Las Cruces Singer, Chile Farmer Wins ‘American Idol’ Golden Ticket

A 20-year-old from Las Cruces, New Mexico made it past the audition rounds on the new season of "American Idol," and now he’s going to Hollywood.

Dzaki “Zak” Sukarno, an agricultural business major at New Mexico State University and member of the NMSU Air Force ROTC, auditioned in front of Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie, and Luke Bryan singing his rendition of the Kane Brown song “Good as You” for the celebrity judges.

We didn’t see much of the “farmer” from southern New Mexico on the episode that aired February 28 as he wasn’t given much air time. “My name is Zak Sukarno, I’m 20 years-old and I live in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I work in the green chile industry,” is all we learned about the junior Aggie.

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His try out was part of a produced montage that started with clips of people auditioning in their cars or from their workplace before showing a brief clip of Zak and two other contestants singing for a few seconds and introducing themselves before quick shots of them getting a ‘yes’ or a “you’re going to Hollywood” and the coveted golden ticket.

Let's hope we see a lot more of Zak on the next round. "Idol" will air two more weeks of auditions before Zak, and the show, moves on to the “Hollywood Week” rounds on March 21.