American Idol Season 24 finalist Keyla Richardson is making some big life changes in order to pursue a music career after the show. Richardson finished the season in third place, behind runner-up Jordan McCullough and winner Hannah Harper.
American Idol‘s Keyla Richardson on Life Changes
In a new interview with the Pensacola News Journal, Keyla Richardson shared that since she finished her run on American Idol, she’s been in the studio working on new music, and she’ll be “on the road a lot” with her son Drew. She also teased some talk show appearances in her future.
One big change in Richardson’s life is that the singer doesn’t think she’ll have the time to return to her job as a music teacher at Life Shifting Academy.
“I love my students, I’m always going to visit my students…they’re my kids,” Richardson said. “As far as right now, my schedule is so busy I don’t see myself being able to even go back to the school and teach the kids. But I can come back and maybe have a program; we can schedule that time.”
The 29-year-old singer also teased that she might be branching out into genres other than gospel, saying, “I’m just not in the gospel lane anymore. I’m in the country lane, I’m in the pop lane, I’m in the rock lane, the soul lane, you name it. I can do different kinds of stuff, but I’m just really leaning toward pop…I’m just a little bit of everything, I guess.”
During American Idol Season 24, past contestant Jennifer Hudson appeared as a guest mentor for Disney Night. Keyla Richardson told the Pensacola News Journal how connected she felt to the iconic singer during their time together.
“I feel like whenever Jennifer Hudson mentored me, I feel like she saw a lot of herself in me. Just the drive…the purpose, just having that passion for singing,” Richardson said. “When I look back at her videos on American Idol, she had that passion, she had that drive. She wanted to really do it, and she saw that in me. So, it just really touched my heart, and it touched her heart…”
If you want to keep up with Keyla Richardson’s career post-Idol, you can follow the singer on Instagram, where she currently has over 125,000 followers.
Words by:
Jill O'Rourke Jill O’Rourke is a contributor at Talent Recap, writing news stories and recaps for shows like ‘AGT,’ ‘The Voice,’ and ‘American Idol.’ She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and Film Studies, and has been writing about pop culture since 2012, with previous bylines at Crushable and A Plus. Jill spends her free time binge-watching sitcoms and daydreaming about life as a hobbit
