Carter was born on July 31, 2002,[4] and raised in Indio, California,[4] and is the second oldest of seven children in a "very religious family"[5] living with a single mother,[6] Andrea Engel Carter.[7] She has three sisters and three brothers, one of whom, Daniel, is a YouTube video creator.[8]
Carter says that her mother has always supported her in music; Andrea bought Abi her first keyboard. Abi began private piano lessons when she was 7 or 8; Marta Basham,[9] her former piano teacher, spoke to the press and was in the audience for an American Idol show. Referring to her mother's help, Carter told the Coachella Valley Weekly that she "wouldn't be the person I am today without her guiding me along the way".[10]
Carter said that when she was about 11, while cleaning her house, she was listening to "Battle Scars" by Guy Sebastian and Lupe Fiasco. At the time, she noticed patterns in music and music theory principles in pop music. Since then, she has continued playing by ear and improvising.[11]
She went to school at George Washington Charter School in Palm Desert, California until third grade and then was homeschooled. She attended La Quinta High School in La Quinta, California for less than a semester and returned to being homeschooled. About that time, her parents separated. She said that she left high school so that she could also work part-time, help care for her siblings, buy a car, and chauffeur her siblings to school and appointments.[11][12]
She finished high school early[3] and studied psychology at California State University, San Bernardino, Palm Desert campus.[13] In May 2023, she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Marriage & Family Therapy. She was planning on pursuing a master's degree next, but chose to first devote a year to her music, hoping to be able to make it a career.[3]
Before Idol
In 2016, Carter and her mother, who is also a singer, performed for the McCallum Theatre's Open Call Talent Competition, an annual event in Palm Desert. Abi was 13 and her mother 35, and they won "Best Vocal Act" that year. She tried out for Open Call to help her mother overcome her stage fright.[7] Abi has been an Open Call finalist five times.[14][15]
When Carter was 19, she decided to devote more time to her passion for music, so she quit her job as a gymnastics instructor and started busking.[16][11][3] She also gained valuable experience performing at country clubs in the Coachella Valley, as well as at the bar at Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar in Palm Springs, and at Kitchen 86 + Bar in Palm Desert,[11] the "first restaurant that hired her to play music".[17] Her goal was to earn a living by singing, and when local restaurant owners encouraged her to sing in their restaurants, she thought she had reached her goal.[16]
She also performed at VillageFest, a weekly street fair in downtown Palm Springs.[18][19][20] When she first began playing at VillageFest, she started with "12-30 songs" she already knew and just "played them on repeat for four hours straight". Then she began to realize she knew more songs and "actually could play anything that people asked for as long as I had heard it before. I didn't know I could do that."[21]
When some social media videos of her playing were well-received, she was pleasantly surprised and encouraged, so she decided to post cover videos to see what would happen. When she posted a video of her singing the 2023 song "Vampire", by Olivia Rodrigo, American Idol casting producer Ariel Panzer saw the video and invited her to audition for the show. After a couple Zoom meetings with American Idol producers, she decided to audition in Santa Barbara, and, as she puts it, "The rest is history."[16]
In late 2023, after the judges had listened to two days of auditions,[27] Carter performed as the last person of the Los Angeles auditions.[21] She sang Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?", a rendition that impressed all three judges, with Lionel Richie declaring, "We don't have to vote."[27]Wide Open Country reported that she made the song personal by adding complex runs to the melody and using her falsetto range.[28] When she finished the song, Katy Perry approached her and said, "Thank you for being an example of singing from your heart. What were you made for? You were made for this. One hundred percent."[27]Luke Bryan said to Lionel Richie, "That may be the winner of American Idol." Perry turned around and said to Bryan: "Luke, she's Top 10, right?" Richie and Bryan agreed that Carter could win the show. Bryan also mentioned that he had never heard the show's crew clap before.[29] Richie said to Carter's family: "That's the best we've ever heard on this show.... I'm not kidding."[27] Carter was awarded a golden ticket without the judges voting,[27] and a week later her golden ticket was upgraded to a platinum ticket.[6]
On March 23, Carter's first concert was held in her home town of Indio. It was a fundraising event where nearly 1,000 people attended.[30]
On April 7, after making it into the Top 24,[31] she sang "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)" by Hillsong United. Perry told Carter, "I don’t know if I'm allowed to say it, but you're my favorite. I just think you're so gifted."[32]
In the Top 20, Carter sang a slowed-down version of "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance,[33] and Perry cried a little during the song. Carter sang the song as a tribute to her grandfather, who died in 2021, and to her grandmother, who died after American Idol filmed in Kapolei, Hawaii.[34]
In an interview after she had made it into the Top 3, when Carter was asked if there was a particular performance she was most proud of, she mentioned two songs: her audition performance of "What Was I Made For?" because the song relates to her true identity as a performer; and "Bring Me to Life" because it helped her to perform outside her normal comfort zone and discover many layers of herself.[16]
Carter at her American Idol "Hometown Visit" parade in Indio in May 2024
A hometown visit is a tradition for the Top 3 contestants, with a parade and concert,[9] and one stop in the Coachella Valley was at her old school, George Washington Charter School. She described the impact of her story on children:[17]
'I looked at all these little kids and I remembered when I was a little kid in that same room, auditioning for my very first talent show. I just kind of thought to myself, if somebody from my same background came to my school when I was a kid and basically told me that what I wanted to do in the future was possible from where I'm at, I might have done it sooner. I might have been more confident, I might have not wasted time thinking that my life would never go further than where I was at,' Carter said. 'To be that for some kids was incredible to me.'
