Four Arizona contestants will be in the mix when “American Idol” Season 23 starts on Sunday, March 9.
Carrie Underwood, who rose to fame on “Idol” 20 years ago (and last
played metro Phoenix in 2023 ), replaces Katy Perry as a judge this season. She joins returning judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. Ryan Seacrest will, of course, return as host. It wouldn’t be “Idol” without him. The Arizona Republic caught up with the four Arizona contestants to get a sense of who they are and what they do, what drew them to compete on “American Idol” and where they’re hoping this journey might lead. Here’s what we learned.
Sophia Humbert of Anthem, Arizona
Sophia Humbert is a 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Anthem who recently graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in music. "I watched 'American Idol' as a kid," she says. "I was just always inspired by the talent I saw on those shows and what it does for people." Her audition was fun. "You'll have to tune in to find out what happened," she says. "But I went in singing a piano version of 'Before He Cheats' by Carrie Underwood, and you'll have to see if they liked it." The music Humbert writes, she says, is "somewhere in the pop world, but I'm still discovering, I think, my sound. That's kind of a big thing I've been focusing on this year, to kind of nail down what feels authentic to me." Her inspirations range from Taylor Swift — "I can't
not say Taylor Swift," she says — to Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith. "What I find to be the tying line through the pop songwriters is just the vulnerability that lies within their writing," she says. "That's two very different sides, but I'm trying to find that middle ground through my sound and songwriting. So it's a work in progress." She's hoping people tuning in to "Idol" get to see who she is as an artist. "I have been gigging for most of my life, and it's a lot of singing cover songs, but making them your own," she says. "And I hope that people can see that and recognize that, because that's a big part of, I think, my journey, is finding my own style from singing thousands of cover songs over the past 10 years. I feel like that's how I've discovered some of my certain sonic signatures and things I jump to in my own songwriting. I hope that shows through. That's my biggest hope."
Drew Ryniewicz of Chino Valley, Arizona
Drew Ryniewicz is a 28-year-old singer-songwriter from Chino Valley. "The reason I wanted to do 'American Idol,' I found my old journal from 2008 when I was 11, and my very first concert of my whole life was Carrie Underwood," she says. "So it feels very full circle to be able to, now that I'm 28, get to go on the show, get to meet her and show her my journal. It just felt like my whole life led up to it. I used to vote. I still have the old voting phone number memorized. I would sit in front of my TV and get the house phone, and I would vote and vote and vote for Carrie Underwood." Ryniewicz lives in Nashville now. "So going from Arizona, seeing (Carrie Underwood) at my very first concert, to living in Nashville, where she also lives, it just felt like a really cool opportunity I couldn't pass up on," she says. For her audition, she chose an original song inspired by her previous experience on a talent competition. "I was on 'The X Factor' in 2011 and I was majorly cyber-bullied," she says. "Instagram came out that year, and it was just brutal. Really brutal. I was bullied a lot for my looks. I was bullied for my voice, the way I stood, the way my mom looked." She was 14 and made it to the finals, but it was not a good experience. "As a young girl coming from a small town like Chino Valley, there were six people in my class and I just didn't have a gauge of what presenting myself to the world would feel like," she says. "It was raw. And I didn't deal with the pressure very well, because I just didn't believe in myself. So I wanted to reintroduce myself on television with that story and who I am now." She deals with pressure much differently now that she's older. "It was a great opportunity to be able to share that story through a song and do this television thing differently, I guess," she says. "It's a new journey, a different chapter of my life, and I think it went pretty well. But you'll have to tune in to find out." She says she draws a lot of inspiration from "the greats," especially singers known for their big voices. "If you meshed Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne with Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, I think somewhere in between there you would find maybe my style," she says. "I love big ballads. When I write, I write a lot in metaphors and it's very poetic. So I think I just take from a more old style of writing." She's a pop artist, Ryniewicz says, but she's also been dabbling in EDM. "I write a lot of top lines for DJs, which is funny because I don't really go to the club," she says with a laugh. "But writing a top line for EDM is very similar to writing a ballad." She's hoping that "Idol" allows her to "show a little bit more of who I am personally," she says. "I get very hung up on the business side of doing music because I've been doing it for so long. I really want to get back to who I truly am as an artist, who I truly am as a person. And 'Idol' is the home for people to tell their stories. It's a place where you do get to share a lot about your real life and your feelings and your heart."
