Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Erika Van Pelt goes home after a makeover

Last week, my least favorite American Idol season 11 contestant Erika Van Pelt, who was chosen as a Wild Card by Randy Jackson, got eliminated at number 10 after getting a makeover to "Little Nicky" hairstyle courtesy of Tommy Hilfiger. She performed "New York State of Mind". She was in the bottom 3 with Wild Card DeAndre Brackensick and Vote for the Worst pick Heejun Han. She was confused by the American Idol judges' advice.

Van Pelt was born on December 12, 1985, in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2002, she relocated to South Kingstown, Rhode Island. She sang at church in the children's choir and at the age of seven was singing solos with the adult choir. She attended South Kingstown High School and joined the vocal jazz ensemble and chorus and was involved in musical theatre. She was in groups that received first places at the Rhode Island All State Jazz Choir, Rhode Island All-State Chorus, All New England Chorus and All-Eastern Chorus competitions.  She was one of the original members of a cappella group known as SoundCheck. Van Pelt attended Community College of Rhode Island and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied rock, pop, jazz, and soul alongside production and engineering.

After college, in 2005, Van Pelt launched her own company, VP Entertainment, a full-service mobile DJ company, and became an independent contractor with Kaleidoscope Kabaret, performing throughout New England at major venues including Foxwoods Resorts Casino and Mohegan Sun. She performs part-time with The Sultans of Swing, and is a performing partner of Fairhaven Entertainment and Boston Swing.

Tonight, the top 9 perform songs by their personal idols. That theme was previously used for top 13 week last season.

No comments: