Music heals us all.
During auditions for American Idol, we often hear heartbreaking stories from those hoping to get a golden ticket to Hollywood about how they turned to music as an outlet during difficult times. And one contestant named Kaibrienne “KB” Richins choked up viewers last night, sharing the story that drew her to music.
Diagnosed at a young age with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune thyroid condition that includes a number of symptoms from fatigue, weight gain, stiff joints, and can also make it difficult to regulate emotions. She turned to music when she was feeling the extreme high highs and low lows.
KB and her dad turned these emotion-filled times into long car rides to sort through her feelings, which then turned into a musical session where she sang as an outlet. Her dad started filming her on these car rides, which gained a wild social media following.
“Me and my dad started going on these drives to process and deal with everything… within a couple of months we had over a million followers.”
Her dad then said that KB would begin to believe in herself again during those drives, and it was beyond therapeutic.
After hearing her story, KB opens her mouth to sing Zach Bryan’s “Something In The Orange,” and it’s apparent why she quickly gained a massive social media following from her videos. Her rasp, soul, and powerful vocal delivery capture listeners from the first note. She put a hypnotizing twist on the acoustic track, making it a soulful piano ballad, which the judges were taken aback by.
As her audition wraps up, the judges all look at each other, nodding in agreement that there is something special about KB’s voice.
“From the first note, I had like full body wave of chills, and I like even how you just kind of shook it out and you hacked up something and started singing. She was like, ‘Let’s go, it’s on.’ But the coolest thing is that you’re 20, you’re from a little ole small town in Utah, and 1,00 people…and you have it.”
Luke Bryan said, leading off the feedback that left KB smiling from ear to ear. Needless to say, the other judges all agreed with Bryan, and it was an easy yes from the panel to send her to Hollywood.
I know that KB has a range for much more than just country, but I hope we get more country songs with her twist on them later this season because hot dang… was that audition good.
