By Chef Mick Brown
A world famous artist once sang “I hope life treats you kind- and I hope you have all you’ve dreamed of…”. Yes. I witnessed it myself, right here on the streets of Palm Springs. At VillageFest.
By today, millions of people have been able to tune into ABC’s American Idol latest season on more Apps than you can shake a stick at. This past Monday alone, they received over 20 Million Votes to reach the Top 10 Finalists. One standout contestant this year is “Platinum Ticket” winner Abi Carter, who hails from Indio, CA. near Palm Springs. So far, her takes on Billie Eilish, Elton John and Taylor Swift have garnered her well deserved praise from the judges and followers online.
There can be miracles when you believe.
Sometimes, timing is everything. Between work and travel, I get very little time to watch TV and am not yet subscribed to the networks. So I get much of my entertainment from the Youtube App, which seems to be installed in all new Smart TV’s. So one night I was watching a playlist of Top Inspirational Music Videos. Of course, they played the favorites: Whitney, Mariah, Bon Jovi… Then, the channel randomly chose to show inspirational highlights from American Idol, mostly European editions. Then they showed this young lady from Indio, CA take to the piano to sing “What I Was Made For” by Billie Eilish and the voice sounds oddly familiar.
Later, when the tab for voting shows “@abicartermusic”, I thought “Wait. I think that’s the young lady that I met at VillageFest.” So I went back to check my camera roll and not only did I have pictures, but actual videos of Abi Carter performing at the weekly street event. This first one is called “The First Time I Heard Abi Sing”. It was just released on Youtube a couple of days ago. The raw footage version of the video #The1stTimeIHeardAbi is also on TikTok on @bbqrescues. Last time I checked it was approaching 4000 views.
One highlight of the candid recording is Abi playing on keyboard singing I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston (one of the videos I saw on Inspirational Youtube). As she hits a high note, an audience member comments “The hairs are standing straight up.” Split seconds later, a women with a familiar looking wavy shoulder length hairdo and red lipstick passes by in front of the camera. I was tempted to lead with “Did Whitney’s Spirit Photobomb Abi at the Street Fair?” Check out the video and judge for yourself.
It turns out that the when I was guest speaker at a picnic for the American Culinary Foundation, I traded a couple of DMs with Abi on Instagram. She couldn’t make it because of a wedding. The next time I texted her was to tell her about a casting notice I received for NBC’s The Voice. This was in October 2023 and for some reason I never heard back from her…
Best Wishes to Abi in her journey on American Idol. A lot of the people (of all ages) from around Palm Springs and Coachella Valley are slowly learning about our local contestant doing so well on the show. I hope to see some viewing parties pop up around town as they head to the May 19th Finale. I have already put the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce on notice that I will be seeking a star for Abi on the Walk of Stars someday.
I Believe in You and Me. Exhale and I hope All At Once, Abi will be the Queen of the Night come May 19th. Tune in and Vote!
