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Who Is Kimi Robinson? All About The American Idol Contestant Who Won A Golden Ticket After Leaving Judges Teary-Eyed With Emotional Performance
After a third chance, Brooklynite singer Kimi Robinson, originally from Kosovo, was able to impress the judges enough to get a Golden Ticket. Here is what happened.
Some American Idol contestants are able to blow the judges away immediately and secure their ticket to Hollywood. And some need little nudges from the judges to finally let their talent out of the cage. This was the case with the Brooklyn-dwelling contestant from Kosovo, Kimi Robinson, who had a beautiful story, but needed a little reassurance from Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie, and Luke Bryan.
Who is Kimi Robinson?
Kimi Robinson is a server who came to America from Kosovo six years ago to fulfill his dream of appearing on American Idol. Even though he has not seen his family in the last six years, it has always been his dream to come to this show as he used to watch it with his mother regularly when he was a child.
He told the judges Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie, and Luke Bryan that he would grab his mom to sit next to him, and “Me and her would watch American Idol every day. My mom had a beautiful voice when she was young, and everyone tells me that I sing just like her.”
Unfortunately, when Kimi was old enough, his mother was not able to sing anymore. Kimi was born during wartime in Kosovo, which was in 1998-99. During the war, his mother suffered too much trauma and when he was just 2 years old, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and PTSD, and required constant care.
“I would feed her every morning. I would help her get up and put her clothes on. It was very hard, but the most hard part was I would see her crying. She would cry on my shoulders. My mom gets in a very dark place where sometimes she doesn't want to talk to nobody,” he recalled. Then he talked about how he wanted to bring his mother a little bit of happiness through the song he was going to sing on American Idol. When I would sing to her, she would be so happy that she would see herself in me and that's why I do all this. I want to do it for my mom because she was unable to do it, so I want to do it for both of us,” he said.
What did Kimi sing and how did the judges react?
It can be safe to say that though moved by his story, the judges were not immediately smitten with Kimi’s singing as the New Yorker started to sing Heal by Tom Odell. "The problem is, you're being a little premeditated and proper with it. If we can get you to just not think about singing so technical. I'm not sure that song really showcases a lot,” Luke Bryan told him after his first try.
Lionel Ritchie also told him to give the judges the “I told you so,” which inspired Kim to sing Adele’s Love in the Dark, which also did not impress the judges much more. Katy Perry asked Kim, "Are you going to sing defeated like that for your mom?"
However, the third time proved to be a charm for Kim as the judges got a hold of his mother via FaceTime on his phone. And when Kim finally started to sing an Albanian song, Kosova Nena Ime, he brought tears to everyone’s eyes. His mother’s presence on the other side of the line made the singer finally let his heart out through his singing and earned him three yeses and a ticket to Hollywood. And Kimi said, "I'm very proud of where I come from because we went through hell, especially my mom and dad.”
ALSO READ: American Idol Season 22: Premiere date, where to watch, and what to expect from new season
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