Jermaine Jones

Early life

Jones was born to Katrice Cornett and lives in Pine Hill, New Jersey.^[1] He attended Overbrook High School.^[3] He works as a vocal instructor.^[1] According to the official American Idol website, his musical influences are his mother and John Legend.

[edit]American Idol

In Las Vegas, he performed "Make it Easy on Yourself" with Richie Law and the judges advanced both to the next round.

Jones was not originally chosen for the top 24 semifinalist round, but he was called back after the top 24 selection filming, making him the 25th semi-finalist and thirteenth male semi-finalist.^[4][5]He is 6 feet 8 and a half inches tall^[3] and has been dubbed on the show as "The Gentle Giant" due to his height.^[6] In the semi-finals, he sang Luther Vandross's "Dance with My Father". He was one of the top five male vote getters and advanced to the top 13.

On March 13, 2012, it was announced that Jones would be disqualified from the competition after failing to disclose that he had been previously arrested on two separate occasions, one of them being a violent crime. He is the second Idol contestant to be disqualified from the finals, after the same thing happened to Corey Clark in the second season. A clip of his rehearsal of "Somewhere Out There", was shown after his removal from the show and would have been his performance that night.

[edit]Performances/results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist	Order #	Result
Audition	Auditioner's Choice	"Superstar"	Delaney & Bonnie	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 1	First Solo	"Superstar"	Delaney & Bonnie	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	Not aired		N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 3	Second Solo	Not aired		N/A	Advanced
Las Vegas Round	Songs from the 1950s Group Performance	"Make It Easy on Yourself"	Jerry Butler	N/A	Advanced
Final Judgement	Final Solo	"I Believe in You and Me"	Four Tops	N/A	Eliminated1
Top 25 (13 Men)	Personal Choice	"Dance with My Father"	Luther Vandross	13	Advanced
Top 13	Stevie Wonder	"Knocks Me Off My Feet"	Stevie Wonder	3	Bottom 3 Men2
Top 12	Year They Were Born	Did not perform and was disqualified due to failing to disclose his criminal record.

Jeremy Rosado

Early life

Rosado graduated from Durant High School in 2010.^[2] He is currently a student at Hillsborough Community College^[3] and works at the front desk clerk at an infectious diseases doctor's office.^[4]His musical influences are Francesca Battistelli, Kirk Franklin and Israel Houghton.^[4]

[edit]American Idol

Rosado auditioned for American Idol four times in a row previously to the eleventh season.^[4] Jennifer Lopez has dubbed him as "Jer-Bear."^[5]

In the semi-finals, Rosado performed "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. He was not one of the top five vote getters, but was one of the six contestants selected to perform in the wild card round. In the wild card round, he performed "I Know You Won't" by Carrie Underwood and was one of the three contestants selected to be a wild card and advanced to the top 13. In the top 13, he performedStevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky". He was the lowest male vote getter and went against Elise Testone, as the lowest female vote getter. The judges chose to save Testone and Rosado was eliminated from the competition. He is the first male and fourth wild card finalist to be the eliminated first in the finals.

[edit]Performances/results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist	Order #	Result
Audition	Auditioner's Choice	Not aired		N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 1	First Solo	"Superstar"	Delaney & Bonnie	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	"Mercy"	Duffy	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 3	Second Solo	Not aired		N/A	Advanced
Las Vegas Round	Songs from the 1950s Group Performance	"Rockin' Robin"	Bobby Day	N/A	Advanced
Final Judgement	Final Solo	"I Know You Won't"	Carrie Underwood	N/A	Advanced
Top 25 (13 Men)	Personal Choice	"Gravity"	Sara Bareilles	5	Wild Card
Wild Card	Personal Choice	"I Know You Won't"	Carrie Underwood	2	Advanced
Top 13	Stevie Wonder	"Ribbon in the Sky"	Stevie Wonder	11	Eliminated

Shannon Magrane

Early life

Her father is former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher and former Tampa Bay Rays broadcaster Joe Magrane.^[3] Magrane is currently a sophomore at Howard W. Blake High School.^[4]

[edit]American Idol

Magrane auditioned in Savannah, Georgia. In the semi-finals she performed "Go Light Your World" by Kathy Troccoli. She was one of the top five female vote getters and advanced to the top 13. In the top 13 she performed "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston and was one of the bottom three female voter getters, but was declared safe. In the top 11, she performed "One Sweet Day" byMariah Carey and Boyz II Men and was eliminated.

