Television
Watch History-Making Male Cheerleader Audition for ‘American Idol’
Kyle Tanguay is the first male dancer to perform for the Philadelphia Eagles.
February 24 2020 8:37 AM EST
February 24 2020 8:37 AM EST
MikelleStreet
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Kyle Tanguay is the first male dancer to perform for the Philadelphia Eagles.
As much as sports are about winning, they are also about supporting your team mates, on and off the field. The Philadelphia Eagles cheer squad showed just that when they took their teamwork off the field, and into the American Idol audition rooms to support their teammate Kyle Tanguay.
Tanguay is one of a small wave of male cheerleaders getting into the sport at the NFL level. When he made the squad in September, he became the first male cheerleader in history to join the Eagles, but followed Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies who cheer for the Los Angeles Rams, and Jesse Hernandez who cheers for the New Orleans Saints. But, only a few months in and he's already set his sights higher.
On Sunday night, Tanguay made his American Idol debut, revealing that he had never sang publicly before. Along with him, he brought the entire Eagles cheer team who gave him a special cheer, just for the occasion. The encouragement set the stage perfectly for the dancer's rendition of "Mercy" by Shawn Mendes.
"I remember when we were kids, my sister and I would play 'American Idol,' and I would try to sing, and my sister would sit there and be like, 'Sorry, not today,'" he told Outsports of taking the experience.. "It's the thing we always dreamed of. When you think back to 2006, 2007, 2008, American Idol was the show everybody watched. People knew more about American Idol than they did sometimes for the election. I remember watching with my family and then going into school, we would talk about the contestants, and who had done great, and who was in the running to be the next superstar. So to have this opportunity to be on a huge like that and have a platform like that, and I'm so grateful American Idol and the Eagles have allowed me to show this side of me."
And for good reason: Tanguay's audition got him straight through to vegas, in a unanimous decision by the judges. Not too bad of a hobby during the off-season.
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Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.
Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.