The Platinum Ticket is back for Season 8 on ABC (Season 23 overall). And on Sunday night, judges Lionel Richie, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan awarded the first of three tickets to 26-year-old Kolbi Jordan from Tulsa, OK, who wowed them with her personality and her performance of Chrisette Michele’s “Epiphany (I’m Leaving).”
The Platinum Ticket is an exclusive ticket only given to three performers each season, one from each audition city (this season, that includes Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York City). What makes it more special than the Golden Ticket is that the artist who is awarded it gets to skip the first round of performances during Hollywood Week and watch from the audience to check out their competition.
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Kolbi, who says her job title is “People and Culture Generalist,”–AKA, working in HR for a dental company–says her heart is in gospel music. But she looks to the oldies for inspiration, claiming Patti LaBelle as her favorite singer. And it just so happened that Lionel had Patti’s number on speed dial.
Lionel did a sneak dial of Patti’s number when Kolbi was done singing. He told the “Godmother of Soul,” “There is a young lady here who has really been ‘sanging.’ I want to introduce you.”
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Patti asked Kolbi how she was doing, and Kolbi was overwhelmed. But she did ask Patti for some pie. For those not in the know, Patti famously sells a variety of pies – Sweet Potato, Southern Buttermilk, Peach Apple Cobbler and Lemon Blueberry Pie – at stores like Walmart and Target.
“I’ll give you some pie after you win,” Patti told her. “Love you, Kolbi, and good luck.”
Lionel then shared his plan for the finale, “My dream is to have the two of you standing side by side. I can’t even imagine what that’s going to be.”
Things took a more serious turn when it was Carrie’s turn to review Kolbi’s performance.
The country icon said, “Obviously, an incredible voice. I’m so happy for you. We just met and I feel proud of you and excited for you. You had dynamics within dynamics. It was just amazing. You’re just so good.”
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And then Luke said, “People and Culture Generalist? You can kiss that little title goodbye.”
Finally, Lionel added, “First of all, the instrument is just crazy great. And the second thing is you sold us just on your personality. Now you put those two together and you have a crowd that’s pleased with your performance, but I’m telling you, it’s amazing to have you here.”
“I’m blessed to be here,” Kolbi said.
Disney/Eric McCandless
Then the voting started: “It’s a hallelujah yes,” Lionel said, and both Carrie and Luke gave Kolbi yeses as well, meaning she was going to Hollywood.
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But later, the judges decided they weren’t through with her. Kolbi got a call from host Ryan Seacrest informing her that the judges wanted her to perform again. They sent a car for her, and she’s stunned when the car takes her to the Tennessee Titans’ stadium. Kolbi thinks she’s just singing. But at the end of the first quarter, Ryan tells her, “Great performance, Kolbi. The judges thought that was worth a Golden Ticket upgrade to Platinum Ticket. Congratulations. You are a Platinum Ticket winner.”
American Idol airs on Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Streams next day on Hulu.
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