[edit]Performances/results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist	Order #	Result
Audition	Auditioner's Choice	"Something's Got a Hold on Me"	Etta James	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 1	First Solo	"Fallin'"	Alicia Keys	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	"Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)"	Blu Cantrell	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 3	Second Solo	"What a Wonderful World"	Louis Armstrong	N/A	Advanced
Las Vegas Round	Songs from the 1950s Group Performance	"At the Hop" / "Blue Suede Shoes"	Danny & the Juniors / Carl Perkins	N/A	Advanced
Final Judgement	Final Solo	"The Trouble with Love Is"	Kelly Clarkson	N/A	Advanced
Top 25 (12 Women)	Personal Choice	"Go Light Your World"	Kathy Troccoli	10	Advanced
Top 13	Whitney Houston	"I Have Nothing"	Whitney Houston	6	Bottom 3 Women1
Top 11	Year They Were Born	"One Sweet Day"	Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men	6	Eliminated

Erika Van Pelt

Early life

Van Pelt was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2002, she moved to South Kingstown, Rhode Island.Van Pelt sang at church in the children's choir and at the age of seven was singing solos with the adult choir.^[6]

Van Pelt went to South Kingstown High School and joined the vocal jazz music ensemble and chorus and was involved in musical theatre.^[6] She was in groups that received first places at the Rhode Island All State Jazz Choir, Rhode Island All-State Chorus, All New England Chorus and All-Eastern Chorus competitions.^{[citation needed]} She was a founding member of a cappella group called SoundCheck.^[7]

Van Pelt attended Community College of Rhode Island and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and studied jazz, rock, pop and soul along with production and engineering.^{[citation needed]} .After college, in 2005, she launched her own company, VP Entertainment, a full-service mobile DJ company, and became an independent contractor with Kaleidoscope Kabaret, performing throughout New England at major venues including Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.^[6] She performs part-time with The Sultans of Swing, and is a performing partner of Fairhaven Entertainment and Boston Swing.^{[citation needed]}

Her recent major live performances include the national production "If You're Irish" and the annual "Chance to Dance" shows at the Providence Performing Arts Center, as well Boston Swing with Mark Maher at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston, Massachusetts.^{[citation needed]} In February and March of 2010, she starred alongside Matthew Royality-Lindman in The Contemporary Theater Company's production of The Last 5 Years.^[8] She has been a member of the company since 2010, also caroling with the company's holiday singers each year since 2009.

[edit]Influences

Van Pelt draws her influences anywhere from Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Pink, Joss Stone, Jill Scott, and Kim Burrell.^{[citation needed]} She has a passion for rhythm and blues, soul, country, jazz, rock and classical.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]American Idol

Van Pelt auditioned for the eleventh season of American Idol in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the semi-final round, she performed Heart's "What About Love", but was not one of the five highest female vote getters. The judges selected her to be one of the six wild card performers. She performed Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory" and was selected as one of the three wild cards to advance to the Top 13. Van Pelt was eliminated on March 22, 2012, after cutting her usually shoulder length locks to a pixie cut. Over all, finishing in tenth place.

[edit]Performances/results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist	Order #	Result
Audition	Auditioner's Choice	"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"	The Shirelles	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 1	First Solo	"Glitter in the Air"	Pink	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	Not aired		N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 3	Second Solo	Not aired		N/A	Advanced
Las Vegas Round	Songs from the 1950s Group Performance	"Great Balls of Fire" / "Shake a Tail Feather"	Jerry Lee Lewis / The Five Du-Tones	N/A	Advanced
Final Judgement	Final Solo	"Don't You Remember"	Adele	N/A	Advanced
Top 25 (12 Women)	Personal Choice	"What About Love"	Toronto	2	Wild Card
Wild Card	Personal Choice	"The Edge of Glory"	Lady Gaga	5	Advanced
Top 13	Whitney Houston	"I Believe in You and Me"	Four Tops	4	Bottom 3 Women1
Top 11	Year They Were Born	"Heaven"	Bryan Adams	8	Bottom 32
Top 10	Billy Joel	"New York State of Mind"	Billy Joel	2	Eliminated

Joshua Ledet

Early life

Ledet grew up in the small woody suburb city of Westlake in Louisiana's Calcasieu Parish, a part of the Lake Charles metropolitan area near Calcasieu River. His home life was slow and easy paced with lots of family get-togethers and friends sleeping over, the focus was "food and fun."^[4] In 2003, when he was eleven he watched another southern soul singer, Fantasia Barrino, sing "I Believe" in the final show and win the third season of American Idol and knew he would like to sing for a living.^[5] Ledet graduated from Westlake High School where he was a part of the school's theater program for all four years of school.^[1][6][5] If he could not be a singer he would likely be an actor.^[7] The first concert he ever attended was by Beyoncé.^[7] He grew up singing in his family church and writes songs and lyrics for and attends the House of Prayer Holiness Church.^[1][8] He has a large extended family and said his proudest moment outside singing is being an uncle to all his nieces and nephews.^[7]

When asked to tell something about himself that would surprise most people he stated it was that he only eats spicy food.^[7] He noted on the reality show that he missed Louisiana Creole cuisineso Louisiana Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne established a "Feed the Dream" project with the state's Seafood and Marketing Board to ship Ledet food each week including tamales, crawfish, boudin (aCajun sausage), (chicken, duck and andouille) gumbo and jambalaya, donated by Louisiana restaurants and food manufacturers.^[8][9][10] He said a dish he probably could not live without is rice and gravy, from Creole cuisine, usually a brown gravy based on pan drippings, which are deglazed and simmered with extra seasonings and served over steamed or boiled rice.^[11]

According to the American Idol highlights, Ledet was studying criminal justice at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

