Strongest Audition of American Idol 2025

Ladies and gentlemen. Hi. Hey. Hello, hello. How are you? I am great. I'm excited to be here. Well, what is your name? Tell me about yourself. My name is Gabby Simone and I am from Baltimore, Maryland. I'm 22 years old. What have you done as far as singing? So I started posting on Instagram in 2020 and one of my videos went viral. From then, Jennifer Hudson found my Instagram page and I'm like, how you get on the side of the internet, Jennifer? Well, you sound just like her. You know that that was a, that was a, oh my God, great impersonation. I'm like, how did you get over here? And you know, she reached out to me and asked me to be on her show. I grew up watching her and for her to reach out to me is like super duper surreal. It made me feel like I'm not doing all of this for nothing. After the show, she still wanted to keep in touch and I reached out to her about American Idol and she said, go for it. You should definitely do it. And I'm here today. Yeah. It was surreal. It was a crazy moment. So you're used to all of this. You've had a little experience. That's great. A little bit, yeah. You shouldn't be nervous at all. I'm just excited and honored to be here. What are you going to sing for us? I am singing Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin. Okay. Ooh. There you go. All right. ♪ Looking out on the morning rain, yeah. ♪ ♪ I used to feel so uninspired. ♪ ♪ And when I knew I had to face another day, oh yeah. ♪ ♪ Oh, it made me feel so tired. ♪ ♪ Before the day I met you, my life was so unkind. ♪ ♪ But you're the key to my peace of mind. ♪ ♪ You make me feel like a natural woman, yeah. ♪ ♪ Oh, baby, what you've done to me, yeah. ♪ ♪ Baby, you made me feel so good inside. ♪ ♪ I wanna be, I wanna be close to you. ♪ ♪ Make me feel like a natural woman, yeah. ♪ ♪ You, you, baby, you, you, you, you, yeah. ♪ ♪ Feel like a natural woman, a natural woman. ♪ All right, well then. Thank you. How'd you feel, Luke? Well, what I, first of all, you were nervous at first. Yes, she was. But then you got un-nervous. Un-nerved-ous. And the more you got un-nervous, the more I got chilly. The best thing going on about you is you have this little star thing. You just look like a little star. And then you sing like a big ol' star. So, and it's exciting. It's exciting. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm sitting over here trying to control myself because. No, you know what it is, you started out, and I must admit, it was weak at the beginning. I called it fear, a little nervous. And then you hit one note, and then three notes, and ladies and gentlemen, the room blew up. That was spectacular. I'm so happy for you, your family, and certainly for this show. Thank you. Because you need to be heard. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Yeah, you're gorgeous. You have a beautiful, bright smile. It's like you're warm without even doing anything, you know, and then once you start talking, once you start singing, you just need some confidence. And I love that I feel like you're a diamond. We just gotta just polish a little bit. Thanks, it's really good. Thank you so much. I'm a yes. Your future, I'm a yes. Let's go. Three yeses. Oh my God.