Alaina Whitaker is a 16 year old from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a country singer by nature, though she admits that she has had no formal music training. Alaina Whitaker has often been compared to Carrie Underwood but, for now, these comparisons are more than a little bit premature. During her American Idol audition in Dallas, Alaina showed off her great voice by singing Faith Hill's "Stronger". The judges were all impressed, though they had some pieces of advice for the young singer.
Alaina Whitaker was eliminated on February 28 and performed her last rendition of "Hopelessly Devoted" that night with tears in her eyes.
"At the time, it was like I was saying, 'I can't sing right now,' but I knew in the back of my mind that I have to do this. This is the end of my journey and it's going to be a good ending to it," Alaina said in her Exit Interview. "I think the real factor last night was just like how, how am I going to remember my words right now and how am I going to make it sound good when I'm crying? I'm really glad. I think I would have regretted it if I hadn't have sung."
Despite her elimination, Alaina is happy to be part of American Idol, saying, "I can take so much away from this because how many people get to say that they were the Top 10 girls in America? So it's like a blessing"
"I got a lot of exposure and I'm so thankful for that because there are so many artists out there that would just die to have one minute of exposure on television," she continued. "I'm so thankful that I got a lot of exposure, so hopefully a lot of opportunity will come out of it."
Week 1: "More Today Than Yesterday"
Week 2: "Hopelessly Devoted to You"
Alaina Whitaker Audition Video:
(Photo courtesy of FOX)