Isaiah Smallwood's American Idol Journey: Part II
(PHOTO COURTESY OF: ISAIAH SMALLWOOD)
HORSEHEADS, N.Y. (WENY) -- "You're going to New Orleans!" That's what Elmira resident, Isaiah Smallwood was told when he was moving on in the audition process for American Idol. But to get to that point, Smallwood had to reach out to a producer from American Idol.
"I sent him a message, I'm like bro, I'm a singer/song writer in Elmira, listen to some of my videos on Instagram, and then I took a nap," said Smallwood. He said he was afraid the producer wasn't going to message him back. He said he felt like he was playing the waiting game and he didn't like that, but Smallwood recalls the moment like it was yesterday.
"I was sitting down, and I was like something has to happen. I've been chasing this dream for so long about this music thing and I've just kind of haven't seen a lot of things come to fruition I guess you could say. I wasn’t kind of like making it the way I wanted to, and I was frustrated. And then I actually heard wind that my job was closing down. I was working at Olympia Sports and they had told us that you know, we’re reaching the last of our days, and I was even more frustrated about that. So, I just sent off the text message and I was just like this has to be where everything changes. It has to be..." said Smallwood.
And it did.
The producer reached out to Smallwood hours later and he couldn't believe it. He auditioned on Zoom that weekend after reaching out to the producer. "The first audition you’re with the first person – and that’s the producer who found you. Then the second audition you’re with the producer, but you can tell other people are listening. The last one – the Executives of ABC, the higher ups of the show, and not only the show, but the network were on (the call too)," said Smallwood.
At the end of the third audition, Smallwood's wife was invited to join the Zoom call. She was asked how she would feel if her husband made it to American Idol. "Obviously, I (Isaiah) was shaking in my boots because I was like this could make or break everything. At the end of the conversation she (a higher-up) was just like well, we would love to be able to invite you down to audition in front of Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan. They invited me down to go to New Orleans..." said Smallwood.
Stick with WENY News as we continue to hear from Isaiah about his American Idol experience and monitor his progress. You can also follow along with his journey on American Idol on WENT ABC.