During the Grand Finale, Billie Eilish expressed her love and support for Carter in a prerecorded video message:[23][35]
Hi Abi, it's Billie. I wanted to say congratulations for making the 'Top 3' on American Idol. This is such a big deal. I'm so happy for you. It's so amazing to see you in the finale after you sang my song, 'What Was I Made For?' in your audition. I love you so much. I wish you nothing but the best, and I just can't wait to see what happens tonight. I'm here to support you forever, and I love ya. Have fun.
Carter sang three songs in the season finale of the contest, ending with her original song, "This Isn't Over".[36][37] On May 19, 2024, Carter became the season 22 winner and sang "What Was I Made For?" again.[38] Will Moseley came in second and Jack Blocker finished in third place.[39] Carter is the first recipient of a platinum ticket to win the competition,[40] the first woman in four years to win, and the eighth female winner overall.[2] Immediately after her win, Bryan said to Carter: "I think this is the first time the person that we thought was gonna be the winner actually was."[41]
Carter was frequently predicted to become one of the Top 3 contestants[42] or possibly even the final winner. Parade Magazine wrote: "The bottom line is that any of the three could win it and be deserving of the honor, but my prediction is it should be Abi. As stated above, she's got it all, she's the whole package, and most importantly, enough experience to go with it."[43]
On July 27, she held her first full concert, "No Amount of Dark", at Acrisure Arena. It was described as a "stellar" performance.[52] The concert's title comes from the lyrics of one of her songs.[53] She sang her recent singles, covers of popular songs, and some unreleased songs.[54][55] Canadian pop singer Laur Elle was the concert's opening act.[56][57]
Carter is still an independent musician and has not yet signed with a record label: "I am currently independent, and I think that that's a big reason as to why I'm able to find myself and have complete creative freedom. Someday I hope to be with a record label, but I feel like I need to find the right one."[60]
Public image
Katy Perry said her "voice is unlike anything I've heard in pop music" and compared Carter to Ariana Grande, whom Perry considers "the best singer of our generation".[61]
Personal life
Carter is in a relationship with boyfriend Cooper McCollum from Allen, Texas.[8]
After American Idol, she moved to Los Angeles, where she is writing songs and working in studios with writers.[21]
Discography
First releases
"It's All Love" (lyric video)[62] "All the good and the bad give you the ability to truly appreciate life and recognize that at the end of the day, everything you experience is just what makes life wonderful."[63]
"This Isn't Over" (music video),[64] (lyric video)[65] "tells a story about personal growth, becoming a stronger person and wanting to tell one's younger self that it's not over, even when it seems impossible to keep going."[66]
"Peppermint Sky" (music video)[67] is "a love letter to the women who have inspired Abi".[60]
"Some People Need Drugs" (music video)[68] is not "about drugs at all, but about an abusive relationship".[60][69]
On November 15, 2024, her debut album, "Ghosts In the Backyard", was released. It has 10 tracks.[72] Jesus Reyes wrote:
Carter explores the pains of growing up, fading relationships, and bittersweet memories that still linger and sting. Each track is a chapter in Carter's emotional journey, capturing the poignancy of moving forward without letting go of the past.[73]
^"Abi Carter on Instagram: "It's All Love" IS FINALLY OUT NOOOOWWW!!!". Instagram. Abi Carter (official account). March 28, 2024. Retrieved October 2, 2024. This song means so much to me. "It's All Love" is about how I never felt like I could do the right thing the first time around. I constantly stumble and make mistakes, but after making so many, you start to realize that it's okay not to be perfect- that's just what life is about. All the good and the bad give you the ability to truly appreciate life and recognize that at the end of the day, everything you experience is just what makes life wonderful.
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