Allison Iraheta life and biography

Allison Iraheta is an American singer from Los Angeles, California, who was the fourth place finalist on the eighth season of American Idol. Prior to Idol, Iraheta won the Telemundo competition Quinceañera: Mamá Quiero Ser Artista. Following the conclusion of Idol, Iraheta was signed to a record deal with 19 Entertainment and Jive Records. Her debut album Just Like You was released on December 1, 2009.

According to her family, she has been singing since she was a toddler. In 2001, she began taking voice lessons with Raphael Enriquez at the Los Angeles Music and Art School, a non-profit community school of the arts in East Los Angeles. Before rising to prominence, she was a frequent performer at the local Latin Electronics Store La Curaçao and the Los Angeles Music and Art School's annual benefit concert, Stars for the Arts. Iraheta attends Los Angeles' Animo Ralph Bunche Charter High School.

In 2007, Iraheta won the reality show, “Quinceañera: Mama Quiero Ser Artista” (Sweet Fifteen: Mom, I Want to be an Artist), a reality TV singing competition that was produced and broadcasted in 2006-2007 on Telemundo, where she sang in both English and Spanish.

On the show, a group of teenage girls such as Olivia Bonilla, Brissia Mayagoitia, and others of Hispanic and Latino American background competed in a singing competition for the main prize of $50,000 and a record deal. Iraheta was the first (and only) winner of the competition and received the grand prize, but due to legal problems of the show the recording contract was never finalized and the production of the show was closed.

Iraheta auditioned for the eighth season of American Idol in San Francisco in 2009. She sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin and made it to the Hollywood audition rounds. The judges unanimously agreed to put her through to the semifinals, with Simon Cowell saying "keep your eye on that one" and Paula Abdul predicting that Iraheta would be a "dark horse" in the competition.

On May 6, 2009, Iraheta was eliminated from the competition in 4th place.Slash tweeted that "Alison [sic] didn't deserve to be voted off AI so soon, she has amazing potential." Similarly, American Idol music director Rickey Minor was "absolutely shocked" at her departure.

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