{"id":113441,"date":"2026-02-13T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/113441\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:52:09","slug":"allentown-man-in-first-performance-since-american-idol-appearance-tight-lipped-about-status-on-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/113441\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown man, in first performance since &#8216;American Idol&#8217; appearance, tight-lipped about status on show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2014 Seth Witcher, the Allentown singer whose short appearance Monday on ABC-TV&#8217;s &#8220;American Idol&#8221; ended with a &#8220;no&#8221; from judge Luke Bryan, took to social media hinting that was the end of his &#8220;Idol&#8221; journey.<\/p>\n<p>But in his first public performance since the show aired, Witcher on Thursday was far more cagey about his status on the show.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can neither confirm nor deny anything about &#8216;American Idol,'&#8221; Witcher told about 45 people at a gathering held by Parkland Education Association at Retriever Brewing Co. in Orefield.<\/p>\n<p>    &#8220;I just felt really sad and disappointed. I can&#8217;t say anything, but I thought my audition was really good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Seth Witcher on Facebook<\/p>\n<p>The organization held the public event to honor Witcher, a 2017 Parkland High School graduate. <\/p>\n<p>It drew about 45 people who heard Association President Tori Morgan interview Witcher, then watched him perform a 30-minute show of seven songs.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;American Idol&#8221; episode that aired Monday showed a 20-second segment of him. After the show aired, Witcher posted a video saying he had been &#8220;kicked off&#8221; the show.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And no one saw it coming,&#8221; Witcher said in a Facebook video posted late Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is what &#8216;American Idol&#8217; showed before the episode dropped,&#8221; he said, showing a blink-fast clip of him smiling, holding a Golden Ticket given to contestants put through to the Hollywood Round of competition.<\/p>\n<p>It then shows Bryan giving him a &#8216;no&#8217; vote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just felt really sad and disappointed,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I can&#8217;t say anything, but I thought my audition was really good.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wanted to make this video because I owe it to my fans to be honest about my feelings. I just want to give the world a hug with my music.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Then Thursday night, he posted another video of his career journey, labeled &#8220;This is what they said &#8216;no&#8217; to.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Seth Witcher 3\"  width=\"880\" height=\"1277\" src=\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/32c8dc6\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/847x1229+0+0\/resize\/880x1277!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fc5%2F12%2F0a850fb24347abfeb59111906cd6%2Fseth-witcher-3.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxMjc3cHgiIHdpZHRoPSI4ODBweCI+PC9zdmc+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>John J. Moser<\/p>\n<p>\/<\/p>\n<p> LehighValleyNews.com<\/p>\n<p> A poster for &#8220;American Idol&#8221; contestant Seth Witcher&#8217;s appearance for Parkland Education Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I&#8217;m holding something shiny&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>But the whole truth is that the episode never showed Witcher being &#8220;kicked off.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>It showed singer\/judge Carrie Underwood giving him a &#8220;yes&#8221; vote, but never showed third judge Lionel Ritchie&#8217;s deciding vote, leaving his future on the show unclear.<\/p>\n<p>But at Thursday&#8217;s event, Witcher didn&#8217;t correct Morgan when she introduced him as a &#8220;recent Golden Ticket recipient on &#8216;American Idol.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And he noted at one point that, in a televised ad for &#8220;Idol,&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m holding something shiny.&#8221; Witcher has posted photos on social media showing him holding a Golden Ticket.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t just the answer of whether he got a Golden Ticket that Witcher avoided Thursday. He said he couldn&#8217;t even reveal what song he performed for the judges.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;American Idol&#8221; is scheduled to have another round of auditions when it airs Monday, Feb. 16, then will switch to the Hollywood round in subsequent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Seth Witcher\"  width=\"880\" height=\"660\" src=\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/d79bfa2\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1920x1440+0+0\/resize\/880x660!