A singer with Pike County connections was advanced to theHollywood round of “American Idol” Thursday during the broadcast ofauditions from New Orleans.

Jacquelyn Dupree, who was identified as a 24-year-old cosmetologistfrom Summit, impressed this season’s new panel of judges with herrendition of The Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand By You.”

The judges said she had a “powerful” voice and all three voted tosend her to the Hollywood round, which will be seen later in theseason after other preliminary rounds held in various cities aroundthe U.S. are broadcast. But the judges also liked Dupree’s abilityto handle the lower end of the vocal scale.

“When you went soft, it was so beautiful,” said Jennifer Lopez, whojoined fellow new judge Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and returningjudge Randy Jackson on the panel.

Dupree also had an interesting connection to the one of the judgesas her uncle coached Jackson, a native of Baton Rouge, in highschool football. Dupree and her uncle presented Jackson with photosfrom his high school yearbook.

Dupree was among 37 New Orleans audition contestants moving to thenext round of the popular Fox singing competition. Audition roundswere filmed earlier and are currently being shown during the earlypart of the 10th season of “American Idol.”