Lexi Tieffel can finally reveal her secret this weekend.
Tieffel, a 17-year-old junior at Mahomet-Seymour High School, will audition on Sunday’s episode of American Idol (7 p.m., ABC). The taped airing finally allows Tieffel to speak at will about the details of her experience.
“I posted (on social media) the day I auditioned for American Idol, and everybody knew what it was,” she said earlier this week. “But coming back to school, or being out and about, people assume that you can tell more (about what happened). I can’t say anything else, and they’d always get mad. The main comment (I get) is, ‘I don’t know how you hold in this big secret. I could never.’
“I don’t know how I’ve done it for this long. I just can’t wait for it (to air). It’s kind of a blur, the whole audition. So I feel like I’m watching it for the first time like everyone else.”
Tieffel’s audition is the new peak in a career that includes numerous national anthem performances at University of Illinois sporting events, singing and dancing at The Virginia Theatre and music lessons at the Champaign School of Music.
When Tieffel, a native of Georgia who moved to the Champaign-Urbana area around age 6, performed at a charity event, “the video of me was sent to someone in Tennessee, and they reached out and recommended doing American Idol,” she said. “That put the idea in my head.
“So I decided to pray on it. I asked God for a sign, and I thought, ‘If I see a rainbow, then I feel like it’s the right thing for me.’ That day I actually did see a rainbow in the sky and I thought, let’s do it. And here we are.”
Tieffel’s singing career is picking up speed in rapid fashion. She will be opening the Mahomet Music Fest for Paxton’s Gina Miles, the winner of Season 23 of The Voice. In May, she is booked to sing the national anthem as an opener for Creed Fisher, and she has recently began the process “of booking gigs around the area.”
In the meantime, she’s studying hard — despite missing a chunk of school because of her singing talents — to prepare for college. And then, hopefully, for a career that includes music.
“My main thing is, ‘God’s will be done.’ I would love to have a career in music,” she said. “Performing takes me to another world. When I’m performing that’s all I’m focused on, and it’s so peaceful, so relaxing for me.”
Tieffel will makes appearances at two watch parties on Sunday, one at Project 47 Smokehouse, along with a private event at Company 421.