Hometown: Crawfordsville, IN



Musical Influences: James Taylor, Take 6, Chapter 6, John Mayer, Maroon 5, Keane, Billy Joel, Bee Gees

?Don't fight. But if you have to? hit first and hit hard.?

-From the American Idol website

Luke Menard is everywhere on the Internet. He has a website dedicated solely to his exploits as he tries to make it to the top spot in the American Idol. His videos are posted in every type of fan site available. He's about to become famous. He's talented. He has a good singing voice. And the fact that he is good-looking doesn't hurt one bit.

Before AI

Menard has a pretty ordinary life before American Idol. He was born and raised in Indiana and began singing during his freshman year in high school. After graduating with a degree in Communications from Milkin University in Illinois, he worked for a Chicago-based finance company. He later became part of an a cappella singing group called Chapter 6 and that's essentially how he came to start considering a career in show business.

Unfortunately for female fans, Luke Menard is very much married, and happily at that. He has been married to wife Lara for four years now. His wife is just as much of a performer as himself. She is a theater performer who has been going around the country a whole lot.

From his first audition in Omaha, Menard was out to prove that he was more than just a pretty face. He managed to impress the judges long enough to offer him a golden ticket to Hollywood. From there, everything went just smoothly as he managed to get into the top 24 aspirants for the much coveted title of being the next American Idol. For this small town guy, making it to the Top 24 in itself was an incredible experience, surreal even.

Tidbits

Interestingly, Luke Menard didn't start singing until he was in his teenage years. He didn't want to sing before then because he didn't want to be made fun of. For him, singing was embarrassing so he didn't dare sing in choirs or in front of crowds before high school.

Aside from singing, he's an excellent motorcycle driver. He owns a motorcycle that is more than twenty years old. Menard is especially proud of this touring vehicle as he calls it. If he didn't make it on AI, he would probably take his wife for a ride from Los Angeles to New York. Winning the American Idol is just one of his many goals in life. He's just like the next nice guy, really. He wants to start a family with his wife and live a good life being of service to other people. Hopefully, being in the music industry would allow him to enjoy and help out by becoming the role model that he aspires to be.

Luke Menard is ready to take the American audience by storm. Singing wasn't something that he imagined he would do as a kid but everything came into place as soon as he discovered that he has a talent that he should work on. He didn't have to obtain formal training in singing but he sure has a promising voice so that's more than enough for him to be able to maintain his post in the competition.