Could Meridian have some impact on who will be the 2012 “American Idol” winner?

    There is that possibility with Skylar Laine Harden recently being voted a Top 13 Finalist. Harden is Meridian’s FOX 30 Local “American Idol” Audition winner.

    “I’ve got a feeling that if not the winner, she could be one of the two Top Finalists,” said FOX 30’s Station Owner/Operator Mike Reed.

    “She’s good and she rocked it out during this week’s competition,” Reed said.

    Celebrity “Idol” judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson seem to agree from their comments following Harden’s enthusiastic performance of the Rod Stewart/Ronnie Wood penned Faces song “Stay With Me” Wednesday night.

    “I love your energy. I love your performance,” Jackson said.

    “It’s like Tina Turner went country!” a wowed Lopez said.

    Adding to Jackson’s and Lopez’s comments, Tyler told the Brandon native, “You were on fire. You’re a pistol. Keep that up.”

    Harden won a guaranteed audition in front of “American Idol” producers during local auditions held in Meridian when FOX 30 gave one lucky winner “a chance to change the rest of their life,” Reed said.

    Her audition in front of “American Idol” producers in August 2011 ultimately led to Harden’s audition in front of the celebrity judges. According to Reed, Tyler, Lopez and Jackson recognized her talent and sent Harden through to the next round with a golden ticket, then Hollywood Week, and to this past week when America voted her as one of the Top 13 to continue on.

    “The opportunity for FOX 30 to send someone with a GUARANTEED audition pass to ‘American Idol’ is extraordinary! ‘American Idol’ is the largest singing competition on network television,” Reed said.

    “We are so proud to have sent such an amazing talent as Skylar Laine with the opportunity of a lifetime. The Audition Pass gave her the ability to walk past thousands of hopefuls standing in line for hours, sometimes days, and walk directly into an audition with the producers of the show. And now we are even more excited to learn that she is climbing her way to the top as one of the Top 13 contestants,” he said.

    Reed encourages local residents to continue to watch and vote during this season of “American Idol” to see just how far Meridian’s local American Idol talent winner will go.