‘American Idol’ Hopeful Tom McGovern Auditions With a Song About the Judges [Watch]
American Idol hopeful Tom McGovern won't be going to Hollywood, but he still called the audition experience "straight-up awesome." The 28-year-old jingle writer from Allentown, N.J., performed a peppy tune featuring random facts about Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie in front of all three judges.
"For years, my mom had told me to audition / I never thought I'd have a chance to go / But here I am, 'cause Idol gave permission / So there's a couple things my mom said I should know," McGovern's song begins. Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, he devoted a few lines to each of the three judges: Perry's "teeth are nice and crowded on the bottom row like mine" and Richie would "kick your ass in tennis if he ever got the chance."
"And Luke, oh Luke / Your real first name is Thomas, so your son's name's not a fluke / Let Katy poke her fun at all the country things you do / My mom wants you to know that she drinks Metamucil, too," he sang about Bryan, prompting the country star to stand up from his chair in a "touchdown!" pose.
"Hey judges, it's nice to meet ya / Here's a song about some stuff my mom found out on social media," McGovern's song concludes. "If I don't get that golden ticket, if I never hear a call / I'm lucky to have met you three at all."
McGovern, he explained to the judges after they praised his song, is a professional jingle writer; he estimates that he's written more than 200 of the catchy tunes for commercials.
Nonetheless, writing songs for ads and performing onstage are two very different things, and the judges opted not to send McGovern to Hollywood. As Perry summed up, "I'm a 'no' for American Idol, but I'm a 'YES!' for jingles."
The rejection didn't faze McGovern too much: "That was straight-up awesome," he said as he exited the audition room.
American Idol, now in its 19th season, airs on Sunday nights at 8PM ET on ABC. Sunday night's (Feb. 28) episode showed this season's third set of auditions, filmed in California in late 2020.
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