‘I really found my voice’: Now that ‘AGT’ is over, what is this Utah singer up to?

Kenadi Dodds performs during the quarterfinal round of “America’s Got Talent.” The 15-year-old singer made it to the show’s top 10. | Chris Haston, NBC

Kenadi’s counting down the days until she’s back in Utah with her family. A return to a life without cameras, producers and the pressures of national television. 

SALT LAKE CITY — After getting eliminated during the “America’s Got Talent” finale, Kenadi Dodds walked off the stage and went to her hotel room.

The 15-year-old country singer had already said her emotional goodbyes to the other top 10 finalists backstage. She’d grown close to them over the past six weeks, all of them living out the same busy schedule, an endless cycle of rehearsals and filming. She knew once the “AGT” finale was over there wouldn’t be any time for socializing.

“The second I stepped off stage, they put us in a van and brought us to the hotel room,” she said, noting that the finale was still going on. “I just laid in bed, didn’t do anything.”

And then she fell asleep.

She was so exhausted that she didn’t learn until the next day who had won.

It’s been just over a week since “AGT” declared Brandon Leake the winner — the first poet in the show’s history to claim the $1 million prize and a headlining show in Las Vegas. Since then, Kenadi and her dad have stayed in California visiting extended family. But she’s counting down the days until she’s back in North Logan with her mom and two younger sisters. A return to a life without cameras, producers and the pressures of national television.

“I don’t know if it will be back to normal life, per se,” she said with a laugh. “But I’m ready to work for the next thing.”

Kenadi isn’t sure what her immediate next step is, but the young songwriter does plan to release an album of original music in the near future. At the start of “AGT,” the teenager took a more unique path, choosing to show off some of that original music rather than performing covers.

While “AGT” judges Sofia Vergara and Heidi Klum praised the decision — calling the young singer “brave” and comparing her to a “young Taylor Swift” — Howie Mandel wasn’t as sold and called it a “risky” move.

But as someone who wants to make it on her own as a country star, that’s a risk Kenadi was willing to take.

“A lot of country songs that I liked (growing up) didn’t quite fit my image lyrically, and I couldn’t relate to a lot of them,” Kenadi previously told the Deseret News. “And so I started writing songs so that I could relate. … Also, you can’t have a career just doing covers. You need to have your original work.”

Kenadi already has around 18 original songs — more than enough to carry her through all the rounds on “AGT.” For the show’s semifinal and final rounds, though, she ended up performing Thomas Rhett’s “Be a Light” and Carrie Underwood’s “Love Wins.”

“I definitely would’ve loved to do originals for the other two. But I did those covers because I loved their messages,” Kenadi said. “And I wanted to show that I can do covers and that I can fit in with all those artists that are on the radio today.”

Aside from the “AGT” performances, Kenadi’s original music can’t be found online — or anywhere, for that matter. That’s intentional, as the artist is taking time to craft the songs to the best of her ability.

“I’m obviously young, and I want to make sure they’re exactly what I want to sing the rest of my life before I put them out in the world,” she said. “But I’m definitely looking forward to recording my first album.”

And in doing so, she’ll put the skills she developed on “AGT” to use. For Kenadi, every step of the show was a learning experience — from defending her musical choices to honing her skills on the guitar and piano to following her gut to learning new songs in a short amount of time.

When she auditioned for the show six months ago — on a Friday the 13th in March — she never expected it would be so taxing, or that she would be part of an unluckily bizarre season of production delays and COVID-19 restrictions, not to mention an absent Simon Cowell.

And she never thought she’d be lucky enough to land in the finals. All along, her biggest focus was to get exposure, to get closer to her dream of being a country star — something she’s envisioned since 2015, when she saw Shania Twain from the front row at Vivint Arena.

“I always had a goal to be a country superstar, doing whatever it takes to get there, and ‘AGT’ just happened to be a step in that direction,” she said. “Obviously I was there to win it, but I never imagined myself making it as far as I did. I’m really glad that they kept pushing forward and didn’t shut down.

“Because I really found my voice,” she continued. “And I’m ready to create my next chapter for everyone to read.”

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3jp7eLt