In preparation for its upcoming season, “American Idol” shared a clip of a very special audition from one of its contestants. 25-year-old McKenna Breinholt from Gilbert, Arizona, auditioned for the show, singing “There Was Jesus,” originally sung by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton. Breinholt shared her own story with the judges, saying she had been adopted. “I found [out] I was adopted as early as I was able to understand it. My mom struggled for several years trying to get pregnant, and eventually, they decided to go through the adoption process,” she said. She called her adoptive family “the best family in the world.”
Since Breinholt’s adoption was closed, she was unable to learn anything about her birth family until she was 21. She later found out that singing was in her blood, as her birth mom was Amy Ross Lopez, a singer in the duo Nowhere Man and A Whiskey Girl. Unfortunately, Lopez had died in 2013 due to complications from lupus. Breinholt shared that she had spoken to other members of her biological family through FaceTime and was planning to meet them in person for the first time several weeks after the audition.
What Breinholt didn’t know was that her adoptive parents had arranged for several of Breinholt’s biological family members, including her grandmother, to be flown in for her audition. When the judges asked if she’d like her family to be present for the result of her audition, she didn’t realize that included members of her biological family. The audition captured the emotional reunion between her and her grandmother. She then sang one of her birth mother’s songs, with her grandmother singing along.
After the episode was aired, Breinholt shared how the moment impacted her. “I just was so overwhelmed with happiness. There was no sadness, no anxiety, none of that. It just felt like I had already known them,” she said. She told Arizona Central that she and her adoptive mother have watched the episode “30 times.” “It really was nice to be able to see that my meeting with my birth family is on film and is something that I can potentially watch for the rest of my life,” she added. She also shared why she chose “There was Jesus” as her audition song. “I love Jesus,” she said. “So, I really did want to find something that could kind of represent what I believe in and also kind of leave a message. Throughout everything, there really was Jesus. I feel like it fits my life perfectly.” She said Jesus is her reason for everything. “I just want people to know that I want to spread Jesus’s word. I want to spread good. And that is all my intentions are ever with anything I do.” Breinholt’s “American Idol” journey continues on season 22, which premiered February 18.