Spokane staple Olivia Vika walks away from ‘American Idol’ with valuable lessons learned

For one of Spokane’s musical fixtures, Olivia Vika’s “American Idol” run proved to be a rich experience of lessons and takeaways.

This wasn’t the first time Vika auditioned for the long-running vocal talent competition. At age 16, she was told to come back when she “was ready” and had built more of a sonic identity. So, after five-plus years, she gave it another shot.

“I felt like I’ve grown so much in the past few years, so why not give it a go again?” Vika said.

Vika went through multiple preliminary auditions, interviews and video submissions before being selected to attend the first round of in-person auditions at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Belmont University’s campus in Nashville, Tennessee. This was where she took the stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar in front of R&B legend Lionel Richie, country star Luke Bryan and Season 4 Idol champion and country singer Carrie Underwood.

Much more actually occurred during the audition than what aired Feb. 16 on ABC. Vika performed a total of five songs, four of which she was unprepared for – including Bryan’s request of “Happy Birthday.” The judges said Vika’s unique style of singing needed some adjustments and reining in, but nonetheless she was accepted to the next round of competition.

“I’m glad I got to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Luke Bryan,” Vika said. “It was a very scary and crazy kind of audition; very unexpected.”

She then went on to “Hollywood Week” in Music City, where Vika performed “You Know I’m No Good” by one of her personal heroes, Amy Winehouse, with a full backing band this time around.

“You look like a star and you have such a big voice,” judge Bryan told Vika after her performance, which aired Monday, “but I had trouble picking up a lot of those lyrics because of the bending and the rounding out and the back phrasing and all that.”

In a backstage interview, Vika became emotional, sharing, “I just thought I had done better than he said, but apparently I didn’t.”

The lead singer of local Vika and the Velvets is taking the experience with stride and using the lessons learned to not only improve vocally, but to reflect as well. Vika quickly realized she should not only be “more mature” with her voice, but that she got caught up in the other factors that come with independently running a band and building a brand in the modern era of music.

“I’ve been so out of vocal coaching and just been so head-in with the band and my own thing and being my own style,” Vika said. “There’s so many things that I can be doing and should be doing that I just wasn’t paying attention to, because there’s so many things that you can do with art and the music stylistically, writing, creating an image and your branding.”

As she continues to grow as a vocalist, Vika and the Velvets have a busy few months ahead of them, such as a festival run including Boise’s Treefort Music Festival toward the end of March and Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party in August. The band is also gearing up for a summer tour and a new EP.

“New music coming,” Vika said.