There’s no doubt that “American Idol” always delivers great TV moments, including not only amazingly talented singers but also their emotional and heart-rending stories. That’s the case of the season 22 contestant McKenna Breinholt, whose beautiful voice was only matched by her moving life’s story of being adopted and finding her musical roots in her late mother’s legacy.
Episode after episode, McKenna did wonders not only in continuingly touching the hearts of the audience with her music, but also going beyond her limits, experimenting with several music genres and styles, leaving the judges more than impressed.
Unfortunately, McKenna didn’t make it to the season’s finale, yet gained huge popularity while in the show.
All of this leads us to wonder why she was eliminated from “American Idol”, what McKenna is doing now, and what are her plans for the future. So keep listening to find out!
Despite delivering excellent performances during her “American Idol” appearances, McKenna Breinholt was eliminated from the competition during the top seven night, alongside fellow singer Julia Gagnon, which came even after receiving favorable comments from the judges for performing Katy Perry’s “E.T.” and Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love”.
One day after her elimination on 5 May 2024, McKenna posted an Instagram pic thanking her fans for their support throughout the competition, describing her exit as her going out ‘with a bang,’ but intriguing her fans by affirming her journey in the show wasn’t ‘over quite yet’.
Later on 10 May, she updated her Instagram again to say that she had some time ‘to ponder on all things good and bad’, concluding that despite it being one of the hardest things she’d ever done, the experience of being in the show was enjoyable and left her feeling happy. She also promised to return to the studio once she was back home in her native Arizona.
While it’s still unclear what projects McKenna is working on in the meantime, there’s no doubt that she’s planning on continuing her musical journey.
We saw McKenna Breinholt for the first time during the Nashville auditions, and it didn’t take long for her to surprise us with her voice and skillful piano playing while singing. Her first song in the show was Dolly Parton and Zach Williams’ “There Was Jesus”, which McKenna performed in such a way that the judges couldn’t help but be moved by it.
Following a heartwarming encounter with her adoptive and biological families in the studio, McKenna sang “Tumbleweed”, a song by her late mother who was part of the duo Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl.
The next time we saw McKenna in the show was when she sang Adele’s “When We Were Young” at the Idol Arena in California. She also performed Demi Lovato’s “Anyone” before advancing to the Hawaii Round alongside 23 other contestants, when mentored by Tori Kelly and singing Brandi Carlile’s “The Story”.
McKenna’s following appearance in the show was during the Top 20 round episode, when her rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” got her a safe spot in the top 14 contestants. Her next performances were Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”, Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan”, the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” and Lissie’s “Everywhere I Go”, before finally making it into the final top seven contestants, but then being eliminated.
There’s no doubt that McKenna has one of the most unique and heartwarming stories of season 22 of “American Idol”. In her audition, McKenna talked about her uncommon family background, as she was adopted by the Breinholt family when a baby and didn’t have any contact with her biological family.
Despite knowing that she didn’t have any blood ties with her family, McKenna is very close to her family. She naturally leaned toward music, but that passion didn’t make much sense to McKenna until she turned 21 years old, and discovered the identity of her biological mother, who happened to be a free-spirited singer named Amy Ross Lopez.
So glad to see McKenna Faith Breinholt of Gilbert in the Top 24 on @AmericanIdol. I spoke to McKenna about her emotionally charged audition, which included the story of learning her birth mom was Amy Ross Lopez of Nowhere Man & A Whiskey Girl. @azcentral https://t.co/NLNn1594TA
— Ed Masley (@EdMasley) April 10, 2024
Her mother was part of the musical duo Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl, alongside her husband Derrick Ross. As it happened, Amy put McKenna upfor adoption not long after giving birth, at a time when she was already struggling with Lupus.
Unfortunately, Amy died in 2013 from kidney failure related to Lupus, but the heartbreak of finding out that her mother was dead before getting to meet her didn’t stop McKenna from connecting not only with Amy’s family but with her music as well. Though she’d already been in contact with her mother’s family for a while, it was her audition in “American Idol” that brought McKenna and her two families together for the first time.
It’s unclear when or how exactly McKenna Breinholt discovered her musical talents, but she began her musical career at 16 years old by joining Cinematic Pop, a musical act centered on mixing classical music and modern pop songs.
According to Cinematic Pop’s website, one of McKenna’s biggest successes with the company was a rendition of “Hallelujah” posted on YouTube in 2015 which nowadays has over 13 million views. The website reveals that McKenna’s talents extend beyond singing and playing the piano, as she’s also an avid guitarist, songwriter, and music arranger.
Regarding her professional life, McKenna was introduced to the show as an esthetician. However, there’s an existing profile of McKenna on an aviation site which states that she worked as a Flight Operations Support Specialist at some point.
Throughout the years, McKenna Breinholt has independently released several singles. Her debut song was “I Wanted You”, released in February 2017 when she was around 19 years old.
She released several singles that year, including “Shooting Stars”, “Love It” and “The Way You Are”, though “I Wanted You” remains the most popular out of these with almost three million streams on Spotify.
In 2018, McKenna released “Up In Fire”, followed by “Back To You”, “Chicago” and “Save Me” in 2019. The next year she released the songs “Good Kind Of Trouble” and a cover of John Mayer’s “Edge Of Desire”, then took a break for a couple of years before returning in 2023 with a cover of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” by The Piano Guys.
McKenna has also found moderate success on YouTube, getting close to hitting the mark of 400,000 views combined on her channel.
All in all, McKenna’s career is still in its early stage, yet her appearances in “American Idol” will surely help her move forward professionally.