Carrie Underwood has made a remarkable return to the show that brought her fame, American Idol. After less than 10 episodes, she may have already found the next Taylor Swift during auditions in Nashville, Tennessee.
During auditions for the show in Nashville, the “Before He Cheats” singer met a young singer-songwriter named Zaylie Windsor, who blew her away with an original song. The clip of Zaylie’s audition not only gained a lot of attention online because of her beautiful voice, but also because Carrie compared her to megastar Taylor Swift while vouching for her to make it to the show’s famous Hollywood week. Read more about the viral audition below.
Zaylie Windsor Auditions For ‘American Idol’ With An Original Song
On Sunday, March 30th, the American Idol crew and judges, including alum Carrie Underwood, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan, touched down in Nashville, Tennessee, to meet and listen to more potential contestants for the famous competition series.
The record-making country star first auditioned for the show in 2004 in Missouri before becoming its fourth-season winner. Since her career has become so massive since then, and she had first-hand experience as a contestant, fans of the series were very excited to see that she would be joining as a judge.
Nashville is a city full of talent, and although the judges met a few Tennessee natives, they also got to witness some out-of-town talent during the auditions. One of those out-of-towners was 20-year-old Zaylie Windsor from Safford, Arizona.
Zaylie walked in with an acoustic guitar and chose to sing a breakup song she had written when she was only 14, titled “The Used.” While she sang, the judges looked on and listened intently, with Carrie flashing a few smiles during certain moments of the song.
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Carrie Underwood Says Zaylie Windsor Has A 'Taylor Swift-esque' Voice
After Zaylie finished her song, she received praise from both Lionel and Carrie. The "All American Girl" vocalist took a particular liking to her, explaining that she had "soaring" vocals and that she was "impressed" by the "artistry" of her song.
On the other hand, country star Luke Bryan disagreed with his co-judge, telling her and Lionel he didn't think Zaylie was "quite ready" to compete in the intense competition series and go to Hollywood for further performances.
"I just want to see if Carrie wants to fight for you or not," said Luke before allowing Carrie to defend the young singer, which is when she made the attention-grabbing comparison between Zaylie and one of today's biggest celebrities.
"There's a Taylor Swift-esque quality that she has," said Carrie.
"She doesn't have this giant vibrato [or] belt-y voice, but there's something in there."
The Oklahoma native continued, stating that if Zaylie could write such an impressive song at only 14, she must have "a lot of other things in her arsenal that she could bring to the table."
"I feel like there's something about her," she added.
After the season four champion made her case for Zaylie, she received enough approval from the judges' panel. She made it to Hollywood week, where she sang an impressive cover of Billie Eilish's "Happier Than Ever." Afterward, many fans felt she proved Luke wrong.
With a new episode of American Idol airing tonight, viewers will have to see how far Zaylie makes it and whether or not she really is Taylor Swift material.
