 Born in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los
Angeles, Katharine McPhee has been singing since the age of two.
Her mother, Peisha Burch McPhee, a vocal coach and accomplished
cabaret singer, recognized a talent for music in her daughter
and started training her. Katharine McPhee graduated in the
class of 2002 from Notre Dame High School after which she
attended The Boston Conservatory for three semesters with a
concentration in musical theater. She left because she met a
manager who wanted her to try out for parts during the
television pilot season in Los Angeles. She did a pilot and an
independent film. At the Cabrillo Music Theater in
Thousand Oaks, California, Katharine McPhee performed the title
role in a musical theatre production of Annie Get Your Gun.
In June 2005 she played Anna Muir in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,
a musical by Scott DeTurk and Bill Francoeur, at the NoHo Arts
Center in North Hollywood.
During her initial audition for American
Idol in San Francisco, Katharine McPhee sang "God Bless the
Child." Judge Randy Jackson said she was the best voice he had
heard so far that season, judge Paula Abdul praised her looks,
and judge Simon Cowell said "parts of that were absolutely
sensational," and that she was very "current." Katharine
McPhee's mother had gone with her to the audition, and Cowell
made a comment about the possibility that the elder McPhee was a
stage mother.
Katharine McPhee's run on American Idol
led to the popular use of the term "McPheever," coined by Ralph
Garman of Los Angeles radio station KROQ's morning show Kevin
and Bean, and also "McPhan," "McPhaith" and "Kat Pack."
Katharine McPhee was congratulated by
Congressman Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks, the 27th district of
California by raising a flag in her honor at the United States
Capitol on the day of the finale show.
On May 24, 2006, Katharine McPhee finished
second to Taylor Hicks, the winner of American Idol.
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