Algonquin native to be featured on ‘American Idol,’ the second from McHenry County this season

Algonquin native Althea Grace will make her debut March 14 on “American Idol” with a song she wrote for her 2-year-old daughter Lennon.

The 21-year-old grew up writing and performing music, first taking the stage at age 6 or 7. At age 13, she won the McHenry County Fair talent contest with her barefoot performance of “Crazy on You” by Heart. She sang and strummed her acoustic guitar.

Through the years as a solo artist and with a former band, Grace has been on stages throughout the country. Among her many tours, she’s performed in McHenry County, the Chicago area, Wisconsin, Nashville and Los Angeles, where she officially moved in 2019 to focus on writing music.

Grace – the daughter of Dave and Meghan Roggenbuck of Algonquin, who goes by Grace so she doesn’t have to spell her last name – never really planned to audition for “American Idol.”

Growing up, she watched the show with her grandma, Fran Traub of Crystal Lake, whom she calls Noni. The two always would agree on the artist they thought should win.

“We used to have a standing ‘American Idol’ date,” Grace remembered. “She’d say, ‘I know you can make it on this show.’ It was always kind of like one of those thoughts in my peripheral. ‘Yeah, OK, maybe I could do that.’ And I don’t think I had the courage to do it up until this year.”

A couple tough years led to the decision. Grace’s daughter, Lennon, became sick, and in January 2020, the baby had to have a liver transplant. She was 1 at the time.

Grace took a step back from her music to care for her daughter full-time. Soon, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

It wasn’t easy, but Lennon grew bigger and stronger, Grace said, and she longed to get back into music.

Then “American Idol” came along.

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to try and see what happens,’” she said. “It was kind of on a whim.”

She auditioned with an original song she wrote about Lennon.

“It was about wishing I would enjoy all of the little things more before she got sick, and I wanted to sing something that was for her,” she said. “Because I think that the biggest motivation to even audition for Idol was that I wanted to hopefully do something good for us and the family and to show her I was pursuing my dreams.”

Those dreams began at quite a young age. Videos show a 2-year-old Grace trying to write songs. One of her first finished songs was called “I’m 4.”

Her grandmother remembers her being a “go-getter” from a very young age. When her dad received a gift of guitar lessons, he offered them to Althea. At age 7, she was a natural, the instructor told her family.

On March 14, they all plan to gather outside in a garage together in Crystal Lake to watch Grace’s appearance on “American Idol,” said Traub, her grandmother.

“I’m a nervous wreck,” she said of having to wait to hear the outcome of the audition.

“I think it’s awesome. I still can’t even believe she did it,” she said. “When she called me and told me she was going to audition, with all the stuff going on with the baby, I was shocked she could muster enough strength to go in and audition. That’s a big thing.”

“What 19-year-old could literally go through the stuff with the baby and be a musician and come through it with such grace and dignity and such,” Taub said. “I’m going to cry now. She told me not cry.”

A graduate of Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Grace has released four albums, both as a solo artist and with her former band, and has written songs for other artists.

“I think that I just have always wanted to do music and nothing else so if I can make my life music and only get to do what I love for the rest of my life then I will be so happy,” she said.

Her music doesn’t really fall into one genre.

“I think I pull a lot of inspiration from growing up with the blues and jazz and rock and kind of more like old school traditional music and then really kind of putting kind of a pop sensibility into it,” she said. “I always say it’s pop, but it’s more like the Beatles or Fleetwood Mac would have been pop, not like what you’re hearing on the radio right now.”

The second McHenry County native to appear on “American Idol” this season, Grace actually auditioned the same day as Lakewood native Grace Kinstler, whose audition aired Feb. 14. Kinstler wowed judges with performances of Gladys Knight & The Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia” and Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman,” earning a golden ticket to Hollywood.

The two had never met before their “American Idol” auditions, but bonded over their shared nervous energy.

“I think I really thrive in the setting of performance, but walking into a room where three magical celebrities are staring at you was incredibly nerve-wrecking,” Grace said of the audition.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been that nervous for any performance. I definitely know I could have done better, but, you know, we’ll see what they think.”