Jazzlyn Little appeared to want to disappear into the ground when she entered the stage of The X Factor USA in 2011. At just 16, with quivering hands and eyes full of dread, she informed the judges exactly how she felt: “I’m extremely nervous.” Simon Cowell didn’t let her off easy however, criticizing her for not believing in herself and warned that her lack of confidence was “not selling” her at all.
But the instant the backing track for “I’m Going Down” kicked in, everything switched. Jazzlyn closed her eyes, took a breath, and unleashed a voice that sounded nothing like the terrified adolescent we’d seen seconds before. Her tone was deep and soulful, full of control and emotion, striking large notes with ease and pouring raw feeling into every line of the Mary J. Blige song.
The judges’ faces altered in real time – shock, then smiles, then bewilderment. As Jazzlyn’s confidence rose with each note, the audience’s muted sympathy gave way to wild yells and applause during the performance. She got everyone in the room moving by the end. What started as an almost agonizing demonstration of self-doubt changed into one of the best auditions of the season, with Simon calling her a real contender and reviewers marking her as “one to watch.”
Before she even began to sing, Jazzlyn Little appeared to be on the verge of collapse as she entered the platform. Rather, she demonstrated that often the most self-conscious people are the ones have something genuinely remarkable inside of them.
