By Dan Murphy
Amara Valerio has been singing for most of her life, and she has lived most of her life in Yonkers. Amara was the Yonkers Junior Idol in 2014, and in 2019 she was asked to sing the National Anthem at the Yonkers Montessori Academy school.
What happened to Amara during that graduation has now been viewed by 11 Million people, and after American Idol on March 12, a total of 20 million people have viewed this unfortunate incident, in which Valerio turned a negative into a positive trip to Hollywood.
As Amara was singing the National Anthem, a YMA graduate walked over took the mike from her and said, “this is my senior graduation class and I would like to sing the National Anthem.”
A shocked Amara didn’t escalate the confrontation with this person, who should be ashamed of herself for what she did, and is now infamous, not only in Yonkers but across the country for her act of bullying, or what she called on Idol getting “Kanye’d” a reference to when Kanye West took the mike from Talyor Swift at the video music awards in 2009. “And the next year started COVID, so I never got to sing at my high school graduation,” explained Amara to the judges.
Amara also showed what a class act she was by withholding the video from the public for 3 years, until last summer when she decided to post it on Tik Tok. Her explaination for posting it was “I just want to reiterate that I posted this cus it’s something crazy that happened to me and now I can look back at it as something funny.”
In addition to the 11 Million views the video received on Tik Tok, a judge from American Idol saw it, and became interested with Amara’s story. That judge watched some of her other Tik Tok videos and saw that she was a talented singer.
Valerio was invited to audtion privately with the non-celebrity judges, who invited her to try out for American Idol. Amara’s audition was televised on March 12, and after singing “Bust Your Windows” by Jazmine Sullivan, she was given a golden American Idol ticket to advance to the next round in Hollywood.
The three American Idol celebrity judges, Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, loved Amara’s voice and her story, and were more than happy to give her some justice, for doing the right thing back in 2019 and today.
“I hit the jackpot! I got the golden ticket and I’m heading to Hollywood! Thanks so much @KatyPerry, @LukeBryan and @LionelRichie! #AmericanIdol #AmaraOnIdol #GoldenTicket #Hollywood,” posted Amara after her win.
Amazingly, the 2019 video never made it to the Yonkers public, nor did any story about what happened to Amara. Luke Bryan wanted to know the name of the person who Kanye’d Amara.
Mark Twain said “you’re never wrong for doing the right thing.” And Twain also knew that a good story will always find its way out into the public.
