Camila Galavis knows which American Idol judge has her back.
Camila, the 15-year-old daughter of the former lead of The Bachelor season 18 Juan Pablo Galavis, appeared on the Friday, March 29, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast to discuss her American Idol audition.
“I feel like Luke [Bryan] is on my side,” the contestant shared. “In my audition, he said that if a producer grabs me and I mix a song, it’s a hit.”
She added, “I feel like he encourages me a lot. I’m still super young and he’s like, ‘No, you got this. You’re gonna be fine. And if you don’t go through then it’s fine, you’re still super young, you can do this.’ I think the maximum age is like 30, so I could do this 15 more times.”
Juan Pablo interjected, laughing, “I don’t want you to do this 15 more times.” (The first year of eligibility for American Idol contestants is age 15 and the cut-off is age 28.)
“The other contestants, they’re way older than me, and they have way more experience,” Camila continued. “I just feel like what I mostly wanted to get from all of the American Idol is the experience and the friendships that come within.”
Camila’s American Idol audition aired on March 24, where she sang in front of judges Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie. When it was revealed that her dad starred in season 18 of The Bachelor, the judges brought him into the room and he stayed to watch his daughter’s performance.
“I knew she was very nervous, because I was outside with her, and she’s so young at the time. She was still 14 when she did the audition,” Juan Pablo shared. “Through my head was like, I hope she feels OK, she felt comfortable.”
He added, “When I saw her on stage, I saw her a little more calm.”
With some experience in front of an audience, not only as The Bachelor but as a professional soccer player, Juan Pablo offered his daughter some advice before her audition.
“One of the things I taught her was when I played soccer, if I didn’t feel this nervousness or something in my stomach when I was going onto the field, then maybe I was done with soccer,” he said. “So, she will always have that. For her, I think part of it was just being there and letting things go.”
Camila agreed, saying, “Yeah, it was more like me letting it flow, so it wouldn’t be, like, a forced audition. I didn’t want it to look like I was forcing myself to do my best.”
