HANNIBAL, MO. -- UPDATE: Wednesday, March 2 at 12:32 p.m.
Hannibal teen Jared Keim agreed to try out for American Idol if he got 2,000 votes on a facebook group.
He reached that goal and will be trying out for the show next season
Auditions for the show will most likely be early fall.
We look forward to following Jared and his journey.
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One Hannibal teen is trying to make it big with a push from his big sister.
Jared Keim is 17 years-old with a voice that packs a punch.
"A bunch of people have been telling me to try out for American Idol and she had been one of the people too. I guess I never really looked into it at all. She just texted me one night, and I was kind of half asleep and goes, 'well if I can make a [Facebook] group and get 2,000 people to vote for you, will you do it?' I was like 'yeah, sure, whatever," said Keim.
And the Facebooking began. Now, he's a few hundred votes shy. Keim started singing at Tabernacle of Praise Church in Hannibal.
"I sang a song with a CD playing in the background and didn't even have karaoke. I just sang over the people, when I was probably 5 or 6," said Jared Keim.
Then, he started playing guitar when he was about ten-years-old. His first guitar was from Wal-Mart because his parents wanted to make sure he was serious. Now he has a few of them.
"Music is what I love to do and I was trying to push that aside and people kept telling me, pushing me to do it, do this, work on with it," said Keim.
When he found out his sister actually started the group, he had mixed emotions.
"It was kind of one of those heart dropping, heart lifting moments. I was like, now I have to do it if it goes through to 2,000, but then I'm like, well now I'm actually going to do it," said Keim.
He says he wouldn't be able to do it without the support of his family and friends.
"Knowing that the people were there and have been putting in their time for votes and like, look at it and stuff, I don't want to let anybody down, and I mean, I want to do it. I just never really had the drive to do it, and people tell me they're going to support me. It's helped me out a lot," said Keim.
To hear more songs, check out his youtube.com page.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKHQA