Who is Laila Mach? Meet 15-year-old 'American Idol' contestant from NY who floored judges with her songwriting
Laila Mach from upstate New York auditioned with an original song for a spot on 'American Idol'. Speaking about the song, the 15-year-old said it was inspired by 'American Idol' Season 16 contestant and popular country singer Gabbie Barrett's song 'I do'. However, Laila insisted that the version she wrote was a little 'angrier'. She went ahead to perform the song as well as play the piano while at it, which elevated her performance.
The judges were completely immersed in the whole experience that Laila had created inside the audition room with her song. The audition also highlighted the fact that Laila was an exceptionally talented writer with an ability to make people feel all the emotions through her songs and when the time came to give her feedback on her performance, all the judges had nice things to say.
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Who is Laila Mach on 'American Idol'?
Laila Mach is a the teenager from New Paltz high school in Hudson Valley, New York. Speaking to ABC7 about why she chose an original song inspired by her favorite artist Gabbie, she said, "I was nervous to do an original, I originally wasn't going to, but it was more of a last-minute thing where I was like, you know what, maybe I should just try. I would rather go in there and take a risk than go in there and play it safe if there was a chance that my risk would have gotten me far." She also added that even though she didn't remember much of what happened during her 'Idol' performance but she knew that it was one of the best she had ever done.
What did the judges say about Laila Mach?
“You had me completely fooled, I thought you were the nicest, sweetest. Let me just give you songwriting props,” Lionel Richie told her. "For 15 years old or any age, that was a great song," he added. "You’re exactly what it takes to be in this competition and can go far," Katy Perry said about Laila's performance. Luke Bryan too wasn't far behind with the praise and said, “Great job to be able to come in here in a very stressful moment and to be confident about what you just did," before adding, “That’s hard to do, It took me years to master that and I still don’t have it all the way down. Very impressive, thank you for being here.”
Catch up with Laila Mach's music on her YouTube channel that has 31.2K subscribers. You can also follow her on Instagram, her handle is @lailamofficial.
Catch new episodes of 'American Idol' on Sundays at 8 pm ET on ABC.