Photo: Getty Images, ABC/Eric McCandless
One American Idol hopeful’s audition was so powerful that the panel of celebrity judges could feel his emotion from across the room, and even began to cry during the heartfelt performance. Country superstar Luke Bryan dabbed tears from his eyes as Iam Tongi delivered his rendition of “Monsters,” by James Blunt, a song that Katy Perry said was so perfect, it was as if Tongi could’ve written it himself.
Tongi, 18, said his late father was the person who inspired him to get into music. Tongi’s father passed away months before his son’s American Idol audition. Tongi’s emotional performance in his father’s honor had Lionel Richie worried about whether “we were gonna make it through the song.” Perry praised Tongi’s delivery, powerful enough make “these grown men cry. You hit a nerve, and that’s what great storytellers do. …Your voice is just so magnificent.”
“I cannot handle your heart breaking about your dad,” Bryan said, still teary-eyed from the performance. He added, sharing why the emotion felt so personal to him: “My nephew lost his dad, and he came to live with me. And just seeing you missing your dad, just sucks. Gosh, man, you just got a great voice. You got a great voice. You just did everything perfect, and I love you, and I just wanna see you have fun in this whole thing, man. It’s just awesome…what you just did.”
“You are 18 years old and just shook all of us. You did everything perfect. Please have fun on this journey! I’m a YES.” Bryan wrote in a tweet on Sunday evening (February 19), when the 21st season of American Idol premiered, as he shared a clip from Tongi’s audition.
Bryan embraced Tongi in a hug after Tongi received his unanimous “yes” vote to advance to Hollywood. Watch the powerful audition here: