{"id":24714,"date":"2023-04-17T10:03:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=24714"},"modified":"2023-04-17T10:03:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:03:42","slug":"former-miss-america-performs-jesus-take-the-wheel-on-american-idol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/04\/former-miss-america-performs-jesus-take-the-wheel-on-american-idol.html","title":{"rendered":"Former Miss America Performs &#8220;Jesus Take the Wheel&#8221; on &#8220;American Idol&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24717\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24717\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/04\/betty-maxwell2-credit-talent-king-hd-youtube.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24717\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/04\/betty-maxwell2-credit-talent-king-hd-youtube.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"458\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24717\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">TALENTKINGHD\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>During Season 20 of &#8220;American Idol,&#8221; 2016 Miss America Betty Maxwell got a unanimous \u201cyes\u201d from the judges after performing her rendition of \u201cJesus Take the Wheel.\u201d The former Miss Georgia went to her audition with her beauty pageant crown with her.<\/p>\n<p>At first, she performed \u201cA Moment Like This\u201d by first season \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d winner Kelly Clarkson. Then, judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan asked her to sing another song. Maxwell chose \u201cJesus Take the Wheel,\u201d a song from another \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d winner, Carrie Underwood. The singer performed the song acapella and was given unanimous approval, advancing her to Hollywood Week of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Maxwell\u2019s faith-filled song choice reflects her beliefs. After the airing of her audition, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Caz4f1guUM0\/\">Maxwell went to Instagram<\/a> to give God the glory. She wrote, \u201cFor the past 5 or 6 years, I\u2019ve dealt with imposter syndrome\u2026I feel that I don\u2019t deserve the blessings and success in my life. I feel like I\u2019m unworthy of the praise and the talents God gave me. I don\u2019t know why; maybe part of it is just the pressure to always have something bigger and better on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ARz0vSIa6E4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>According to Maxwell, she\u2019s just a regular girl from a farm in Georgia, which helps her stay humble. She said, \u201cI\u2019m always so thankful because I don\u2019t feel like I deserve it. No matter what, I just focus on giving all the glory to God because, without Him, I am nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a past interview with Inspiration.org, Maxwell shared her story. She said, \u201cAs a kid, my parents took us to church every Sunday. My faith was definitely something my parents made predominant in my life and something that I was always made very aware of growing up and how important that is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maxwell continued, \u201cYour parents are always telling you, \u2018This is so important. This is so important. You need to practice this. Practice your faith. You need to pray. These are all things that are going to benefit you. These are all things that are so important in this life. Your faith and relationship with God is the most important thing.\u2019 But to actually have a moment in your life where you realize that and choose that for yourself and on your own, not because your parents told you to, but because you choose it. You want that. I\u2019ve had that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former Miss America said she didn\u2019t personally decide to walk with Jesus until she got older, saying it came about when she chose to embrace her faith for herself. She said, \u201cI wanted a different relationship with God where I was the one putting in the effort every day to make sure that even in whatever career path I\u2019m going down, that I\u2019m using that to promote God\u2019s Word and to do what God wants me to do in this life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pageant coach said she intends to use her giftings as a singer, actress, model and motivational speaker to share her faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI take the opportunity whenever possible to put God\u2019s Word out there in subtle ways that aren\u2019t attacking people but in a way that hopefully helps others. I hope if you see this on your social media, it brightens your day. I hope you needed to hear this or needed some comfort today, so I\u2019m going to put that out there just in case. It\u2019s up to us to choose that each day,\u201d Maxwell said.<\/p>\n<p>The singer also revealed in the interview that following her Miss America victory, she has a passion for helping others live out \u201cGod\u2019s will\u201d in their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During Season 20 of &#8220;American Idol,&#8221; 2016 Miss America Betty Maxwell got a unanimous \u201cyes\u201d from the judges after performing her rendition of \u201cJesus Take the Wheel.\u201d The former Miss Georgia went to her audition with her beauty pageant crown with her. At first, she performed \u201cA Moment Like This\u201d by first season \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":24717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[642],"class_list":["post-24714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-american-idol"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former Miss America Performs &quot;Jesus Take the Wheel&quot; on &quot;American Idol&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Miss America Betty Maxwell stunned the &quot;American Idol&quot; with her renediton of &quot;Jesus Take the Wheel&quot; by Carrie Underwood.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/04\/former-miss-america-performs-jesus-take-the-wheel-on-american-idol.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Miss America Performs &quot;Jesus Take the Wheel&quot; on &quot;American Idol&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Miss America Betty Maxwell stunned the &quot;American Idol&quot; with her renediton of &quot;Jesus Take the Wheel&quot; by Carrie Underwood.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/04\/former-miss-america-performs-jesus-take-the-wheel-on-american-idol.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-17T14:03:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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