Vanessa Olivarez was born on February 13, 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. She started singing when she was only three years old and trained for six months at the Gwinnet School of Fine Arts in 1997. Before appearing on the second season of American Idol, Vanessa had already performed in several local clubs, bars and music venues such as Eddie's Attic, Echo Lounge, Smith's Old Bar, and the Dark Horse Tavern. She also worked as a chemical assistant at Salon Carsica. She likes listening to 80's, blues, classical and rock music. Her favorite artists are Justin Timberlake and Norah Jones. She considers her mom as her American Idol.

For her audition, Vanessa chose to sing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Paula was absent from the judging, but Simon and Randy both saw her potential and quickly gave her golden ticket to Hollywood. After impressing the judges with her own song, "The Only Thing Special About You and Me," she was made one of the 32 semifinalists. During the semifinals, she gave her rendition of Irene Cara's "Out Here on My Own," and although she wowed the judges once again, Simon commented about her weight. Nevertheless, Vanessa won the votes of the viewers and she sailed on through to the Finals. On the first week, her performance for the song "You Keep Me Hangin' On" did not get positive feedback from all the judges, after following a script given to her, said something that the viewing public did not appreciate. For whichever reason, Vanessa was the first one to be voted off the show.

Aside from being eliminated, Vanessa was also the only one from season 2 who was not asked to take part in the tour that followed the season finale. Vanessa moved to Canada and it was there that she gained considerable success when her first single, "The One," made it to # 9 on Canada's single charts. She also appeared as Tracy Turnblad in a Toronta production of Hairspray. Afterwards, Vanessa went back to the United States, where she appeared on an episode of On Air With Ryan Seacrest and became a member of the group, Butterfly Stitch. The group came out with an EP and their ballad "Radical Love," was number 2 for three consecutive weeks on the Idol Waves Top 15 chart.

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