Update | May 8, 2023 – Bamberg’s own Warren Peay battled it out for a top 5 spot in Sunday night’s ‘American Idol’.
His final performances were of an Alanis Morissette classic titled ‘All I Really Want’ and a duet of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’.
Warren performed both songs but failed to reach enough votes and sadly had to say goodbye to ‘American Idol’.
We want to send our congratulations to Warren for getting as far as he did and making the CSRA very proud.

BAMBERG, SC. (WJBF)- A local singer is making his hometown proud as he competes on one of the biggest stages in Hollywood: the set of American Idol. Family and friends gathered today in his hometown of Bamberg, South Carolina, to send him mad props!

“He loves Bamberg, this is where he grew up, this is like what he’s familiar with, what he’s used to. So, definitely going out to Hollywood he’s loved it, loved the experience, but just being home– there’s no place like home,” Warren Peay’s fiancé Sarah Linder said. 

Saturday morning, family, friends, and fans of American Idol gathered at the Bamberg Civic Center to show their support for Warren Peay. 

“I think seeing all the support that he has here, it definitely motivates to do better because he wants to make Bamberg proud and do everything that he can to make a name for himself and Bamberg and Jesus too,” Linder said.

Friends say they always knew the final eight star’s passion for music would lead him to the big stage. 

“I can remember him standing up on a stool in our church singing Long Black Train, which is a very old song, and he was so country, and he could not carry a tune in a bucket,” Warren Peay’s friend Michelle Collins.

Going from a small town to a big city is a big deal and this crowd’s goal was to make sure Warren felt the love from more than 2,000 miles away.

“I wanted to get something together for hometown support. To show Warren that we are here, we have his back. I mean of course he’s in California so he couldn’t be with us today,” Collins said. 

And with the competition dwindling down to a single winner, the support is needed more than ever. 

“Online, you can vote through the American Idol App, and you can vote through text. They have it on the Facebook page, I think, and at the bottom of every show after the contestants sing they have the number that you can text,” Linder said.

That number to text is 2-1-5-2-3 and each person can vote a total of 30 times and Warren Peay is contestant number two, or you can visit to vote during the live show Sunday at 8pm Eastern Time.