Allison Iraheta's Early Life and Quinceanara Winner:
Allison Iraheta was born April 27, 1992 in Glendale, California to Salvadoran immigrant parents. She began singing at a very young age. In 2001 Iraheta began taking vocal lessons with Raphael Enriquez at the Los Angeles Music and Art School. It is a nonprofit community school of the arts. In 2006 Allison Iraheta competed in the Spanish-language Telemundo TV network's show Quinceanara. She won the competition and was awarded a $50,000 prize and recording contract. However, the recordings never took place.
American Idol Contestant:
Allison Iraheta auditioned for American Idol's eighth season in San Francisco, California. The judges considered her to be a contestant to watch from her first audition. However, she received little screen time prior to her selection to be among the final 13 contestants, at age 16 the youngest contestant yet to make it to the finals. One of Iraheta's best received performances was a duet on Foghat's classic "Slow Ride" with eventual runner-up Adam Lambert. Allison Iraheta made it to the final four of the competition but was then eliminated. She was the last surviving female contestant for American Idol's Season Eight.
Style of Allison Iraheta:
Allison Iraheta has a bluesy, gutsy, raspy style of singing. She has been compared to such vocal greats as Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt. The interpretive skill obvious in performances of such emotional classics as "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and "I Can't Make You Love Me" points to a vocal maturity very rare in a singer as young as Iraheta. Her obvious preference on American Idol was to perform rock songs. The rock orientation was further accentuated by Allison Iraheta's raspberry dyed hair and aggressive, distinctive outfits.
Recording Contract and the Future:
With praise from a wide range of prominent members of the music industry as well as entertainment press, it seemed inevitable that Allison Iraheta would be quickly signed to a recording contract. Howard Benson, producer of the debut album by Daughtry, praised Allison Iraheta saying, "I think I could make a huge record with that girl." The announcement came on June 9, 2009 that Allison Iraheta had been signed to a recording contract by 19 Entertainment with a first album due in the fall on the Jive Records label. Iraheta is touring over the summer of 2009 as part of the American Idols Live concert tour.