Zaylie Windsor of Safford, Arizona
Zaylie Windsor is an 18-year-old singer-songwriter from Safford. "I've been auditioning the past couple years," she says. "And this year, I was like, 'I don't know. Maybe I'll just not do it.' And my mom was telling me, 'Just try it one more time. It's OK if it doesn't work out.' And this ended up working out. So I was really happy about that." She hasn't watched the show much lately. "But in my younger years, I'd watch it with my mom and I would just sit there and be like, 'I want to do that. I want to audition,'" she says. "So it's just been really cool, remembering back then when I would watch the show with my mom, and I saw the judges on TV, and now I'm, like, auditioning in front of them." Her audition went off really well. "I was so nervous, like I am right now, if you can't tell," Windsor says, with a nervous laugh. "I'm not super good at talking. I feel like I'm a lot better at just performing. I feel like I get up there and I try to talk and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh. Why did I say that?' But I think it went good." She likes the idea of getting her music out to a bigger audience than she has any hope of playing to in Safford. "I'm from a very small town," Windsor says. "There's not really, like, a music scene here at all. We have, like, one bar that has their band that they play every Friday. Basically that's it. So I feel like I've just been really trying to get out there all my life." She started an open mic in town and she's been doing that for two years now. "And I've played every single festival under the sun here in my town," Windsor says. "I've been gigging for a long time, since I was 12. So I'm really hoping that maybe 'American Idol' can get me out of this little small town on to bigger and better things."
Colton Dawson of Chandler, Arizona
Colton Dawson is an 18-year-old country singer from Chandler who has been performing professionally with his dad since he was 15 or 16. "I had a lady that came up at one of the gigs and she mentioned something about ‘American Idol,’" Dawson says. "I hadn’t even thought about it before." His audition in Nashville was "a life-changing experience," he says. "I thought it was extremely fun just to be in Music City and get to meet a lot of friends that have similar interests as me in music and just get to see all the talent that was out there. It was a super special experience." Dawson auditioned with “Where I Find God" by country singer Larry Fleet. "And then my dad came in and we sang a gospel song called 'Angel Band, '" he says. Dawson comes from a musical family. "My brother Chase plays fiddle, my brother Dash sings and plays guitar and both my sisters sing," he says. "My dad got me started singing and playing guitar. We’ve been able to work together the past two or three years and play all over town and all over the country. I credit all that to my upbringing and being in a musical family from the start." His main inspirations are what he calls "the traditional storytellers of country music: Merle Haggard, Keith Whitley, Vern Gosdin, guys like that." It's "super refreshing," he says, to see "some of the newer guys that are keeping it traditional." As for what he hopes to get out of his "Idol" journey, Dawson says, "I just hope to get out there to the world and kind of inspire other people to go for it and chase your dreams like I did and kind of keep country music alive."
When does the next season of American Idol start?
Season 23 of “American Idol” starts on Sunday, March 9. Arizonans can watch it at 7 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
Who replaced Katy Perry on American Idol?
Carrie Underwood, who rose to fame on American Idol 20 years ago, replaced Katy Perry as a judge this season. The returning judges are Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. Ryan Seacrest will, of course, return as host. It wouldn’t be “Idol” without him.
American Idol 2025 where to watch
You can watch "American Idol" 2025 live on ABC on Sunday nights starting March 9, 2025, and streaming on Hulu the next day.
Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at [email protected].
