Austin Percario is giving stardom another shot.
The Bryn Mawr, N.J., teen — who you may remember from his time on The X Factor as a member of the group “InTENsity” — was among the 5,000 strong descending upon the Prudential Center in Newark for the season 12 American Idol auditions.
Percario, 16, first appeared on X Factor last fall as part of the duo Ausem, with fellow New Jerseyan Emily Wilson. Both were eliminated in individual performances on the show, but Percario survived when he and Wilson were selected – along with Montville, N.J., singer Emily Michalak – to compete in the teen ensemble. Despite spirited covers of songs like the Ting Tings‘ “That’s Not My Name,” the ten-member group did not advance.
VIDEO: ‘X Factor’: Britney Spears Looks for a ‘Spark’ in San Francisco
In other Garden State-related news, retired New Jersey Devils hockey star Ken Daneyko saw his 17-year old daughter, Taylor, make it past the first round of Idol auditions after wowing producers with her version of Norah Jones‘ “Don’t Know Why.”
“We actually now realize we don’t know what we’re going to find, and that makes for the best season,” Idol host Ryan Seacrest told MTV News. “When we set out to find something specifically it doesn’t work out as well, so when we don’t know it usually works out best.”
Watch a smattering of the N.J. auditions below (including one girl dressed inexplicably in a Santa Claus outfit, a would-be Michael Jackson impersonator and Percario at the 3:27 mark with a snippet of Corinne Bailey Ray‘s “Put Your Records On”):
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