Alejandro Aranda

Alejandro Aranda was born on August 11, 1994 in Pomona, California. While he has attested to having two parents as well as a sister, not much is known about his past. Recently in an interview with Launch Left, he talked about his family and the fact that he was not close to them. However, he drew a lot of inspiration from his past to determine the type of person he wanted to be.

He started playing the piano and picked up guitar around the age of 19 or 20. Busking on the streets of Pomona, CA he got comfortable with being himself in front of people, he also played at Open Mic Nights and backyard concerts, basically wherever he could. Of this time, he said it took him a year to get comfortable with singing.

He started taking music seriously when he almost injured his hand in a factory working and the sleeve of his shirt was caught. He said of this incident:

“When I turned 20, I almost lost my hand,” Aranda, now age 25, reveals to Yahoo Entertainment. “I was working at a warehouse and I got my hand stuck in the conveyor belt, and I could've really lost my hand. … It got stuck in between, and then it caught my flannel shirt; I was wearing a long sleeve and it caught. If I wasn't wearing that, it would have basically ran my whole hand through it.” While Aranda was thankfully able to extricate himself from the machinery without any serious injuries, the situation served as a wake-up call.

On Mar 15, 2016 he posted Blesser on YouTube (hair in bun). Many consider this to be his most brilliant song to date.The judges were so blown away by his performance that Lionel Ritchie called it “history in the making”.

On March 17, 2016 he posted his song 10 Years on YouTube. The song 10 Years was written for a friend going through a divorce.

In 2017, he was named Artist of the Year by California State University. This was the first time he had a break in the music industry.

In 2018, Twin Shadow asked him to go on the road with him as a musician. He played festivals and even made an appearance on the Conan O’Brien Show.

He received a private audition through someone who attended a backyard concert that he performed. He auditioned on American Idol on April 6, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA. Alejandro performed two songs, “Out Loud” and “Cholo Love”. Immediately, the judges were drawn to him. Luke Bryant said “I feel like I’m in the presence of greatness” and Katie said “Okay Alejandro, I think you are the winner”.

His audition video was released on April 6, 2019 on YouTube and to date is the most viewed audition to date on American Idol with more than 18,000,000 views. On Facebook, his audition video has received more than 54,000,000 views.

Unlike other contestants, who typically perform covers of other artists' songs, throughout Aranda's Idol journey, he performed mostly covers and seven original songs.[2][3]

Pomona declared May 19, 2019 "Alejandro Aranda Day".[4] Aranda was scheduled to go on a seven-date US tour in July 2019.[5] After tickets went on sale on the morning of May 23, they all sold out in minutes.[6] American Idol judge Katy Perry jokingly begged Aranda to be a "roadie" on his tour.[5] Because of the overwhelming amount of support, he announced on June 11 that he would put on a free concert in Nashville on July 3, joined by Bizz & Everyday People.[3] On June 23, Aranda announced that he was working on a new album,[7] and on June 24, he announced he would go on a twenty-eight stop tour from October 10 to November 21,[8] and on June 25, he added a twenty-ninth stop in Los Angeles for November 22. He also performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 3, 2019,[9] and will perform at Life Is Beautiful in September 2019[10] and Austin City Limits Music Festival in October 2019.[11] He has been announced as one of the supporting acts for Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds on their fourth annual destination tour in Mexico in February 2020.[12]

He released the single "Tonight" under the name Scarypoolparty on June 28, 2019, after signing with Hollywood Records. The song was co-written and co-produced by Twin Shadow.[13][14] On August 7, 2019, he released the ballad "Cholo Love".[15] On October 4, 2019, he released the single "Diamonds".[16]

On November 5, 2019, he announced his debut album, Exit Form, which was released on November 22, 2019.[17]