So close, she came so close, standing up there and letting her voice flow.
She was alone with the judges. She wanted to win so badly, all the pressure building up on her, and yet she was cut short at the last hurdle. Paly senior Genevieve Yang, the first Paly student to audition for American Idol has been singing for as long as she can remember. "Singing and music have always been a part of my life, I’ve been singing since forever," Yang said.

Yang became a diehard fan of "American Idol" after she watched the first season of the show. "I religiously watched the first and second season of ‘American Idol’ and I really wanted Clay to win," Yang said. She had always wanted to audition for it and her desire came true this in July, 2003, when she went to the auditions in Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. "I seriously slept on the pavement for 3 days and 3 nights waiting for my turn," Yang said. "There were over 12,000 people auditioning in LA that summer. Inside the stadium there were 12 stations, and I was the first person at station No. 11. I was cut in the first 5 seconds, and, that made me really mad, so I swore off American Idol."

However, the producers for the show didn’t meet the set quota of people, and so they added two new locations to the tour: San Francisco and Hawaii. "When I found out that they were going to audition again in San Francisco, I was excited, but I didn’t know if I wanted to do it again," Yang said. "Eventually I decided to go for it."

The auditions were held at the Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel and over 4,000 people were auditioning, according to Yang. "I sang the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘From This Moment’ by Shania Twain," Yang said. The 4,000 were then cut down to 90, including Yang. "We then sang in front of the two producers of ‘American Idol’," she said. That group of 90 people was thinned down to 24 who were to sing in front of Randy, Paula, and Simon.

"I was really nervous when I went up there, in front of them (Randy, Paula, and Simon)," Yang said. "After I had sung, they told me that I was adorable but that my voice was too immature. They gave me a list of teachers they recommended to help me with my singing. They told me that I should keep working on my voice and to come back next year."

Michael Najar, Paly’s choir teacher agreed. "Genevieve is young, she’s only 17, and even though she has a strong voice, there’s still room to grow," he said.

Yang is still considering her options. "I don’t know if I will go back next year, because of college," Yang said, who is hoping to attend New York University. "But they really emphasized that I come back next year, because I could possibly make it. They said I was really young to make it this far, because most of the people who made it were 22, 23."

Yang was supported by her family, friends, and Najar. "My whole family drove down to LA when I auditioned there. They knew from the beginning that I wanted to audition and they really helped me out."

"Genevieve is a great singer, she has a lot of talent," Najar said. "She is really enthusiastic, a great performer, and she can sing any kind of music." This year Yang is a part of Madrigals and the Advanced Vocal Choir.

This experience has inspired Yang to sing more seriously. "It helped me deal with pressure," Yang said. "It takes a lot of nerve to get up there. There were camera’s everywhere, watching you." But it also made her feel stronger. "It gave me a different kind of strength, one I can’t explain."