LI's Keelin eliminated on 'American Idol'

Keelin, the monomial singer from Medford whose strong "American Idol" audition earned her a Golden Ticket to Hollywood Week, was nonetheless among those eliminated from the singing competition on the episode that aired Sunday night.

She had performed "a slowed-down, stripped-back, power-ballad version" of Lady Gaga's "Perfect Illusion," she told Newsday on Monday, but that segment went unaired. Keelin, 25, née Keelin McGinn, instead was among the group whom host Ryan Seacrest called the "notable standouts" who did not advance. The episode showed a snippet of each, with Keelin saying good-naturedly in voice-over that despite the setback, "I'm still gonna take over the world!"

"I accepted it," she said Monday. "Through that day I saw people get sent home who I thought would make it to the finals. Seeing so many amazing people go home … ," she said, her voice trailing off. She called the show "an amazing experience, but I guess not the road for me," and assured, "I wasn't upset. I didn't cry or anything."

Behind the scenes, she had found herself mentored by singer-songwriter Catie Turner, a 2018 "American Idol" top 7 finalist who went on to be signed by Atlantic Records.

"Instead of splitting us into genres like last season," Keelin explained, "they said a lot of contestants liked to bend genres, so they changed the categories to Confidence, Stage Presence and Songwriting, and we had performers from past seasons come back and mentor us. A select few of us got to have a one-on-one mentoring session with whoever was the head of each category."

Keelin chose Songwriting and spent time learning from Turner, "who I'm a huge fan of ever since I saw her on the show. It will always mean a lot to me that I got to talk to her."

Monday on Instagram Stories, where posts cycle out after 24 hours, she shared a video with another Hollywood Week anecdote: "So I'm backstage about to go on to perform and they decide to take a break so I'm, like, waiting in the wings and the judges walk out in front of me to go to the break room or whatever. And Lionel Richie stops and he looks at me and he grabs my hand and he's, like, 'Are you OK?' "

Assured that she was, he replied, " 'You got this, I believe in you, you're gonna do so great.' No cameras around — that was just him. What a lovely, lovely person."

Keelin performs her wryly cheeky "Don't Call Me" and other original songs at the Manhattan club The Delancey on April 29 at 7 p.m., and is set to drop a new single, "Serious," on April 14.

Born in West Islip, Keelin was raised in Oakdale through age 7, when her parents moved the family to their native Ireland. She returned to the United States in May 2021 after obtaining a degree in voice from the Cork School of Music.