Our very own Twin Cities 'Idol'

Casey Carlson is so petite, with birdlike bones and a slender brunette prettiness, that the force of her voice is surprising. Certainly the 20-year-old University of Minnesota junior’s powerhouse alto wowed the judges of “American Idol,” which Carlson was a part of only a few short weeks ago. Amidst the din of a busy Friday afternoon at the Stadium Village Tea Garden, Carlson’s former place of employment, the Alpha Phi sorority sister detailed to A&E her whirlwind taste of Hollywood, TMZ and reality TV.
Carlson, a graduate of Eden Prairie High School , was comfortable with the stage pre-“Idol.” She’d done plenty of musical theater, including playing the lead role of Kathy Selden in Eden Prairie’s production of “Singin’ in the Rain.” She took private voice lessons from seventh grade onward and participated in choir, so by the time she decided to try out for Twin Cities Idol in 2007, she’d had plenty of practice.
Carlson was hoping for a “fast pass” to “American Idol” auditions at the time of Twin Cities Idol, but it didn’t quite work out. She placed fourth in the competition, so she had to wait until the following August to try out. As we saw on “American Idol,” she traveled to Kansas City with her mom and sang Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles ” as her audition piece, impressing the judges enough to get Casey a ticket to Hollywood. This triumph was a secret she had to keep for several months.
“Lots of people knew, but I told them, ‘If you tell anyone I’m gonna get kicked off!’ ” she remembered. “The more people I told, the more pressure was on to keep the secret.”
To make a long story short, Casey flew to Los Angeles as one of “Idol’s” top 36 and spent most of January and February basically secluded with her fellow contestants. She described a typical day in “Idol” land: “We sat around for lots of hours, since everyone has to have their individual rehearsal times,” she said. “But [Idol] is filmed in the same studios as some soap operas, so we could watch the actors messing up. That ‘behind the scenes’ was fun.”
On a performance day, however, things were a little more chaotic.
“We were up at 5 a.m., but the dress rehearsals were fun because of hair, makeup and wardrobe,” she said. “You’d only have a few times to run through your songs with the band.”
Was she nervous onstage in front of “Idol’s” legions of viewers?
“You don’t notice you’re being filmed,” she said. “It’s an intimate space and not a very big audience, so it doesn’t feel like people are watching you, which made it easier. The cameras were just cameras.”
Of course, with reality TV fame comes the magnifying glass of scrutiny wielded by both tabloid reporters and entertainment bloggers alike. When asked about her appearance on TMZ, Casey laughed.
“I didn’t see the TMZ episode, but it was not as I expected,” she said. “Usually they say mean things about people, but they really liked me. Nobody can take that away from me.”
Casey also laughed about the prevalence of her “bikini pictures,” which were taken last year for a Campus Girls calendar benefiting breast cancer research.
“I wasn’t trying to hide them. It was funny because all these papers were like, ‘We dug up this dirt on her,’ ” Carlson said.
What about those entertainment blogs, known to be unmerciful?
“We were advised to stay away from the blogs,” Carlson said. “They’d seen contestants crumble; they’ll read something horrible and can’t perform.”
However, for Casey, the criticisms didn’t sting too badly.
“I will never talk about reality TV again,” she said, “but I don’t take it personally. When someone says, ‘She’s a bad singer,’ it’s not personal like, ‘She’s a bad person.’
“[Before you get to the Top 36] you’ve only heard good things,” she said when asked about the opinions of Simon, Paula, Randy and new judge Kara. “It’s just a show, and when you’ve been on it, you know what it’s like.”
We can’t talk about “Idol” without mentioning its perky and charming host.
“Ryan was really cool; he was my favorite celebrity on the show,” she said. “He’s super real, 100 percent himself on camera. It’s effortless for him. I had a really good time getting to know him; his job is to get to know us.”
But all good things come to an end, and Casey’s tenure on “American Idol” came to a stop. Does she have any regrets about her experience?
“I’d like to say I don’t have any regrets. However, my song choice was the reason I got kicked off. I was taking a risk, and to them it didn’t pay off.”
Casey said she did her best singing during Hollywood Week, where she sang Gwen Stefani’s “Sweet Escape” and Secondhand Serenade’s “Fall for You,” but her segments didn’t air.
“I definitely wish I would have made it to the top 10 to tour this summer, but now I get to be with my family and friends. I missed everybody,” she said.
Back in Minneapolis, Casey remains totally busy.
“I’m working on a demo with Paul Petersen at Masters studio. I’m lucky because Minnesota has a really good music scene. [On the show] I wouldn’t be able to be myself,” she said. “I really like indie rock, and you can’t sing indie rock on the show.”
Casey said her demo will “sound like a mix between Stars and the music of Her Space Holiday. It will be happy and upbeat, a lot of string instruments and a little techno influence too.” She’ll also be a part of the CW Twin Cities , hosting on-air segments and events.
Casey plans to continue pursuing a degree in mass communication and is taking her second semester classes as directed studies, since the chaos of “Idol” kept her from campus.
“I was really lucky to have the support of people at the ‘U,’ ” she said of her faithful voters.
You can’t have 15 minutes of reality TV fame without being recognized, and Casey said it happens.
“People will see me and think, ‘That’s the girl from “Idol,” ’ but it’s awkward because I just got kicked off. The most adamant are 10- to 13-year-old girls. They love saying ‘hi’ and getting autographs, but that’s what it’s all about,” Carlson said.
Casey just stopped in at her old elementary school to visit the students.
“I met with 200 kids, and they made me posters,” she said. “It was cool to say, ‘I was here years ago, and imagine what you can do in 10 years.’ ”