Chickie’s & Pete’s hostess competes on ‘American Idol’ tonight

At 8 tonight on Fox's American Idol, a Girls High grad who works as a hostess at the South Philly Chickie's & Pete's, will try to outsing 163 other young women struggling for stardom, including two from Southeastern Pennsylvania and another from South Jersey.

Word is that Taylor Ivy Rand, 19, who also tends bar at Connie's Ric Rac, a South Philly performing space, will get some face time, as well as Courtney Calle, 16, a Council Rock North junior from Newtown, Bucks County.

Also in the mix: Sarah Restuccio, 18, of Camden County, and Emily Fritz, 27, of Lancaster.

The upbeat Rand, who has won talent contests and who sang National Anthems at an Eagles game and Wing Bowl, said that TV viewers so far have seen only about five seconds of her, after her New York audition resulted in four yes votes from judges Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj, and her golden ticket to the Hollywood rounds.

"They got a nice shot of me crying when I came out," Rand said with a laugh.

She'll always remember, after singing Kelly Clarkson's "The Trouble With Love Is" in New York, how Urban called her the epitome of an American Idol, and Carey praised her voice and look.

Tonight's show - like last week's, involving about 100 guys, including Cherry Hill's Zach Birnbaum - will begin with solo sessions, followed by the ever-grueling group performances, with the ranks getting thinner round by round.

Thursday, more solos will result in more cutdowns, before the show announces its 40 semifinalists, divided evenly by gender.

Although Rand, who was born and raised in Lawncrest, couldn't reveal her fate, she did say her Idol experience was "so much fun" - except for getting little sleep at least twice. The first night in New York, for instance, she had to stay well past midnight to fill out a long personality test.

What, were the questions like, "Do you like to torture little animals?" or "Have you ever been on the FBI's Most Wanted list?"

She couldn't remember, she said.

Rand also made two great new friends - "two other girls so much like me," she said. They're regularly in touch via phone calls and texts.

"There wasn't a moment when I wasn't laughing and having a really good time," Rand said.

So far, Calle's only televised Idol moment may have been a brief clip of her exiting her audition in red hat and red pants and waving her golden ticket. On Facebook, this budding songwriter wrote that a recent breakup meant "more awesome songs coming your way."

Idol already gave the on-air mini-bio treatment to Sarah Restuccio, 18, of Hammonton. Clips showed the Cedar Creek High School student on her family's farm, removing a saddle from a horse, riding an ATV, and shooting an arrow, as "Redneck Woman" played in the background. Restuccio wowed the judges by rapping "Super Bass" after doing a Carrie Underwood song during her audition.

Less is known about Emily Fritz, 27, of Lancaster. Although just a year under Idol's max age, she was "blubbering like a little girl" when she got her golden ticket to Hollywood, she said in her Idol video interview. Also said she has some "odd" interests, like quantum physics, besides music and other arts.

Three North Jersey women also made it to Hollywood: Elaine Gutierrez, 23, of Maplewood, Essex County; Taisha Bethea, 21, of Hackensack, Bergen County; and Natalia Richardson, 23, of Newark, according to AmericanIdol.com.