Our ‘American Idol’ returns
“Being back on the Wheaton College campus after almost a decade (how has it been a decade?!) was truly a surreal experience for me. I first started to dream of making music a career while I was a student at Wheaton, and it was really cool to be able to return with that being a reality. Due to the weather being a little iffy, they moved our concert from outside to inside at the chapel. I joked that I hadn’t been to the chapel since my freshman year, when I was reading the honor code out loud, but I’m pretty sure that’s true. It was so beautiful to play there. The sound was amazing, and it made for a really special setting to play a set of my own songs. Since it was my 10-year Reunion, I think the greatest part of the whole day was spending time with old friends, catching up and retelling old stories from Wheaton, and just laughing about the great times we had together on that campus. I’ve played arenas, opened for some of my favorite artists and won ‘American Idol,’ but there was something even more special about returning to Wheaton and playing music there. It was kind of where it all started for me, and it was really great to see it come full circle.”
—Nick Fradiani ’08, U.S. history major, 2015 “American Idol” winner
(Fradiani, whose most recent EP is “Where We Left Off,” is currently in the studio working on his next project.)