Tony Lucca was a Mouseketeer with Christina Aguilera. Then she turned for him

Tony Lucca joined the Mickey Mouse Club at 14

Lucca grew up in Waterford, Michigan, in a musical family, and began singing at 3. At 14 he went to Detroit to audition for the Disney film Newsies and found that the audition was for The All New Mickey Mouse Club. He was one of nine children picked to join the cast for the show's fourth season, and he moved to Orlando, Florida, with his mother. His castmates included Britney Spears, JC Chasez, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell. He stayed four seasons, until the show was canceled after its seventh. In Los Angeles he and Russell, then his girlfriend, played leads in the one-season teen drama Malibu Shores. He left acting in 1997 to make music, and in 2001 and 2002 he opened for NSYNC, the band of his castmates Timberlake and Chasez.

Christina Aguilera turned for her old castmate on The Voice

On February 5, 2012, Lucca sang Ray LaMontagne's “Trouble” in the blind auditions of the second season of The Voice, and all four coaches turned. He chose Adam Levine's team, and on the show he was reunited with Aguilera, his fellow Mouseketeer. In the semifinal he sang “How You Like Me Now” by The Heavy, and in the May 7 finale a country version of Jay-Z's “99 Problems.” He finished third, behind Jermaine Paul and Juliet Simms and a quarter of a percentage point ahead of Chris Mann. Levine signed him to his label, 222 Records. He released the EP With the Whole World Watching on July 16, 2013, and on the tour that followed he played six dates of the Honda Civic Tour as an opening act for Kelly Clarkson and Maroon 5. During the 2020 pandemic he ran the Mo’Verb Lounge Sessions, a livestream series with themes and content from his fans.

• Tony Lucca: career and music
• Listen to Tony Lucca on Apple Music

Diamond White played young Nala, then voiced Moon Girl

In 2007 Diamond White starred in a Chicago-based production of The Color Purple that toured the country, and in 2010, at 11, she played young Nala in Disney's The Lion King musical. On The X Factor in 2012 her mentor was Britney Spears, Lucca's castmate on the Mickey Mouse Club. Spears sent her home after the first live show, and on November 7 she came back as a wildcard. She sang “Halo” on November 14 to reach the Top 10, and on December 5 the judges saved Fifth Harmony and sent her home. She went on to voice Fuli in The Lion Guard, played Paris Buckingham on The Bold and the Beautiful from 2020 to 2024, and voiced Lunella Lafayette, the title character of the Disney Channel series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which premiered in 2023. “I started off acting as a way to kind of, you know, help my family and things,” she told The Direct in January 2024.

• Diamond White: career and music

Dani Moz went from Team Shakira to tours with Pink and Beyoncé

Dani Moz, 26 and from Los Angeles, sang “I Need Your Love” in the 2014 blind auditions of The Voice, and only Shakira turned. On Shakira's team she won her battle with “My Kind of Love” and a second battle with “Perfect,” and she sang “The Edge of Glory” in the playoffs. In the Top 12 she was in the bottom three, and she went home after she sang “Turning Tables” for the Instant Save. She went on to tour with Pink, Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé, on Pink's Summer Carnival Tour, Miley's Attention Tour and Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Tour. She has sung backing vocals at the Grammy Awards and the Academy Awards, and her voice is heard on The Masked Singer and Songland. Dani Moz’s biography credits her with vocals on Hans Zimmer’s score for Dune: Part One.

• Dani Moz: career and music

Rose Short worked in a men's prison before The Voice

Rose Short began performing at 5 in Germany, where her father was stationed with the military. After her family moved to Texas she sang in choir and theater, and after school she became a corrections officer at a high-security men's prison. In 2019 the 34-year-old from Killeen, Texas, auditioned for The Voice with “Preach.” Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani turned, and she chose Stefani. She won her battle with “Can't Feel My Face” and her knockout with “Big White Room,” and in the semifinal she won the Instant Save with “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” In the December 2019 finale she sang “In the Midst of It All” with Yolanda Adams. She finished fourth, and Jake Hoot won the season.

• Rose Short: career and music

Phil Stacey sang in a Navy rock band before Idol

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Phil Stacey went to a recruiting station with a music degree, and the recruiter suggested he audition for the Navy music program. He was assigned to the Navy's fleet band in Jacksonville, Florida, and sang in the Navy Rock Band, which is affiliated with Navy Band Southeast. The son and grandson of pastors, he had never listened to rock music before he joined the Navy. He agreed to audition for American Idol to make amends to a friend for missing his wedding, and he missed the birth of his daughter to audition. “‘American Idol’ was actually a lot like boot camp,” he told FRA Today in 2008. For the Top 12 Diana Ross week he sang “I'm Gonna Make You Love Me.” He went out in sixth place on May 2, 2007, with “Blaze of Glory.” Later that year he sang “Old Glory,” a song he wrote, with the Navy Band at its Navy Birthday Concert.

• Phil Stacey: career and music

Josh Krajcik made burritos to pay rent before The X Factor

As a teenager, Josh Krajcik talked his way onto the stage of a bar near his hometown, Wooster, Ohio, and earned $100 for four hours. He later founded the Josh Krajcik Band, a three-piece blues-rock band that toured with Corinne Bailey Rae and The Fray and played Bonnaroo in 2006. By 2011 he was struggling to keep his music career going and took a job at a burrito restaurant. He auditioned for the first season of The X Factor in Chicago with “At Last,” and Nicole Scherzinger mentored him in the live shows. In the December 21 final he sang “Uninvited” with Alanis Morissette, and he finished second to Melanie Amaro. After a recording session in London he recalled the time “just about a year before, when I was jumping from couch to couch and making burritos to pay rent.” His album Blindly, Lonely, Lovely came out on April 2, 2013.

• Josh Krajcik: career and music