[edit]Musical influences

On his American Idol contestant page he notes his mother influences his musical style and he has had no formal singing training.^[7] His favorite male artist is Michael Jackson "because his style in music is unique and genius," Ledet would model his career like Jackson's because he was able to help so many people.^[7] His favorite female artist is Whitney Houston because of her voice.^[7]He would love to meet and sing with Fantasia Burrino as she is his favorite singer, and his dream song to sing is "I Will Always Love You".^[7] His musical influences include Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Fantasia Barrino, James Brown, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John.^[12] His favorite type of music to sing is soul but listening to music he prefers country music.^[13] When asked what was the most embarrassing song he listens to he said Aqua's "Barbie Girl."^[14]

[edit]American Idol

Ledet originally auditioned a year earlier (for the tenth season), but did not make it past the audition stage.^[12] It has been revealed he was dealing with personal and family issues including situations caused by Hurricane Rita and its aftermath. His American Idol journey has been seen as somewhat effortless by music critics who note his soul singing is exceptional but may not be contemporary enough, however he is one of the best singers within the last few years of AI.^[15] His performances have repeatedly earned him standing ovations and high praise from the judges.^[16]He says he combats stage fright by tuning everything out.^[7] George Huff (season three in 2004) is the only other Louisiana singer to make the top ten shows.^[8]

Ledet auditioned for the eleventh season of AI in Houston, Texas. He almost did not travel to compete due to his fear of flying. He has been dubbed "Mantasia", the male version of former Idolcontestant Fantasia, by fans, the media and even Fantasia herself.^[17][18] For the semi-finals he performed Jennifer Hudson's "You Pulled Me Through". He was one of the top five male vote getters and advanced to the top 13. In the top 13, he performed Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" and was one of the bottom three male voter getters, but was declared safe.

Ledet earned his first standing ovation in Hollywood Round, Part 3 when he sang his version of Jar of Hearts by Patty Griffin. In the Top 8 round, Ledet earned his first standing ovation of the evening for his rendition of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes's "If You Don't Know Me by Now". His duet of George Michael and Aretha Franklin's "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" with fellow contestant Jessica Sanchez got a second standing ovation from the judges, prompting Jackson to declare "Two of the greatest singers to ever hit this competition ... This is one of the greatest performances I have seen on this show".^[19][20] Kris Allen, AI season eight winner, named the pair as his two favorites this season.^[21] During the top five show the judges gave Ledet the most praise of all the contestants for his versions of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by The Temptations (for theme songs from the 1960s), and the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" (for theme British Pop).^[22]Ledet received a grand total of 18 standing ovations from the judges, including his duet with Season 3 winner Fantasia Barrino at Season 11 finale. He was eliminated on May 17, 2012, placing third overall.

[edit]Performances/results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist
Audition	Auditioner's Choice	Not aired
Hollywood Round, Part 1	First Solo	Not aired
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	"Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)"	Blu Cantrell
Hollywood Round, Part 3	Second Solo	"Jar of Hearts"	Christina Perri
Las Vegas Round	Songs from the 1950s Group Performance	"At the Hop" / "Blue Suede Shoes"	Danny & the Juniors / Carl Perkins
Final Judgment	Final Solo	"Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)"	Patty Griffin
Top 25 (13 Men)	Personal Choice	"You Pulled Me Through"	Jennifer Hudson
Top 13	Stevie Wonder	"I Wish"	Stevie Wonder
Top 11	Year They Were Born	"When a Man Loves a Woman"	Percy Sledge
Top 10	Billy Joel	"She's Got a Way"	Billy Joel
Top 9	Their Personal Idols	Trio "The Lady in My Life" / "Rock with You" / "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" with DeAndre Brackensick & Heejun Han	Michael Jackson
		Solo "Without You"	Badfinger
Top 8	Songs from the 1980s	Solo "If You Don't Know Me by Now"	Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
		Duet "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" with Jessica Sanchez	Aretha Franklin & George Michael
Top 7	Songs from the 2010s	Solo "Runaway Baby"	Bruno Mars
		Trio "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" with Hollie Cavanagh & Jessica Sanchez	Kelly Clarkson
Top 71	Songs from Now & Then	"I Believe"	Fantasia Barrino
		"A Change Is Gonna Come"	Sam Cooke
Top 6	Queen	"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"	Queen
	Contestant's Choice	"Ready for Love"	India.Arie
Top 5	Songs from the 1960s	Duet "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" with Phillip Phillips	The Righteous Brothers
		Solo "Ain't Too Proud to Beg"	The Temptations
	British Pop	"To Love Somebody"	Bee Gees
Top 4	California Dreamin'	Solo "You Raise Me Up"	Secret Garden
		Duet "This Love" with Phillip Phillips	Maroon 5
		Quartet "Waiting for a Girl Like You" with Hollie Cavanagh, Phillip Phillips & Jessica Sanchez	Foreigner
	Songs They Wish They'd Written	"It's a Man's Man's Man's World"	James Brown
Top 3	Judges' Choice	"I'd Rather Go Blind"	Etta James
	Contestant's Choice	"Imagine"	John Lennon
	Jimmy Iovine's Choice	"No More Drama"	Mary J. Blige