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Faa%2F9c%2F1a7f28c645768eaf461ff8c6b884%2Fseth-witcher-4.jfif\" loading=\"lazy\" bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSI2NjBweCIgd2lkdGg9Ijg4MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=\"\/><\/p>\n<p>John J. Moser<\/p>\n<p>\/<\/p>\n<p> LehighValleyNews.om<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;American Idol&#8221; contestant Seth Witcher, right, is interviewed by Parkland Education Foundation President Tori Morgan at an event Thursday at Retriever Brewing Company in Orefield.<\/p>\n<p>His time at Parkland, and starting a music career<\/p>\n<p>In a question-and-answer session with Morgan, Witcher said his favorite time at Parkland was when he &#8220;would go and eat breakfast with my friends.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said he tried out for sports, but was &#8220;the bottom of the bottom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said his favorite subject was engineering \u2014 he studied engineering at Kutztown University but said he &#8220;decided to go into music after I actually worked as an engineer.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>    &#8220;My dream when I first started was to play Musikfest. Now, I&#8217;m hoping to sell out Madison Square Garden.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Seth Witcher<\/p>\n<p>He told of how he auditioned for the Mr. Parkland student talent show and performed a song he wrote, and when he later heard people humming the song, it was the confirmation he needed to take music more seriously.<\/p>\n<p>He said he started performing at open mics, and made his way to playing gigs throughout the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Parkland High School has given me a lot of opportunity,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p>But he said discipline is the key to success.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you don&#8217;t have discipline, you&#8217;re not on the path to success,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p>And dreams.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My dream when I first started was to play Musikfest,&#8221; Witcher said \u2014 and he has performed at the huge Bethlehem music festival for the past three years and will perform there again this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, I&#8217;m hoping to sell out Madison Square Garden.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Parkland Education Association gave Witcher its own version of a Golden Ticket, with Morgan telling him, &#8220;You, Seth Witcher, will forever hold Parkland&#8217;s Golden Ticket.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It also happened to be Witcher&#8217;s 27th birthday, and they gave him a cake, as well.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Seth Witcher\"  width=\"880\" height=\"660\" src=\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/486c2fb\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1920x1440+0+0\/resize\/880x660!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2F9e%2Fb5%2F1bf7dec04308b9fc9748cd3d9685%2Fseth-witcher-2.jfif\" loading=\"lazy\" bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSI2NjBweCIgd2lkdGg9Ijg4MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=\"\/><\/p>\n<p>John J. Moser<\/p>\n<p>\/<\/p>\n<p> LehighValleyNews.com<\/p>\n<p> Singer Seth Witcher (center) with Parkland Education Foundation President Tori Morgan (left) and Executive Director Lisa Ervin (right).<\/p>\n<p>Revealing his talent, but not his &#8216;Idol&#8217; result<\/p>\n<p>In his performance, accompanying himself only on acoustic guitar, Witcher started with his own song, &#8220;Nothing Matters,&#8221; displaying his emo-rock style, not too different from Dashboard Confessional.<\/p>\n<p>Another original song, &#8220;Ferris Wheel,&#8221; continued that style. But &#8220;Nightmares&#8221; was far more a traditional folk song.<\/p>\n<p>His final original song, &#8220;Entertain Yourself,&#8221; was the most emo of all, with every note strong, intentional and emotion-filled \u2014 especially his guitar playing. He even broke a string from his powerful strumming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As is often the case with young artists, some of the best songs were covers.<\/p>\n<p>His story moved much close to Ed Sheeran for that artist&#8217;s &#8220;Perfect,&#8221; and Witcher&#8217;s performance was among his best.<\/p>\n<p>He closed with what he said was a request \u2014 a cover of Leonard Cohen&#8217;s &#8220;Hallelujah.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was the best of his set: While retaining his emo style, Witcher showed off his voice, intensity and best talents.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thanks for being cool people,&#8221; he told the audience. &#8220;Love you, Seth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But he left them wondering whether they&#8217;d see him on &#8220;American Idol&#8221; again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2014 Seth Witcher, the Allentown singer whose short appearance Monday on ABC-TV&#8217;s &#8220;American Idol&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,54149,54150,54151,54152],"class_list":["post-113441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-american-idol-and-seth-witcher","tag-american-idol-auditions","tag-parkland-and-seth-witcher","tag-seth-witcher-and-singer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}