Right after the second commercial break during the season 22 debut of “American Idol” on ABC, Atlanta’s Alto Moon pops up shimmying and offering up his high-energy R&B.
His charismatic audition is the focal point around a montage of singers who make it to Hollywood on what is the seventh season on ABC after 15 on Fox and 22 years after the show introduced the world to Kelly Clarkson. He doesn’t get a back story, but he gets praise from judge Lionel Richie.
Moon, who resides in Alpharetta, will make it to Hollywood, naturally, because ABC media made him available for a Zoom interview and they don’t do that for folks who don’t make it to Hollywood.
Moon, who grew up in Alabama with military parents, learned to sing in church and originally sang pure R&B. As time went along, he evolved more into a pop/R&B sound. He was inspired by 1980s icons like Prince, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. He also admires Lenny Kravitz and Usher.
He, like more than 120 million others, saw Usher at the halftime show. “He wore a blue vest that could have come from my closet!” Moon said. And he said he loved the roller-skating bit as well, having just roller skated himself.
Now 27, he came to Atlanta in 2019 from Texas to pursue a music career after getting a degree in broadcast journalism at the University of North Texas. He loves Atlanta.
“There’s not a lot of pretense,” Moon said. “People are exactly like who they are. The city allows me to be a heightened version of my authentic self. This might be home forever.”
As he released original music, an electronic-tinged song “Beautiful Mind” went viral and likely caught the attention of the “Idol” producers, who sought him out to audition.
To pay the bills in Atlanta while building his music career, he worked at a tech start up, which inspired an upbeat song “Lemonz” that he ultimately used for his initial audition in front of the TV judges.
“My focus was letting them know I’m fully an entertainer but also a strong vocalist,” he said.
But he was so psyched to meet a pop R&B legend like Richie. “I blacked out,” he said. “I just remember going in and leaving.”
He said he has been following “Idol” since he was a young child. “I learned how to text from ‘Idol,’” he said.
His stage name, by the way, is a creation. His real name is Troy Garrick.
“I used to sing in the church choir and I was the only little boy with a higher pitched voice so I was the alto,” he said. “Then I grew up and I thought it was a cool name.” He was always fascinated by space so he paired it with “Moon.”
“Alto Moon would look good on a magazine cover,” he said. “Symmetrical and all.”
IF YOU WATCH
“American Idol,” 8 p.m. on Sundays on ABC and available on Hulu the next day
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