C.J. Harris, a distinguished contestant on the thirteenth season of American Idol, died Sunday evening in Jasper, Ala. He was 31.
The Walker County Coroner’s Workplace confirmed the singer was rushed to Walker Baptist Medical Heart after affected by cardiac arrest. At the moment, they imagine his reason for demise was presumably a coronary heart assault.
Harris, born on Jan. 28, 1991, auditioned in Salt Lake Metropolis for his season of the singing competitors present. After singing “Soulshine” by The Allman Brothers, all three judges on the panel, together with Keith City, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr., voted “sure,” shifting him to the subsequent spherical.
“C.J. Harris was an unbelievable expertise, and the information of his passing deeply saddens us,” American Idol wrote on its Instagram Story. “He will probably be actually missed.”
In 2014, the singer advised The Hollywood Reporter that his grandfather was a part of what impressed him to get entangled with music. “After I was somewhat older, my granddad gave me a guitar,” he stated. “He had one within the shed and it had three strings on it. He stated I didn’t want to purchase a complete new set of strings. So I might tune it in a manner that once I strummed it, it sounded prefer it’s in a key of no matter. I discover completely different sounds. I simply love music so I actually attempt to discover a sound that I actually like and simply play it. I do know that’s bizarre, however that’s what I do.”
Rising up, he was influenced by Usher and Keith Sweat, saying, “In highschool, I received into nation music and blues and rock music.” He additionally added that “Darius Rucker has actually influenced me in so some ways.”
Harris additionally auditioned for Idol as soon as earlier than, in 2010, however advised THR that he by no means made it previous the primary spherical. He had additionally auditioned for The X-Issue and The Voice.
After deciding he was “going to provide it one other probability,” the singer ended up ending in sixth place on American Idol. After the present, he went on to launch his debut single, “In Love,” in 2019.
