SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 19, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah’s Kaibrienne “KB” Richins has been making a strong impression week after week on season 22 of “American Idol.”
The 20-year-old from Henefer has wowed the judges from the beginning with her powerhouse vocals, songwriting ability and, perhaps most of all, her vulnerability.
Growing up in the town 30 miles north of Park City with just 900 residents, Richins honed her talent by singing with her sisters, often in their dad’s car. She started to post videos to TikTok, and her dad, Justin Jewell Richins, shared social media posts of his daughters performing. One of these videos shows the sisters singing “Rise Up” in the car after their dad lost a friend, Joe, in 2020. That video now has nearly 7 million views on YouTube.
But because of stage fright and performance anxiety, Richins also shied away from opportunities at times. Eventually, she started embracing what she had been running from. She began to learn guitar and piano, write music, and share her voice more on social media. An “American Idol” casting producer noted her talent, and when her preliminary audition came, Richins performed even though she had COVID-19. She ended up auditioning from the garage of her home, and after singing “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town and “Something in the Orange” by Zach Bryan, Richins was invited to perform in person for judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. Bryan told her after she sang: “From the first note, I had like full body wave of chills. I liked even how you just kind of shook it out, you hacked up something and started singing. The coolest thing is you’re 20 from a little old small town in Utah. You have it, so great job.”
In that audition, Richins also shared that she has been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, a thyroid disease “that’s super painful, and when it flares up, it’s just crazy mood swings,” she explained.
She has gone on to deliver show-stopping performances week after week, leaning mostly toward the rock genre. During Hollywood Week, her Showstoppers song was “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and her Top 24 performance was of Bryan Adams’ “Heaven.” For her Top 20 performance, she sang an original song called “girl i am now.” She called the song a “love letter to my younger self.” She celebrated her advancement to the Top 14 by singing another rock song, “Zombie,” by The Cranberries.
Richins told Gephardt Daily in a phone interview from Los Angeles, that this Sunday is Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night, in which KISS member Gene Simmons will serve as the guest mentor. She has chosen to perform a Joan Jett and the Blackhearts song.
“So this week I’m singing ‘I Hate Myself for Loving You’ by Joan Jett. I’m really excited because I’ve only really done kind of slow-tempo songs, pretty much ballads for the whole time,” Richins said. “And so I think this will be a really, like, this is the perfect time to show the sassier side of me. I think people are going to be surprised.”
Richins told us more about how she feels about her “American Idol” journey as a whole so far.
“It’s been amazing, it’s been kind of a roller coaster and so much at once, but I’m just so grateful to be here,” she said. “You know, it’s such an awesome experience.”
She added of the other contestants: “Honestly, like, we’re all best friends. And so it doesn’t feel like a competition. You know, we’re all just rooting for each other and supporting each other, and I think I’ve just realized that every person that’s here is here because they sound like themselves. You know, I did kind of struggle with comparing myself at my very first audition, and I was like, ‘oh, there’s no way I’m gonna make it, all these people are so much better than me.’ And then I kind of just realized throughout this whole process and from things I’ve been told, I’m here because I sound like me, not because I sound like anybody else.”
Richins explained that it was her mom and dad who got her into singing rock songs. “My dad always told me, like, your voice sounds amazing on the songs, and same with my mom,” she said. “My mom and dad always recommended those kinds of songs.”
She said her family is not currently in Los Angeles with her, but they fly out regularly. Richins is the fourth of seven children.
“They fly out a lot. Some of my family flies out, at least a couple of people, every show,” she said. Richins said that having family members in the audience helps her tackle her stage fright. “I’ll look at my family in the audience, and they will be giving hearts and cheering for me — so excited, so supportive. And so I always get a sense of comfort finding them in the audience.”
We also asked what else is on her bucket list to achieve.
“I don’t entirely know yet because this is all so new to me, and I was doing music before this. I mean, just posting on TikTok,” she said. “And so this whole thing is just all super new to me; performing, singing in front of a big audience. I never thought I’d be able to do this, because I had such bad performance anxiety that I’ve really been able to work through on the show. And so yeah, I’m still kind of just figuring that out. I just released my very first song, ‘girl i am now,’ three weeks ago, and it already has over 200,000 streams. I actually did it on the show two weeks ago. I just plan to keep releasing music. My whole life I’ve been releasing music that can heal and touch people in the way that music has been able to heal and touch me, and make me feel less alone in the things that I go through. And I feel, from what I’ve seen and the feedback I’ve gotten from the song that I released, like getting messages from therapists that they’ve been recommending the song to some of their patients in therapy and that it’s helped them a ton, and just people’s personal experiences. It has just been amazing to see that I’ve genuinely been able to help people.”
