Long Islander Christian Guardino in 'American Idol' top 24

Patchogue singer Christian Guardino, who had advanced to the semifinals of NBC's "America's Got Talent" in 2017, has belted his way to the top 24 of ABC's "American Idol," where on Monday he performed Silk Sonic's "Leave the Door Open" as part of the competition's Hawaii Week. 

The visually impaired youth, who turned 22 last month, had blown away judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie at his Nashville audition earlier this year, where his rendition of Donny Hathaway's "A Song for You" earned him a Golden Ticket to the Hollywood Week shows. There, at Los Angeles' Orpheum Theatre, he delivered a winning performance of Billie Eilish's "My Future," followed by a powerful duet with fellow contestant Nicolina Bozzo on Céline Dion and Andrea Bocelli's "The Prayer.” 

In his most recent episode, on April 4, his performance of "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon left Richie speechless.

Guardino's progression on "American Idol" has "empowered him so much," his mother, registered nurse Beth Guardino, tells Newsday by phone. While she and dad Nino Guardino had accompanied their son to Nashville, Christian Guardino has since traveled by himself for the show to Hawaii and Los Angeles, where he currently is staying. "A lot of the new confidence we see in his performances comes from that," his mother says. "It's monumental for him. Overall, 'American Idol’ is the best thing for him that could have happened."

Since being eliminated from "AGT" in September 2017, Guardino — then about to begin his senior year at Patchogue-Medford High School — "has been traveling all over sharing his story and performing," says Beth Guardino. "He's done a lot of corporate things for the science and medical community" and performed at events including the Angelica Hale's Hometown Show in Sandy Springs, Georgia, in August 2019. Via remote, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he performed for Australia's WhiteStickFest this past October.

In November 2018, Guardino released his first single, "Missing Part of Me," written and produced by Grammy nominee Sacha Skarbek, who co-wrote the Miley Cyrus hit "Wrecking Ball." The proceeds of Guardino's song benefited the nonprofit Vision of Children Foundation for vision-disorder research. The following year, Guardino released his own original composition, "Waiting," produced by country music star Hunter Hayes — who had the then-teen come onstage with him at The Fillmore Silver Spring, in Maryland, for a duet.

But most significantly, his mother says, the legally blind Guardino — who suffers from the rare retinal disease Leber congenital amaurosis, and has benefited from a pioneering gene therapy developed by the University of Pennsylvania's Scheie Eye Institute — in October 2017 testified before a Food and Drug Administration panel "about the gene therapy he'd had, and it received unanimous approval and is now mainstream for others who have his disease. We both went and both testified about what it's done for him. That was quite an experience."

In between performances — including several renditions of the national anthem at sports events and elsewhere — Guardino works for his uncle, David Chiarella, who owns restaurants including the PeraBell, in Riverhead, and Bodhi's Beach Shack, in Blue Point. He also performs occasionally with another uncle, James Chiarella, frontman for the local band Melting Pots. 

"The support from the Island has been incredible and very heartwarming for someone like Christian, who, having a disability, felt not-in-the-loop when he was growing up," Beth Guardino says. "It just does something for you when you see that much support for you. He wouldn't want to live anywhere else," she says. "He loves Long Island, he loves Patchogue."