Despite his growing celebrity and demanding “American Idol” rehearsal schedule, Daniel Seavey still has to do his homework. The 15-year-old Union High School sophomore works with a tutor about three hours every day, on top of six hours of rehearsals and filming.
“It is hard to keep up with school in a competition like this,” Seavey said in a phone interview Tuesday, adding that he enjoys school. It’s just difficult to fit it all in. The Vancouver teen’s family is with him in California, keeping him on track.
He sees his experience on the show as a “huge learning opportunity.” The biggest thing he’s learned, he said, is how to be himself on stage.
“I didn’t connect with the music as well as I do now,” Seavey. “I feel like I just let go a lot.”
He works with a pair of vocal coaches, who are teaching him to sing through the natural changes happening with his voice.
The audience will get a taste of how that coaching has made a difference during Thursday’s live performance — that is, if he makes it. Whether he stays or goes will be revealed during Wednesday night’s show airing live on Fox, when the number of contestants is whittled from 16 to 12.
Should he be chosen to sing Thursday, he’s revisiting the song that he auditioned with: “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul. This time, though, he won’t be playing a guitar and plans to move around the stage more. The song was a standby for him before joining the show, so he’s finding it hard to change the way he’s always performed it.
It’s been nerve-wracking, but every day he gets supportive texts from his friends back home.
“I’m abundantly thankful for it all,” Seavey said.
Not to mention, he’s got support from a legion of fans who follow him through social media. He has more than 23,000 Twitter followers, more than 56,000 followers on Instagram and more than 5,000 fans on Facebook.
“You wake up and there’s people saying ‘We’re best friends’ that you’ve never met. It’s so weird having people know you that you don’t know at all or have never met. That’s something I need to get used to,” he said.
Whether he stays or goes, his “American Idol” journey has steered him down the path he’s wanted to go all along — a career in music.
“I think this is going to help me a lot later in life,” he said. Being the youngest contestant to ever make it this far on the show, he’s already accomplished a lot. And, he’s made friends with the other contestants.
“I’m kind of like the little brother here,” Seavey said. “It’s really fun. We always just have a blast hanging out.”
Whatever happens, however far he makes it on “American Idol,” Seavey said he’s grateful for the opportunity.
