When Megan Miller auditioned for American Idol the first time, she was a 22-year-old kinesiology student on crutches. The second time, she was a 23-year-old college graduate with a command of the stage and a budding music career away from the cameras.
Now, she’s carving out a career in Nashville.
“I still feel like it was kind of a dream when I reflect on it now,” Miller says. “Everything moved so fast. You didn’t really realize what happened to you.”
Hailing from Ethel, Miller twice made it through to the competition’s Hollywood rounds. Her first trip to L.A. was short, but her homecoming reception encouraged Miller to push her career to the next level.
“When I got back home and saw the type of impact that the show had on my support group and the Baton Rouge community, how much they rallied behind me, it really gave me a boost of confidence and made me believe I could actually do this,” Miller says. “I went to California, and now I could see the light at the end of the tunnel of a dream that [before] I didn’t think actually was possible.”
And so Miller began taking voice lessons, working on her stage presence and playing shows around the city with her own group, the Megan Miller Band. The second time around with American Idol in 2013, Miller’s new confidence carried her through to the final cut before live shows, and though she went home empty-handed again, her career found a new trajectory.
Miller moved from Baton Rouge to Nashville earlier this year, and she’s doing everything from performing small gigs to singing the National Anthem at the NBA All-Star Game. She’s been picked up by a record label, secured a management deal and is bringing elements of the “super sassy songs” she’s covered in the past to her own original songwriting style.
“I would call it a country-rock type of sound, but I also have a rasp in my voice, so I definitely can blues it up a bit and bring in my soul and my Louisiana influence in there,” Miller says. “I only hope that I don’t sound like anyone else. That’s kind of my thing; I try to not sound like anyone else and [to] embrace the unique things about my voice.”
As hard as she’s fought, this rising soloist acknowledges the role reality TV played in her move to the Nashville music scene. Miller says she’s still grateful for American Idol and hopes she can
prove she has the chops to match that hype. youtube.com/meganmill3
