From almost ‘rags’ to likely riches: an ‘America’s Idol’ star rises, and blooms
She was 20 years old. She made her living singing on the subways in New York City. Riding beneath the city all day long, singing to passengers, many of whom would rather she shut up. Others are appreciative enough that she takes home enough to supplement her grandma’s meager benefit check as they survive in a NYC project — a high-rise building rife with drug and other problems, where, in each of ten of so buildings, more than a thousand low-income New Yorkers live.
Then, Samantha Diaz decides to try out for ‘American Idol’, a TV reality show that showcases singers from all sorts of backgrounds across the USA and elsewhere.
She really struggled, on her tryout, needing several ‘takes’ and a second song to get her footing in front of judges Lionel Richey, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan.
At her next appearance, she brings out her “lucky box” — the one she collects tips in on the subways. She says, “That is always where I feel most comfortable, most safe.”
To say she wins over the judges would be a gross understatement: Each of them get up and sticks a sizable ‘tip’ in her box… and they unanimously vote her through to the next round.
At one point, Lionel Richie says, “Every time I see you I start crying. If there’s even been an inspirational person in this whole group, it’s been you. It’s not where you come from, it’s where you where you want to go. And you’ve let nothing stand in your way. The only place you can go now is up.”
And weeks of eliminations later, she won the grand prize — a recording contract with Hollywood Records and a cash award of $250,000.
Samantha Diaz, who goes by ‘Just Sam’ as she steps into what is sure to be an amazing career as a singer, epitomizes the phrases “rags to riches” and “instant success”. Neither, of course, truly tells the story of a depicted person. The path from one extreme to the other usually is long and arduous, a rocky road with enough bumps to derail all but the most serious.
Just Sam, who’s now 21 and living in Los Angeles, grew up in a rough environment. The NYC projects are no joke: Brick on the outside, concrete block walls on the interior, the drug problems and crime of various sorts are serious problems, affecting, in one way or another, every resident. The buildings — or at least the 325 project housing some 400,000 New Yorkers — each have police assigned to try to beat back the bad elements, but it’s an uphill fight, always.
Attempting to earn a living singing in seldom-smooth-riding New York City subway trains is not a game for the weak-hearted. Probably the worst risk for people like Just Sam, who is small for her age, and far from being a trained street fighter, is that someone bigger and braver will come along and steal her ‘lucky box’, that shoe box that may contain a small amount of cash or, on a good day, enough to really make a difference in her two-person family’s lifestyle.
As she progressed through the American Idol competition, Sam displayed that grit as she took the judges advice on how she could improve her performance, as she upgraded her wardrobe, and grew her confidence until she truly deserved the endorsements she received as she rose from one of 156 contestants to being one of five — the finalists voted for by members of the show’s America-wide audience.
Viewers could see her getting more comfortable, more confident, markedly better, as the show went on — under the worse possible conditions: The contestants, and the judges, all were isolating at home as the coronavirus raged around them. The last ten had help from the show setting up their home ‘studios’ to showcase them in the best possible way. Sam, like a few others, opted for a simple set — in her case, with a few strings of fairy lights along one wall and some projected films on another. And in one of the final episodes, she wore jean coveralls with one button undone. Hardly high fashion, but an expression of who she is and where she’s come from.
The task of the professional singer is to tune in to your audience, to engage them, to get them to like and appreciate what you are doing. That’s a pretty hard task when you are performing in front of a single camera in your home or backyard, where a couple of the finalists did their ‘thing’. Sam excelled in engaging that camera like she’d been doing it for years.
Yeah, she went from singing on the subways to earning a shot at the big time as a singer in what some might say was ‘a single shot’ — a competitive role on a reality TV show. But on those subways, she had to work for her money, not just with her voice, but as or more important, with how she presented herself and engaged her audience. She earned every dollar she took home. She learned a lot about show business there.
And next year, with more than $200,000 in the bank, she is likely to earn multiples of that.
She’s already got a fan base — all those who watched American Idol as it aired last winter and those who (like me) viewed it since on a streaming service. And, of course, the show’s judges, who told her as she struggled, at her first appearance, that to her, they were forever “Uncle Luke, Auntie Katy, and Uncle Lionel”.
As Sam prepared to join the top 20 finalists, as she sat before the judges in gold pants and a shiny gold jacket, Luke Bryan said, “There’s nothing ‘just’ about that outfit. It says ‘I AM Sam.” “Sam I am,” Lionel Richey echoed.
Katy Perry said, “Last night, you lost all your fear. You are the definition of elegance. You are beautiful, and feminine. I would use the word ‘metamorphosis’.
Luke adds, “Yes, you come out with this whole other image, then you sing a Selina song in a different language.” (All three judges said that last phrase together.”)
Sam said, “My name is Diaz, but I don’t know Spanish.” Luke Bryan declared, “You fooled me!”
Luke added, “You own, you own every aspect of your range, from top to bottom. You have grown, you have grown, your confidence… That is what this show is about. Giving somebody a chance, and seeing how much that chance can change them. You’re that’s person for me right now. Great job.”
Lionel added, “Sam, I couldn’t have been more proud [of you] if you were my own child.”
When her first sure-to-be-well-promoted recording is released, that fanbase will grow exponentially. And she and her grandmother, who adopted her as a child, will never again have to worry about making the next rent payment.
Midway through the competition, Sam had said, after an outstanding performance, probably her last before a live audience, before COVID-19 shut the country down, “I was bringing my box here for luck. I don’t think I’m every going to need that box again. I don’t think I’m ever going to need sing on the train again.”
She got that right.
As the judges collectively said, there is nothing ‘just’ about this girl!
