“Welcome to Hollywood!”
Former Molloy student Nichelle Lewis did not go looking for American Idol.
Instead, American Idol found her.
“A friend of mine posted a video of me singing,” said Lewis, who graduated from Molloy’s CAP21 musical theatre program in 2021. “An Idol producer sent me a message on Instagram, asking me if I’d like to audition for them. At first I didn’t even think it was real.”
Lewis, who grew up in small-town Virginia before auditioning for CAP21 on a visit to New York, was working a variety of small jobs to pay for her Manhattan apartment after graduating from Molloy. She was also auditioning every chance she had, which paid off in January of 2022, when she booked a national tour of Hairspray.
“I learned so much on that tour,” Lewis said, “including how to keep my voice and my body healthy.” When the tour ended, she booked a six-week show called Speakeasy in Washington, DC, as a singer/actress. Soon after that, Idol came calling.
“I ended up doing several zoom auditions for the producers, each one involving more and more people. My first zoom audition, I sang a Mariah Carey song and then Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect,’” she said. “They liked me but wanted me to be more confident. At my second audition, which had more producers, I wore a pink dress, which they loved. I sang two more songs, including one by Stevie Wonder, and they told me I was ‘awesome’ and ‘a powerhouse.’ They brought me back for a third zoom audition with even more producers. Finally, they determined that I was ready to meet the Idol hosts – Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie and Luke Bryan.”
Lewis’s father died when she was young, but that loss inspired her to enjoy the all the little moments in life and to try to make a positive impact on those around her. She also lost her uncle during the Hairspray tour, and he provided her with advice shortly before he passed away. “He told me, ‘Keep going after your dreams and don’t let anything get in your way,’” Lewis said.
Armed with inspiration, Lewis took her singing to the next level. The producers had said she should sing ‘Respect’ and the judges praised the result. Lionel Ritchie said he was impressed with her “vocal gymnastics,” and the judges asked her to sing another song, ‘Rise Up,’ by Andra Day, so that they could hear something a little more emotional that showed a deeper side of her. When she finished, the judges made a unanimous decision. “You’re going to Hollywood!”
Armed with the iconic Golden Ticket, Lewis burst through the audition doors and landed in the arms of her mother, both of them sobbing with joy. “I really hope my dad can see this,” Lewis remembers saying at the time.
Her Idol journey ended in Hollywood, but Lewis was proud of the result. “I had high school and college friends following me every step of the way, and I wanted them to see that I was working hard and going for my dream,” she said with a smile.
Hoping, and possibly knowing, that her father and her uncle were smiling with her.