Five Fun Facts About Emyrson Flora Who’s On “American Idol”
It’s decision time on “American Idol” as the field narrows once again and Emyrson Flora’s fate hangs in the balance.
When “Idol” returns Sunday night for a three-hour special, Jesuit high school teenager Walsh will learn if online voters selected her to be among the top 20 candidates to continue in the competition.
She has already survived a number of cuts – having been chosen from hundreds of auditions in December in Nashville; getting nods from judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie in Hollywood; to make the trip to Hawaii for her first performance where viewers will decide her fate.
After:‘American Idol’ Judges Praise Walsh Jesuit’s Emyrson Flora For Miley Cyrus’ Version Of Song
The show airs Sunday and Monday nights at 8 p.m. on ABC and Hulu.
Here are five facts about Flora.
Hometown Pride
So where does it come from exactly?
Every time Flora appears on the show, the caption lists Cleveland as her hometown.
Well, not exactly.
In the eyes of the producers, anyone who lives in northern Ohio is from Cleveland.
Her parents lived in Hudson when Flora was born. The mailing address of the family’s current home reads Aurora. But according to tax records, the family actually resides near Reminderville.
Based on this address, if she went to a public school, she would go to Twinsburg. Flora actually attends the private Catholic Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls. And she attended St. Rita Private School, a Catholic elementary school in Solon, before that.
Come to think of it, maybe the producers of Idol were onto something when they just said she was from Cleveland.
age is just a number
At 16, Flora is the show’s youngest contestant.
And being just a junior in high school at Walsh Jesuit, she’s the youngest in terms of level to make the cuts in this season of “Idol.” The other teenagers who appeared this season were actually seniors in high school.
According to the “Idol” rules, a contestant cannot be younger than 15 and no older than 29 at the time of the audition.
The youngest winner in the show’s history was Jordin Sparks who, at 17, was crowned American Idol in 2007.
Flora the student
Flora is still enrolled as a student at Walsh Jesuit.
Very soon after the December audition, Flora was back in her school uniform and taking classes like everyone else. She would leave for a few days to go to Hollywood and record her segments, then come back.
As the peloton dwindled to the Top 23 and she traveled to Hawaii for tapings, she is now with the show full time.
And like all the other students at Cuyahoga Falls Private School, she has homework every night and exams to revise. Flora’s teachers work directly with a tutor provided by the show to make sure she doesn’t fall behind and keeps her grades at bay.
As a minor, she is required by show rules to attend a set number of class hours per week.
Performance anxiety
Flora said on the show that it was her first real attempt to perform live in front of an audience bigger than her phone or a few friends.
She said she started dabbling in singing and then piano and guitar around the age of 8 and has been interested in music ever since.
But she has never performed under such pressure before.
“I just sang in my room pretty quickly,” she said after getting a Hollywood pass after her audition.
Interestingly, she never performed in public at her high school. She did not take choir lessons at Walsh Jesuit but enrolled in the choir class the next year, her senior year.
social media star
His social media following was relatively small — mostly school friends — before his first appearance on “American Idol,” but has grown steadily ever since.
Flora took to social media to hopefully build an audience and vote in her bid to become America’s next idol.
His Instagram account already has some 15,000 subscribers and is growing day by day.
And she TikTok account has reflected the same growth as the show progresses and she continues to survive the cuts.
Flora even created a new Facebook account where she posts updates on the show and photos.
Craig Webb, who is still looking for a way to get paid to watch TV, can be reached at [email protected]