Meet New Jersey's Samantha Sharpe as she aims to become the next 'American Idol'
Watch American Idol Sunday at 8:00 p.m. on ABC!
BASKING RIDGE, New Jersey (WABC) -- Samantha Sharpe from New Jersey is hoping to become the next American Idol!
The 25-year-old from Basking Ridge is no stranger to performing as a member of her family's musical group called the Sharpe Family Singers.
They bill themselves as a modern-day Partridge Family and have gained more than 5.5M followers on TikTok.
Samantha says she's been singing since before turning a year old and she's been watching Idol since the first season when Kelly Clarkson won.
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"I told my mom and dad, 'that's going to be me one day.' I can't believe it actually happened," Sharpe told WABC-TV's Sandy Kenyon.
Sharpe got a golden ticket on Sunday night and is heading to Hollywood!
You can watch her audition here:
"I just wanted to go and sing my best. I felt like I sang my best for that moment with all the nerves and everything going on. I had my family there. I felt I did the very best I could do," Sharpe said.
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Having her family on stage during her performance also meant the world, she said.
"I was hoping I could get to experience this whole thing with my family and that made it so much better for me. I do everything with them when it comes to singing and having them there was like my rock the whole time," she said.
A bit of trivia... Samantha's parents met as romantic leads, Marcus and Cosette, in the original Broadway production of Les Misérables.
According to the Sharpe family's website, the full recording of the song that Samantha performs on 'American Idol' will be released after the show.
