Every season, there are feel-good stories on reality competition shows.
As American Idol begins its 20th anniversary season tonight, the biggest feel-good story might be Christian Guardino.
While there are several singers who have been on other reality shows, with both Mike Parker and Allegra Miles as former The Voice contestants, Christian was also a featured contestant on a talent show.
For Christian, it was America’s Got Talent, where he captured the audience’s attention.
Who is Christian Guardino on American Idol?
Christian Guardino is a 20-year-old singer from Long Island, New York.
Fans of America’s Got Talent will recognize him from his appearance there in 2017. That was Season 12 where he auditioned and received the golden buzzer from Howie Mandel.
Christian was 16 when he appeared on the show.
Christian sang a cover of the Jackson 5’s Who’s Loving You and the golden buzzer sent him to the semifinals. He later sang both Ed Sheeran’s Make it Rain and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On before he went home.
Check out his crowd-pleasing golden buzzer performance here.
Since leaving America’s Got Talent, Christian released three singles in Missing Part of Me in 2018, Waiting in 2019, and Wishful Thinking in 2020.
Waiting received over 90,000 streams on Spotify.
Waiting also has a music video.
As for the feel-good story, Christian was born with Leber congenital amaurosis, a degenerative disease affecting the retina that left him legally blind when he was six months old.
His vision began to deteriorate even more when he turned 12. However, he underwent gene therapy at that time and regained most of his vision.
Where can you find Christian Guardino on Instagram?
American Idol fans can follow Christian Guardino on Instagram at @christianguardino.
He has over 23,900 followers and 367 posts so far. He also has a request for booking inquiries on his page and a link to his original music on Spotify.
On his American Idol Season 20 posts, he wrote, “2022 is a super exiting year for me already!!!! I want you guys to tune in on February 27th!!!!! I’m gonna be auditioning for SEASON 2️⃣0️⃣ of American Idol!!!!!!!!!”
Fans who follow him will see lots of photos of Christian as well as some videos of his music. There was even a great picture of him with the legendary Temptations.
American Idol Season 20 premieres on Sunday night, February 27, at 8/7c on ABC.