Mikalah Gordon
Encyclopedia
Mikalah Analise Gordon (born January 14, 1988) is an American singer and eleventh-place finalist on the fourth season
of American Idol
. She was the second finalist eliminated on March 25, 2005.
, the same city as her American Idol audition. Her mother, Victoria Cavaricci, is Italian American
, and her father, Rocky Gordon, is Italian and Jewish. Gordon was raised Catholic
and attended St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic School from 3rd to 8th grade. During her formative years Gordon regularly performed on stage with her father, a jazz musician who mentored his daughter, attempting to improve her versatility. Before Idol, she was with the Helen Joy Young Entertainers, sang at the White House
, and worked at an oxygen bar
.
, Jessica Sierra
and Gordon herself. Her last song on the show was a rendition of "Love Will Lead You Back" by Taylor Dayne
.
songs and later sang in the program with another Idol finalist Lindsey Cardinale
and singer Babyface.
Gordon is often compared to actress Fran Drescher
, and Bette Midler
. She signed a development deal with Warner Bros.
.
Gordon landed a guest-starring role on Fran Drescher's new sitcom, Living with Fran
. She played Fran's cousin Brianna, a Broadway
singer. Following an appearance on the February 24, 2006 episode of The Tyra Banks Show
, Tyra Banks
hired her as a Tyra Show correspondent.
Mikalah was a Co-Host of American Idol Extra
for the first 2 seasons. The show gives a behind the scenes look at American Idol
after the taping each week.
Mikalah is currently in the early stages of producing an album.
She also released a letter to a blogger stating that much of her experience with American Idol had been under a cloud of severe depression. The letter is posted on her website. Mikalah has stated that she hopes to be an inspiration to young people who deal with depression and life issues.
On August 23, 2006, Mikalah was assaulted in Las Vegas
during a robbery at gunpoint at 3:30 a.m near Nellis Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Her mother, Victoria Cavaricci, said "Police said she's so lucky she's alive."
During March 2007, Mikalah along with her cocompetitor Lindsey Cardinale, upcoming country singer Stephen Cochran
, and the God warrior Marguerite Perrin, judged the small production of Amateur Idol in the small town of Loranger, Louisiana. Mikalah was a hit with the small town community and frequently visits.
Mikalah appeared on NBC
's Identity
on April 6, 2007. She posed as an "American Idol Finalist."
Mikalah played Lila Lee, a country singer on a USO tour in Iraq
under the watch of The Unit
, CBS
's military drama, episode "M.P.s" on October 30, 2007. She was at the American Idol finale where she was at David Cook
's hometown cheering and talking to the crowd in 2008 and performed the same activities in Kris Allen
's hometown in 2009.
Gordon currently lives in Los Angeles
, California
.
She was a contestant on Gone Country 2, on CMT
. During the show, she wrote a song called "You're Ugly When You're Drunk" which she performed in the finale.
Gordon recently finished a brief stint at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center
in Lubbock, Texas
, as Dorothy, in Todrick Hall's retelling of the Wizard of Oz. Oz, the Musical sold out both nights. She starred alongside Season Two
alumni Rickey Smith as the Tinman, and Season 4
Alumni Scott Savol
, as the Lion, and Vonzell Solomon
, as Glinda/Aunt Em.
American Idol (Season 4)
The fourth season of American Idol premiered on January 18, 2005 and continued until May 25, 2005. It was hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell also returned to judge. It was won by Carrie Underwood, who has gone on to become a five-time Grammy-winning country megastar...
of American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
. She was the second finalist eliminated on March 25, 2005.
Early life
Gordon was born in Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, the same city as her American Idol audition. Her mother, Victoria Cavaricci, is Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
, and her father, Rocky Gordon, is Italian and Jewish. Gordon was raised Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and attended St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic School from 3rd to 8th grade. During her formative years Gordon regularly performed on stage with her father, a jazz musician who mentored his daughter, attempting to improve her versatility. Before Idol, she was with the Helen Joy Young Entertainers, sang at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, and worked at an oxygen bar
Oxygen bar
An oxygen bar is an establishment, or part of one, that sells oxygen for recreational use. Individual flavored scents may be added to enhance the experience...
