Algonquin native Althea Grace appears Sunday on 'American Idol'
Algonquin native Althea Grace will make her debut March 14 on “American Idol” with a song she wrote for her 2-year-old daughter Lennon.
The 21-year-old grew up writing and performing music. At age 13, she won the McHenry County Fair talent contest with her barefoot performance of “Crazy on You” by Heart. She sang and strummed her acoustic guitar.
Through the years as a solo artist and with a former band, Grace has been on stages throughout the country.
The singer — who goes by Grace so she doesn't have to spell her last name, Roggenbuck — never really planned to audition for “American Idol.”
Growing up, she watched the show with her grandma, Fran Traub of Crystal Lake.
“We used to have a standing 'American Idol' date,” Grace remembered. “She'd say, 'I know you can make it on this show.' It was always kind of like one of those thoughts in my peripheral. 'Yeah, OK, maybe I could do that.' And I don't think I had the courage to do it up until this year.”
A couple tough years led to the decision. Grace's daughter, Lennon, became sick, and in January 2020, the baby had to have a liver transplant. She was 1 at the time.
Grace took a step back from her music to care for her daughter full-time. Soon, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
It wasn't easy, but Lennon grew bigger and stronger, and Grace said she longed to get back into music.
Then “American Idol” came along.
“I was like, 'OK, I'm going to try and see what happens,'” she said. “It was kind of on a whim.”
She auditioned with an original song she wrote about Lennon.
“It was about wishing I would enjoy all of the little things more before she got sick, and I wanted to sing something that was for her,” she said. “Because I think that the biggest motivation to even audition for 'Idol' was that I wanted to hopefully do something good for us and the family and to show her I was pursuing my dreams.”
Those dreams began early. Videos show a 2-year-old Grace trying to write songs. One of her first was called “I'm 4.”
On March 14, her family plans to gather outside in a garage in Crystal Lake to watch Grace's appearance on “American Idol,” said Traub.
“I'm a nervous wreck,” she said of having to wait to hear the outcome of the audition.
“I think it's awesome. I still can't even believe she did it,” Traub said. “When she called me and told me she was going to audition, with all the stuff going on with the baby, I was shocked she could muster enough strength to go in and audition. That's a big thing.
“What 19-year-old could literally go through the stuff with the baby and be a musician and come through it with such grace and dignity and such,” Traub said.
A graduate of Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Grace has released four albums, both as a solo artist and with her former band, and has written songs for other artists.
Her music doesn't really fall into one genre.
“I think I pull a lot of inspiration from growing up with the blues and jazz and rock and kind of more like old school traditional music and then really kind of putting kind of a pop sensibility into it,” she said. “I always say it's pop, but it's more like the Beatles or Fleetwood Mac would have been pop, not like what you're hearing on the radio right now.”