See Claudia Conway on ‘American Idol’: What happened when Kellyanne Conway’s daughter auditioned (2024)

Claudia Conway is most known for her TikTok account and turbulent relationship with her high-profile parents, which has played out on social media and in headlines over the past few months.

Now Conway is setting her sights on reality TV stardom.

Conway, 16, auditioned for “American Idol” during Sunday night’s season 19 premiere.

Claudia is the daughter of Kellyanne Conway, former counselor to former President Donald Trump, and George Conway, a Republican attorney who co-founded The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee. The family lives in Alpine (as Claudia told “Idol” viewers, she had to move to Washington, D.C. when she was 12 for her mother’s job — she “hated it.”).

Either way, ABC’s “Idol” wasn’t going to miss the chance to get all three in one room — sort of. George accompanied Claudia to the audition in Ojai, California as Kellyanne, an Atco native, beamed in on video chat.

“The internet can be a very, very dark place, but when life is all going downhill, I have my music,” Claudia said, noting that she hoped to turn the passion into a career.

George, 57, shed tears as he spoke about his daughter pursuing music.

“She loves music and I’m really thrilled that she’s here because maybe this gives her an opportunity to pursue it at another level,” he said.

“This is your time to shine,” Kellyanne, 54, told her daughter up on the big screen. “But remember, honey, winners are people who are willing to lose.”

Claudia sang Rihanna’s 2016 song “Love on the Brain,” but Katy Perry, a judge, stopped her early on, saying she “lost it.”

Claudia agreed, putting partial blame on her glittery platform heels. (”Literally had to go the Walgreens in Ojai to get her bandages and ointment for the blisters those things caused,” George tweeted while watching the show.)

Perry told Claudia to take the shoes off for her next performance, Adele’s 2015 song “When We Were Young.”

She coached the Jersey teen a bit before she started singing.

“Think about when you were young,” Perry said, advising Claudia to rise beyond TikTok stardom in her approach. “Go back to that time. There’s a sadness there. It’s like you lost your youth because you weren’t able to experience it on your own without all this noise.”

The second time around, two of the judges — Perry and Lionel Richie — warmed to Claudia enough to give her a golden ticket to Hollywood, where she will officially compete for the title of American Idol. Richie said he saw Sunday’s audition as Claudia announcing herself to the world.

A third judge, country singer Luke Bryan, declined to send her to Hollywood. She said Claudia sounded like she was 16, which was not necessarily a bad thing, but that she was limited by the range of her voice.

“Are you OK?” Perry asked Claudia at the start of her audition, in a seeming nod to her very public conflict with her parents.

“No,” she replied. “No, but yes.”

“Yes and no,” Perry said.

“Yeah,” Claudia said.

Last week, Claudia told her 1.7 million TikTok followers that she would be on the show Sunday after representatives from the reality competition asked her to audition because they saw a video of her singing.

“I’ve been singing my whole life,” Claudia said on TikTok. “I grew up in musical theater. Music has been one of the pillars in my life and I wouldn’t be here without it. I play about eight instruments. I’ve just been doing it since I could walk.”

On the show, Claudia said that her voice — singing or otherwise, though we have seen a clip of a young(er) Claudia singing on YouTube — was suppressed for years. Social media, she said, gave her a chance to be heard.

Some have accused “American Idol” producers of exploiting the teen following her claims of “years of childhood trauma and abuse” and stated efforts to seek emancipation from her parents. (She actually referred to herself as “Emancipation Girl” in her entry tape.)

After Claudia accused Kellyanne and George of abuse last summer, the Conways stepped back from their respective roles at the White House and The Lincoln Project, saying they would be spending more time with family.

As recently as January, Claudia and Kellyanne were in headlines after Kelllyanne was accused of posting a topless photo of her daughter on Twitter. The image, which Claudia said was a photo of a picture on her phone, surfaced via a fleet, or temporary tweet. Police responded to their Alpine home after concerned people called authorities.

“So Kellyanne, you’re going to f---ing jail,” Claudia said on TikTok at the time.

Later, the teen reversed course.

“I have faith and I know that my mother would never put something like that on the internet as well as me, we would never do that,” she said on TikTok. “My mom and I, we fight like mothers and daughters but we also love like mothers and daughters, and I do love her.”

Claudia said she would be taking a break from social media. The break lasted about a week before she was posting on TikTok again.

On “American Idol,” Claudia said she only wanted to “spread love” and that she would “agree to disagree” with her parents.

Though it initially seemed as if the the Conways’ opposing positions on Trump could cause conflict, Claudia started to pop up as a wildcard when she began posting videos on TikTok in which she criticized Trump and her mother. She broke news when she revealed her mother had tested positive for COVID-19 after a super spreader event at the White House.

Later, Claudia accused Kellyanne of abusive behavior. The teen shared a video compilation of Kellyanne screaming and using profanity and insults when talking to her daughter.

“You’re never gonna record another f---ing thing in your life,” Kellyanne can be heard saying in one clip. “It’s going for a forensic analysis.”

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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.