We also asked Richins what her advice would be to younger artists who may be experiencing stage fright or anxiety.
“Just to go for it,” she said. “You know, trust yourself, and go for it, because I ran away from the dream for a long time because of the anxiety, and this whole time I could have worked through it. You know, I don’t think that God gives you these kinds of gifts without a way to work through them.”
She added for the folks back at home in Utah who are rooting for her: “I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who’s been following along my journey and the insane amount of love and support that I’ve received, I’m so grateful for it. And obviously the votes that got me to where I am now. I’m just very, very thankful to everyone back home supporting me.”
We also chatted with Kaibrienne’s proud dad over the phone from Summit County.
We asked him what it’s been like to watch his daughter go through this journey.
“It’s hard to even put into words because it’s been very good, and lately, I’ve rooted for her to perform her original song,” he said. “I was there that day she performed, and it was as impacting as I thought. I’ve watched her perform it in her house quite a bit, and I thought it was gonna go just like clockwork, no pauses, no nothing. And then I gasped when there were the two breaks [when she became emotional] and I was like, ‘Oh, no, what’s gonna happen?’ Because I wasn’t expecting them, and I couldn’t see her face. I couldn’t see her emotion from our perspective because we were behind the judges, we were a ways back. And I was really nervous for her. And I was afraid to actually watch on TV, and then I went back to the hotel and I watched it on TV and I just became butter. You know, I melted and I’ve been butter ever since watching that.”
He added: “I asked her, I’m like, ‘Were you nervous? What went on?’ I was actually nervous for her to play the piano because she’s like ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ because they have these inner-ear monitors and then they have a metronome that keeps her on time with the band, and that’s very difficult for her because when she sings, when she gets into it, she can only in her mind sing songs that she feels. She has some songs that she sings phenomenally, but she won’t sing them anymore because she says ‘I don’t feel them anymore.’ She told me she was so deep in that song that she lost track of time and space, and then that pause came, and to watch her take a deep breath and to feel whatever she was feeling and power through it and use it for herself… I spent the next few days bawling if you want me to be honest.
“I just saw so much growth in that moment, where KB’s always done things to please others you know, the football [which she played growing up] was to make other people proud, to make her brother proud. The wrestling was to make me proud, as well as to make, you know, the rest of her family think she’s tough. And I knew one day she would be on that stage, and I always knew it was her destiny, I could just feel it. And I pushed her and finally I stopped pushing her, and then finally she made the choice to do this for herself. And she’s doing it her way. And she’s growing by leaps and bounds, and I’m looking up to her now.”
Her dad will also be in the audience this weekend. “I’m not missing any performances. I’ll sell my house if I have to,” he said. “I’ve told her her potential, and it’s just nice seeing other people see that and seeing her start to realize ‘Oh, I really am that unique. I really am that beautiful.’ She’s loving, she’s kind, she’s vulnerable, and she sings from her heart. She only sings with her feelings, and when she’s not, you’ll notice it, and when she’s singing with her feelings, it resonates with you in a way that you can’t help but be touched and moved and feel human. I don’t know how to explain it.”
We also asked him what his advice would be to his daughter after her “American Idol” journey.
“To continue to do life her way,” he said. “It’s her life. Time is so limited, make sure that she uses every drop of time wisely and to be able to be who she really is, because once she is who she is, she’ll inspire everybody. She’s in a position where she can bring change, she can bring good, she can help other females and even males resonate with her. It’s OK to be yourself, you just need to be vulnerable. And people will love you for you and be accepting of it. This is the most beautiful journey I’ve ever been on. I’ve always told her the ‘Mulan’ quote, ‘The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.'”
“American Idol” is on ABC 4 on Sunday and Monday evenings. To vote for the Top 12, visit AmericanIdol.com/vote or the American Idol app. You can also text the contestant’s number to 21523. Richins number is 10. You can vote up to 10 times for each contestant per method. That means you can vote 10 times via text, 10 times on the website and 10 times on the app, for a total of 30 votes.
