Chayce Beckham (born July 16, 1996) is a singer-songwriter from

Apple Valley, California Apple Valley is an incorporated town in the Victor Valley of San Bernardino County, in the U.S. state of California. It was incorporated on November 14, 1988, and is one of the 22 incorporated municipalities in California that use "town" in the ...

, who rose to fame after winning the nineteenth season of the singing reality show ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to A ...

''.

Early life

Beckham was born in

Victorville Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. History In 1858, Aaron G. Lane came to what is now known as Victorville and founded a waystation called "Lane's Cro ...

to Windie Petersen and spent his childhood in Victorville, Hesperia, and

. He went to Carmel Elementary School in Hesperia, Vanguard Preparatory School and Sitting Bull Academy in Apple Valley, before moving to

Glendora High School Glendora High School (GHS) is located in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California, United States. History The high school was built in 1958 on land owned by Clarks Gordan, an orange grower. Before it was built, Glendora students attended Citrus ...

at the age of 12, and continuing at Whitcomb High School, where he graduated in 2014. He worked as a heavy machinery operator and formed a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...

band called the Sinking Sailors when he was 19 or 20. He cited

Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredictable and e ...

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American Country music, country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later s ...

Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music. Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...

, Hank Williams Jr., and Hank Williams Sr. as his musical influences, In late 2020, two weeks before he auditioned for ''American Idol'', he was involved in a near-fatal car wreck.

''American Idol''

Beckham auditioned for the nineteenth season of the singing reality show ''

'' in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

. After surviving Hollywood Week and making it into the Top 5, Beckham received the most votes to win, and on May 23, 2021, he was crowned the winner of the nineteenth season of ''American Idol'', beating runner-up Willie Spence. On ''American Idol'', he performed "23", which he wrote a year prior, and the song reached No. 1 on the iTunes chart after he performed the song. The song was released as his single. The song made him the first ''Idol'' winner to do so with an original song.

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

References

External links

Chayce Beckham
and Beyonce are included in historical points of interest for the town of Apple Valley {{DEFAULTSORT:Beckham, Chayce American Idol winners Living people Hollywood Records artists 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singers 1996 births