Meet Drake Milligan, ‘AGT’ Season 17’s Rising Country Music Star
Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC Reading Time: 2 minutes
Country singer Drake Milligan appeared on America’s Got Talent Season 17 this week, impressing the judges with his original song. The 24-year-old previously appeared on American Idol and also portrayed Elvis Presley in a TV miniseries.
AGT Star Drake Milligan Was on American Idol
In 2018, when he was 19, Drake Milligan auditioned for Season 16 of American Idol. He performed an original song called “You Look So Good in Love.” The judges were impressed, with Luke Bryan calling him “cowboy cool.”
Drake earned a Golden Ticket to Hollywood. However, he ended up dropping out of the competition. As he explained on Instagram, “After my audition I decided that I wasn’t quite ready for that platform yet, and that it would be a better step for me to move to Nashville and focus on my music first!”
He then moved from his home state of Texas to Nashville and was signed by BBR Music Group. In 2021, he released a self-titled EP, which includes his AGT audition song “Sounds Like Something I’d Do.”
In his AGT audition, Drake performed with his band, showing off a deep, classic country voice. Judge Howie Mandel called him “the new Elvis of country.” Sofia Vergara pointed out that “the girls are going crazy” in the audience.
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Drake Played Elvis in Miniseries ‘Sun Records’
As Drake explained before his audition, he saw an Elvis impersonator when he was 7 years old and “was enthralled.” He ended up impersonating the music legend himself. This eventually led him to portraying Presley in the 2017 mini series Sun Records.
The show aired on CMT and also starred Trevor Donovan and Chad Michael Murray. It was based on the jukebox musical Million Dollar Quartet, which is about a 1956 recording session by Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Studio in Memphis.
Currently, Drake is performing live shows around the country, with several dates left in June and July. Check out his website for more information, and follow him on Instagram to keep up with his life and career.
