PBHS student dreams big with audition for America's Got Talent

Poplar Bluff High School senior Alexandria Rainwater, 17, isn’t waiting until she graduates to start pursuing her dreams.

Rainwater recently threw her hat into the talent ring. She traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, in November to try out for the first level of “America’s Got Talent,” the one without celebrity judges.

The audition itself was really short, said Rainwater, explaining, “they immediately take you back to the audition room. They take about 20 people at a time, and you each have 90 seconds to do your act.”

Rainwater sang the song “Euphoria,” which she wrote about “my boyfriend T.J. Sexton of Poplar Bluff.”

While Rainwater was auditioning, she said, “I lost track of the people in the room and just imagined I was by myself. I just sang; no hesitation. I just let it out. I feel good about the audition. A lot of really good people were there. It was nerve wrecking.”

One judge affiliated with the show listened to the contestants and took notes.

Rainwater most likely will know by February if she moves on to the next level.

“If there is a chance to pursue music, I am going to take that road,” she said.

“I sing and write songs,” Rainwater said. “I have been singing as long as I can remember. I didn’t start writing songs until I was about 13.”

She was raised around music.

“Grandma and mom always are singing,” she said. “People at our Christmas parties get up and start singing.”

Rainwater admits, “I did not have a lot of confidence in my singing until I showed my song to my close friend, and she ran with it.”

The two started composing the music, and “my the friend showed it to the choir teacher at my old school before I came here, and she liked it,” Rainwater said.

“I play piano, guitar and I am learning the violin,” she said.

If music is not her pathway to success, “I would like to go to college and be a veterinarian. I have a really big soft spot for animals of all shapes and sizes.”

Rainwater works at Sonic part time. She lives with her grandparents, Patricia and Bradley Hays, and her aunt, Shelly Hays, all of Poplar Bluff.

She said, her aunt is a big supporter, and she describes her as “a rock in a hard spot.”

Rainwater tells others, “just go for what you really want to do. Don’t let anyone stop you or put you down.”