Transition

American Idol!
Trent Harmon saw it as a sign. Last summer, while working with a Christian
mission team in Belize, a desperately poor country in Central America, Harmon was mulling
his future as a singer. A 2013 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello with a
degree in history and minor in music, Harmon’s music career was going nowhere.
T
“THINGS WEREN’T HAPPENING
for me,” he remembered. “I was taking
music seriously, but music wasn’t taking
me seriously.”
That changed one night when three
little boys found their way into Harmon’s
camp in Belize and began to sing. “They
had such beautiful voices,” Harmon said.
“I took it as a sign to give music another
shot.”
At the urging of his girlfriend, Kathleen
Couch, a former UAM cheerleader,
Harmon flew to Little Rock for an open
call audition for American Idol, the iconic
television show that launched the careers
of music superstars Carrie Underwood,
Kelly Clarkson and Jordin Sparks.
“They said ‘Can you come back tomorrow?’”
said Harmon. “They kept asking
me to come back until I finally got to go
to Hollywood.”
Fast-forward to April 7 at the Dolby
Theatre in Los Angeles where the 15th and
final season of American Idol was about to
come to a close. On stage, Harmon and
fellow finalist La’Porsha Renae waited for
host Ryan Seacrest to announce the winner.
“I told La’Porsha that no matter whose
name they call, we’re just going to hug until
they pull us apart,” Harmon said. “I told
her, ‘Hey, we’ve both won a car. We’re going
to be all right.’”
When Harmon’s name was called, he
fell to his knees, then embraced Renae
before closing the show with a performance
of Keith Urban’s “Falling.”
Since that moment, Harmon’s life
has been a whirlwind. “What is earth,”
Harmon said, laughing when reached by
a caller who asked whether he had returned
to earth after winning. “I’m hanging in
there. It’s really not as crazy as you might
think. It’s mostly lots of interviews and PR.
I’m being careful to listen more than I talk.”
Harmon was whisked away to New
York following the American Idol finale
where he estimates he conducted between
50 and 60 interviews. “People, E!, Billboard,
TV Guide, you name it,” he said. Then it
was on to Nashville to begin work on a
record album. As part of his American
Idol winnings, in addition to a 2017 Ford
Fusion, Harmon received a record contract
with Big Machine Records, which counts
among its clients Taylor Swift, Tim Mc-
Graw and Cheap Trick. Harmon will also
have the opportunity to record an original
song for the upcoming animated film Ice
Age: Collision Course and will have a voice
part in the movie.
Not bad for a guy from a small town in
northeast Mississippi. Harmon grew up in
Amory, less than 30 miles from Tupelo, the
birthplace of Elvis Presley. “I’m a huge Elvis
fan,” he said. “I wrote a paper about Elvis
for one of my history classes at UAM.”
As a UAM student, Harmon was
a regular in musical stage productions,
appearing in Oklahoma! and Pirates of
Penzance. He also sang in the concert
choir and was active in the Missionary
Baptist Student Fellowship. Harmon
served as a fill-in worship leader at Pauline
Baptist Church in Monticello and hopes
his faith will help keep him grounded.
“I’m trying to keep my feet on the
ground,” he said. “I’ll ask myself, would I
have done this a year ago? Is this a person
I would have been friends with a year ago?
If the answer is no, I move on.”
When Harmon was announced as
the winner, the news set off celebrations
in Monticello, Amory, and Malvern, his
temporary adopted hometown. “I never
expected to win,” Harmon admitted. “I
thought I could and prepared to win, but
I didn’t expect to.”
Harmon’s mother, Cindy, summed
up Trent’s future best when she told a
reporter, “Whatever happens, God has a
plan, and we’re trusting in that.”
10 UAM Magazine