Page 14 - MidWeek - March 17, 2021

14 MIDWEEK MARCH 17, 2021
From life in a tent to joy in
Tinseltown, American Idol hopefuls Ammon and Liahona Olayan are proving that success can happen in an instant with a great song.
L
then. But once, their dust-up got so per-
And boom, just like that, the Olayans soared into the show’s next round with their winning tickets in hand.
ike most siblings, Ammon and Liahona Olayan are capable of butting heads every now and
Up next for this talented brother-and-sister team that once called Wahiawā and Pāhoa home, is Hollywood Week, which begins this Sunday, March 21, in Tinseltown. There, the
and noted they “should be signed right now,” while Bryan uttered the words about the duo that many viewers likely agreed with: “I think the sky’s the limit, and I’m just freaking out!”
sonal and nasty that the two stopped talking to each other for a period of time.
“We weren’t scrapping or nothing like that, but we said some pretty mean words to each other and went our sep-
arate ways,” recalls Ammon.
“We were holding grudges,” remem-
bers Liahona.
Unlike most brothers and sis-
ters, however, the Olayans are also capable of turning raw emotions into catchy melo- dies and hurt feelings into thoughtful lyrics. In fact, they’re so good at mak- ing music together that they’ve turned their beef into an apparent hit sin- gle with Boom, an orig- inal composition that the pair performed on American
With tickets in hand, former Hawai‘i residents Ammon and Liahona Olayan are ready for the upcoming Hollywood Week showdown. PHOTO COURTESY AMERICAN IDOL
I
g- -
“I’m super excited about Hollywood Week because everyone will get to see the stories of all these people that are competing, and how much they love music and what we all share in common,” says Liahona, 17.
Id
do ol
l b
Olayans will be in another type of fight as they go up against scores of other artists hop- ing to avoid elimination and become the next American Idol.
l
be
ef
fo
or
re
e c
ce
el
le
eb
br
ri
it
ty
y j
ju
ud
dg
es Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.
Liahona and Ammon Olayan’s song was originally called Listen to My Heart, but was changed because “everyone was calling it Boom,” explains Liahona. “They were like, ‘That chorus stay stuck in my head!’” PHOTO COURTESY AMERICAN IDOL
Suffice to say, the judges were blown away by the Olayans’ presenta- tion during the televised audition that aired last month — with all three praising the teenagers for their “fresh” sound and
Although the Olayans previously released an EP titled Life is Good and were featured on a youth album for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, neither of them expected a sudden rise to musical prominence when they tried out for the 19th season of Amer- ican Idol.
considerable songwriting abilities.
“I think it’s way more than anything I could have imagined — from releasing our own song to being able to sing on American
In particular, Perry called the siblings “tal- ented beyond belief”
SEE PAGE 19