.
American Idol
Gordon was eliminated during "Billboard #1 Hits" week, on the March 24 show. This was also the week when the show mixed up the voting numbers for three of the Top 11 contestants, Anwar RobinsonAnwar Robinson
Anwar Farid Robinson is an American singer/songwriter/musician who was the 7th place finalist on the fourth season of American Idol.-American Idol:...
, Jessica Sierra
Jessica Sierra
Jessica Ann Sierra is an American singer and was the tenth-place finalist on the fourth season of American Idol. She was the third finalist eliminated, on March 30, 2005...
and Gordon herself. Her last song on the show was a rendition of "Love Will Lead You Back" by Taylor Dayne
Taylor Dayne
Taylor Dayne was born Leslie Wunderman on March 7, 1962 before later adopting her current stage name. She is an American pop vocalist, songwriter, and dance artist. Overall, she has had eighteen individual hit songs reach the top ten in Billboard magazine...
.
| Week # | Song | Original artist | Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 24 | Young Hearts Run Free Young Hearts Run Free "Young Hearts Run Free" is a disco song by American soul singer Candi Staton. Released in 1976 from the album of the same title, it spent a week at number one on the Hot Soul Singles chart. It also peaked at number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Along with the tracks: "Run To Me"... |
Candi Staton Candi Staton Candi Staton is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco hit "Young Hearts Run Free". In 2007, Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.-Early years:... |
Safe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 20 | God Bless the Child God Bless the Child (Billie Holiday song) "God Bless the Child" is a song written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr. in 1939, first recorded on May 9, 1941 under the Okeh label.Holiday's version of the song was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in... |
Billie Holiday Billie Holiday Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing... |
Safe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 16 | Somewhere Somewhere (song) "Somewhere" is a song from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story which was made into a film in 1961. The music is composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and takes a phrase from the slow movement of Beethoven's 'Emperor' Piano Concerto, which forms the start of the... |
Cast of West Side Story | Safe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 12 | Son of a Preacher Man Son of a Preacher Man "Son of a Preacher Man" is a song recorded by Dusty Springfield in September 1968 and featured on the album, Dusty in Memphis. It was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. The rights to cover "Son of a Preacher Man" were originally offered to Aretha Franklin, who turned it down... |
Dusty Springfield Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s... |
Bottom 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 11 | Love Will Lead You Back Love Will Lead You Back "Love Will Lead You Back" is a song performed by Taylor Dayne. Released as the second single from Dayne's second album Can't Fight Fate , the ballad debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 27, 1990. It reached number one on April 7 that same year and spent 15 weeks in the Top 40... |
Taylor Dayne Taylor Dayne Taylor Dayne was born Leslie Wunderman on March 7, 1962 before later adopting her current stage name. She is an American pop vocalist, songwriter, and dance artist. Overall, she has had eighteen individual hit songs reach the top ten in Billboard magazine... |
Eliminated |
Post American Idol career
Mikalah Gordon returned to American Idol as a host for the pre-show on the series finale of American Idol Season 4 and also sang during the finale in the beginning medley of The Beach BoysThe Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
songs and later sang in the program with another Idol finalist Lindsey Cardinale
Lindsey Cardinale
Lindsey Michelle Cardinale is an American country singer and university student who was the twelfth-place finalist on the fourth season of American Idol in 2005....
and singer Babyface.
Gordon is often compared to actress Fran Drescher
Fran Drescher
Francine Joy "Fran" Drescher is an American film and television actress, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer, author, singer, talk show host, political lobbyist and health activist...
, and Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
. She signed a development deal with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
.
Gordon landed a guest-starring role on Fran Drescher's new sitcom, Living with Fran
Living With Fran
Living With Fran is an American sitcom that debuted on The WB network in April 2005 that starred Fran Drescher. The show last aired on March 2006.-Premise:Drescher plays Fran Reeves, an interior designer and divorced mother of two...
