

Things turned out well for the now 38-year-old powerhouse. Following Glee, she starred in The Wiz Live!, Single Black Female, Nobody’s Fool and more.

Naya Rivera

Another McKinley High alum, the late Naya Rivera, also auditioned for American Idol before she played Santana Lopez on Glee as her dad was certain that would be her big break.

“For years he would always say, ‘You should audition for the show,’ and I never wanted to,” she told the ladies of The Talk. “The one year we drove up to San Fran and I didn’t make it past the first round,” she said, laughing.

Ironically, she sang the same song — “Emotions” by the Bee Gees — for the audition that scored her the role on Glee.

Rivera died from an accidental drowning in July 2020. She had rented a boat while at California’s Lake Piru with her son, Josey, who was 4 at the time. When the boat was not returned on time, staff found it on the north side of the lake with Josey sleeping in his life jacket on board, but Rivera was missing.

A search began and her body was later found five days later on July 13. An autopsy later determined that the cause of death was an accidental drowning, and investigators determined that she likely saved Josey by putting him back on the boat prior to her death.

Colbie Caillat

Take time to realize … Colbie Caillat could have been on American Idol.

The singer, who featured on the show as a mentor in season 16, revealed she tried out twice and was rejected both times. Even more shocking is the fact that she auditioned with her now-classic folksy song, “Bubbly.”

“I wasn’t ready at all. I had a lot of stage fright and I realized I had a lot of work to do with myself,” she told a contestant in a video shared by Yahoo Entertainment.

Hillary Scott

Lady A’s Hillary Scott auditioned for the show twice, though her heartbreak wasn’t necessarily about not being picked as much as it was about the fact that she wasn’t happy with how the audition went.

“I think I remember shedding a few tears just knowing that I hadn’t performed at my best because I was so nervous,” she told HLN’s A.J. Hammer.

“I had never done any kind of audition like that before and so — if anyone has ever gone and auditioned — it’s a lot of pressure and there’s thousands and thousands of people in line [trying] to make it down to what will be a final 12.”

Jimmie Allen

Jimmie Allen also went through American Idol before he made a name for himself in country music. The Nashville native auditioned for season 10 of the show but was eliminated before the live voting rounds began.

He would go on to top the country music charts with hits such as “Best Shot,” “Down Home,” and “Make Me Want To.”

In May 2023, Allen’s former manager, listed as Jane Doe, sued him for assault and sexual abuse, alleging that he raped her during a March 2021 work trip to Los Angeles when filming an episode of American Idol.

In March 2024, his former manager dropped her lawsuit. “Jane Doe entered into a settlement agreement with Jimmie Allen to avoid the trauma of reliving her abuse over the course of a painful trial,” her attorney said in a statement.

That same month, Allen revealed he had welcomed twins with a woman who wasn’t his wife. Allen’s wife Alexis filed for divorce back in 2023. At the time, she was pregnant with their third baby, Cohen, whom they welcomed five months later.