Johnny Keyser (born August 24, 1988), is an American singer, songwriter, composer and recording artist, born in Pompano Beach, Florida. He was a member of the top 40 on American Idol during Season 12. Before competing in American Idol, he recorded a seven song EP called From Where I Stand, released May 16, 2012.

Personal life

Keyser was born in Pompano Beach, Florida. When he was three years old, his parents divorced, and his father John and mother Cheryl shared joint custody, but Johnny lived primarily with his father. Johnny and his father formed a close relationship, "He's like my brother more than my Dad!" Johnny noted. Cheryl Plourde, Johnny's mother, is a pastor's wife and a mother of twelve. Keyser is a fourth-generation musician and was an all-star four sport athlete during high school playing Football, Baseball, Soccer, and Track. Keyser claims he learned to sing when he got his own car and began listening to his singing voice on a voice recorder his grandmother gave him as a present. Keyser stated, "It wasn't until I knew what I sounded like outside of my head, what others were hearing, that I could make any accurate adjustments to my voice."

He studied as a marketing major at the University of Central Florida. While in school, Keyser worked as a server at Carrabbas Italian Grille in Orlando, Florida. He never pursued any sort of musical track throughout college. Co-workers [Carrabbamico's] and friends of his would frequent karaoke bars around Orlando and always urge Johnny to sing, but his stage experience was extremely limited.

American Idol

Season 11

Keyser was first noticed when he auditioned for American Idol Season 11 in St. Louis, Missouri. His rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" and vocal prowess moved all three judges, with the show's season-long ad campaign built around Jennifer Lopez's exhortations "You Know You're Gonna Be A Star, Right?" and "Keep Singing...". Despite his a cappella version of Amos Lee's "Dreamin'" in the Hollywood rounds, he was cut from the competition. Although when he and three others were announced as possible wildcard entries into the Final 25, Keyser was touted as the likely inclusion, but he was not chosen as the Wild Card to return on the show.

Performances and results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist	Order	Result
Audition	Auditioner's Choice	"A Change is Gonna Come"	Sam Cooke	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 1	First Solo	"Dreamin'"	Amos Lee	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	"Broken Strings"	James Morrison feat. Nelly Furtado	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 3	Second Solo	"Everything"	Michael Bublé	N/A	Advanced
Las Vegas Round	Songs of the 1950s Group Performance	"Wake Up Little Susie"	The Everly Brothers	N/A	Eliminated

Season 12

Keyser came back for the twelfth season.

Performances and results

Episode	Theme	Song choice	Original artist	Order	Result
Audition	Auditioner's Choice	"Try a Little Tenderness"	Otis Redding	N/A	Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 1	First Solo				Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 2	Group Performance	"Reach Out I'll Be There"	Four Tops		Advanced
Hollywood Round, Part 3				N/A	Advanced
Las Vegas Round		"I Won't Give Up"	Jason Mraz	N/A	Eliminated

Solo career

Following his departure from American Idol, Keyser was approached by numerous music industry professionals interested in working with the raw new talent. Keyser wanted to produce and record an album. He quickly moved to Nashville where, under the counsel of his father John Keyser, he began to work with friends he made through American Idol, Wayne Caparas (who served as his manager and talent developer) and his daughter singer/songwriter Amber Caparas. Shortly upon their arrival in Nashville, Keyser was approached by Grammy-winning producer Bryan Lenox. They recorded the seven-track EP From Where I Stand. The songs were primarily written by Keyser and friend and fellow singer/songwriter Amber Caparas with additional co-writes with Wayne Caparas. It was released on May 16, 2012, to highly positive reviews, and he was asked to perform the title track "From Where I Stand" at the Fox 2 Studios in St. Louis on May 23. It reached #44 on the Billboard Heatseaker Albums charts. In their American Idol 10th Anniversary recap, Billboard Magazine recognized Keyser among just 69 contestants in the history of the show to hit the Billboard charts, and was the first contestant to ever accomplish this feat with an original album before the end of the season in which he competed.

Discography

Extended plays

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		Heatseekers
From Where I Stand	Released: May 16, 2012 Label: Johnny Keyser Formats: CD, Digital download	44

Published songs

Title	Year
"Never Too Late"	2012
"From Where I Stand"	2012
"We Try"	2012
"In The Bitter"	2012
"Selah"	2012
"Early Morning Rain"	2012
"A Change Is Gonna Come"	Sam Cooke

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