Calgary teen singer hits the big stage on ‘American Idol’

After wowing the judges on the television show American Idol, 17-year-old Calgary singer/songwriter Kaiya Gamble is back home and says it was an incredible experience that she never saw coming.

“Oh my gosh, I still am in so much shock it even happened,” she said.

“It felt like some sort of crazy dream come to life.”

Gamble was one of 60,000 singers who were asked to audition on Zoom. She was 16 at the time.

This past October, she learned she made the cut. The singer was one of 300 people selected to sing before the celebrity judges.

“(I was) in front of these incredible judges: Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, who I have watched and listened to my whole life,” Gamble recalled. “So, yeah, it was a little intimidating. But once I got to the piano and started singing …”

She sang a cover of Raye’s “Oscar Winning Tears.”

“Luke Bryan compared my confidence on stage to that of a young Lady Gaga,” Gamble said. “Which is absolutely mind-blowing when you really think about it.”

Mind-blowing is pretty much standard fare these days for the Grade 12 student at Bishop Carroll High School. Her performance earned her another shot, one of 150 singers that went to Hollywood in December.

“I walked in there and completely blacked out for the whole thing and left with a golden ticket and came running to my family,” Gamble said. “It was a really cool and beautiful experience that I got to share with them. I was so happy they got to be there.”

The singer’s dad, Fraser Gamble, said music teachers had previously pointed out his daughter had a special talent when she was very young. She wrote her first song at age 10 and started performing when she was just 11 years old.

“When we first saw her on her first big stage at the Jack Singer (Concert Hall), we were kind of terrified,” Fraser Gamble said. “Because as parents, we watch her run out there, she goes and sings in front of thousands of people, and you think, ‘Is that too early?’”

Turns out, not even close. A veteran at age 17, Kaiya Gamble said her American Idol journey has been an inspiration.

“It really was the people,” she said. “I have never met a nicer group of talented, kind, supportive people. You don’t really know what to expect when you go into the reality TV singing competition environment. But everyone was so supportive, and I have made truly made lifelong friends through this experience.”

What happened in Hollywood can’t be told until American Idol is shown on TV. But Gamble said she will graduate with her friends at Bishop Carroll High School this June and then take that once-in-a-lifetime American Idol experience and start her professional career.

“Just share what I love, which is music and storytelling and connecting with people — just on a bigger scale through (American) Idol. And I hope to do more and more of that with my own artistry.”

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