. She played Fran's cousin Brianna, a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
singer. Following an appearance on the February 24, 2006 episode of The Tyra Banks Show
The Tyra Banks Show
The Tyra Banks Show, also known as and shortened to Tyra or The Tyra Show, is an American talk show hosted by Tyra Banks. The last new episode aired on Friday, May 28, 2010.-2005-2009: Syndication:...
, Tyra Banks
Tyra Banks
Tyra Lynne Banks is an American model, media personality, actress, occasional singer, author and businesswoman. She first became famous as a model, but television appearances were her commercial breakthrough...
hired her as a Tyra Show correspondent.
Mikalah was a Co-Host of American Idol Extra
American Idol Extra
American Idol Extra was a television show that was shown on the Fox Reality Channel and Star! and billed as "the show that picks up right where American Idol leaves off"...
for the first 2 seasons. The show gives a behind the scenes look at American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
after the taping each week.
Mikalah is currently in the early stages of producing an album.
She also released a letter to a blogger stating that much of her experience with American Idol had been under a cloud of severe depression. The letter is posted on her website. Mikalah has stated that she hopes to be an inspiration to young people who deal with depression and life issues.
On August 23, 2006, Mikalah was assaulted in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
during a robbery at gunpoint at 3:30 a.m near Nellis Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Her mother, Victoria Cavaricci, said "Police said she's so lucky she's alive."
During March 2007, Mikalah along with her cocompetitor Lindsey Cardinale, upcoming country singer Stephen Cochran
Stephen Cochran
Stephen Cochran is an American Country music singer and songwriter. In 2009 Stephen was named as a spokesman for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Research and Development...
, and the God warrior Marguerite Perrin, judged the small production of Amateur Idol in the small town of Loranger, Louisiana. Mikalah was a hit with the small town community and frequently visits.
Mikalah appeared on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Identity
Identity (game show)
Identity is a reality/game show, hosted by Penn Jillette and produced by Reveille where contestants could win money by matching 12 strangers one-by-one to phrases about their identities.-Format:A contestant is introduced to twelve strangers...
on April 6, 2007. She posed as an "American Idol Finalist."
Mikalah played Lila Lee, a country singer on a USO tour in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
under the watch of The Unit
The Unit
The Unit is an American action-drama television series that focuses on a top-secret military unit modeled after the real-life U.S. Army special operations unit commonly known as Delta Force...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's military drama, episode "M.P.s" on October 30, 2007. She was at the American Idol finale where she was at David Cook
David Cook (singer)
David Roland Cook is an American rock singer-songwriter, who rose to fame after winning the seventh season of the reality television show American Idol...
's hometown cheering and talking to the crowd in 2008 and performed the same activities in Kris Allen
Kris Allen
Kristopher Neil "Kris" Allen is an American musician and singer-songwriter from Conway, Arkansas, and the winner of the eighth season of American Idol...
's hometown in 2009.
Gordon currently lives in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
She was a contestant on Gone Country 2, on CMT
CMT
- Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia...
. During the show, she wrote a song called "You're Ugly When You're Drunk" which she performed in the finale.
Gordon recently finished a brief stint at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center
Lubbock Memorial Civic Center
The Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, a convention center located in Lubbock, Texas, was built in 1977 and dedicated to the memory of local residents who died in a 1970 tornado that struck the site of the center...
in Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
, as Dorothy, in Todrick Hall's retelling of the Wizard of Oz. Oz, the Musical sold out both nights. She starred alongside Season Two
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
alumni Rickey Smith as the Tinman, and Season 4
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
Alumni Scott Savol
Scott Savol
Scott Thomas Savol is an American singer and was the 5th place finalist on the fourth season of American Idol.-Personal life:...
, as the Lion, and Vonzell Solomon
Vonzell Solomon
Vonzell Monique Solomon , nicknamed Baby V, is an American singer and aspiring actress who finished in third place in the fourth season of the televised singing competition American Idol. She also appeared in the independent movie Still Green.-Biography:Born in Baxley, Georgia, Solomon's family...
, as Glinda/Aunt Em.