17-year-old Paris Bennett of Fayetteville, Ga., and she's been called "adorable" by the New York Post. Meanwhile, Bennett's set of pipes that is causing hats to be tossed into the air, even from the usually critical judge Simon Cowell.

"Where have you been hiding?" Cowell asked Bennett on the air after her rendition of the Dixie Chicks' "Cowboy Take Me Away" sent tingles through the audience. Judge Paula Abdul requested a second song, and Bennett again wowed the crowd, this time with a Billie Holiday number.

"There aren't words to express how we feel blessed in your presence," Abdul said afterwards.

The praise for Bennett is extremely far-reaching. Her great-grandparents' local newspaper, the Rockford Register Star in Illinois, is justifiably proud of her – pointing out that this great-granddaughter of Pastor Perry and Shirley Bennett is the daughter of Rockford's own Shayne Patterson and the granddaughter of Grammy Award-winning singer Ann Nesby-Lee, of the Sounds of Blackness.

--People