This Country Boy Sang Anything But Country

One would expect to find the next big country star at the American Idol auditions in Little Rock, Arkansas — but that is certainly not what the judges found this time around. In fact, they found the complete opposite of what they were expecting. 24-year-old Trent Harmon took the judges off guard with a pitch-perfect R&B performance. The Mississippi farm boy impressed with a smooth rendition of Allen Stone's "Unaware" and earned himself a ticket off the farm and straight to Hollywood.

I was just as blown away as the judges when Harmon began singing. After hearing his story about growing up on a farm, running a family restaurant called "The Longhorn," and admitting to practicing his singing in front of the cows, it was overwhelmingly assumed that Harmon would be a country singer. But he certainly proved everyone wrong. The 24-year-old gave the smoothest, sexiest R&B performance this show may have ever seen. Seriously, he had Jennifer Lopez giddily laughing over his talent — which is impressive since she can be hard to please at times. After little deliberation, the judges unanimously came to a decision and Harmon was on his way to Hollywood.

Though it's pretty early to predict the finalists, it seems that Harmon has a pretty good shot. Not only is his voice pretty amazing, he's totally different. The Mississippi native is quite possibly the only farm boy who can sing R&B. And he's one of the best R&B singers — if not the only one — this season has seen so far. Harmon will have to continue to wow the judges in the Hollywood Round to advance to the live shows but, if he's able to do that, there's no doubt he'll win over America and make his way into the finale.

Image: Michael Becker/FOX