by Gina Scarpa

As the season 10 finale for American Idol rapidly approaches, RealityWanted decided to check back in with a memorable season 9 contestant to find out what the last year has been like for her. At Mohegan Sun Casino's Reality Check event in Connecticut this past weekend, we spoke to Siobhan Magnus in an exclusive interview and caught her live performance.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What made you decide to get in line and try out for American Idol?
A. Siobhan: I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I ended up in a situation where I lived at home with my mom and dad and my little sisters. Both my parents lost their jobs. I was only working as an intern as a glass blowing shop and babysitting. I was the income and I was like, "This can't be it. I'm not even singing really." One day, I got a phone call from a friend from high school who said, "Remember how I said that if American Idol was coming to Boston that I'd go with you? Well, they're coming next week. Do you want to go?" It was like, "Um, sure!" The night before, I almost didn't do it but my mom was kind of nagging me. I was like, "I don't want to get up that early and stand out in the rain. Ew!" My mom was like, "Shut up! Just do it!" And I did... there was no reason not to really.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Whenever I think of you, I think of your performance of "Across The Universe". It was definitely my favorite! What was your favorite performance or moment from last season?
A. Siobhan: That definitely was one of them because it was one of my proudest responses to Simon because he couldn't say anything back. It was like, "Ha! I have defeated you!" I was really proud of that. Also, when my dad came and I sang "House of the Rising Sun". I picked the song before I knew he was coming out that week. It was just a coincidence that he was there. I didn't tell him what I was singing and I got to surprise him.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What's life been like since Idol? Was there a part of it that you weren't prepared for?
A. Siobhan: Adjusting back to your life is really hard and emotionally fatiguing and just bizarre. Very unnatural. You end up in this situation where you're sucked out of the real world for almost a year and then you're just dumped back out at home and it's like, "Okay, figure it out." You get home and everything that was at home when you left is still there. I still have to take care of my family, see my friends, and live real life. It didn't go away. A lot of people were like,
"When are you moving to LA?" as if that's the only way. I'm not ready to leave my family again and leave my cats. I thought, "Why can't I figure out how to do it from here?" It's going swimmingly.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What are you going to be singing tonight?
A. Siobhan: I'm doing three covers and my original single, "Beatrice Dream", that we just put out. It's my first time really performed it live. I played an acoustic version live in Nashville and this morning, I sang part of it on the news.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What else do you have coming up?
A. Siobhan: My concert at the Cape Cod Melody Tent is June 18th and that's my first big concert at home. It's going to be such a cool show because when we thought of what I was going to do in it, we were like, "How can I show people what I mean when I say I can't pick one kind of music?" The point of music is not to separate and exclude certain things. I welcome all of it. What we're trying to do with this show is show all the musical sides of me and all the music I love to perform, but in a well thought out way. My band, Lunar Valve, will open the show and then I'm doing a set that's just me with a small band, doing a few songs that I'm sure people will be glad to hear and four of my originals that will be on the album. For the second half of the show, I'm going to join my uncle's band, Ultra Sonic Rock Orchestra from Boston. It's an almost 20 piece band - 12 singers and 6 musicians and they do every kind of classic rock thing that everybody loves. I'm really excited to introduce them to Cape Cod because they've never played there before.

Stay up to date with Siobhan by following her @SiobhanMagnusAI and get all the information on her upcoming show in Cape Cod here!

(Image courtesy of Mohegan Sun)

Follow Gina @ginascarpa and Mohegan Sun @mohegansun