Mike Edel is the latest singer-songwriter with Victoria ties to have a song featured on American Idol.
The former Victoria-based artist's song Finish Line was played in the background after an audition on Monday's episode of the music reality series.
In the episode, Edel’s song begins playing in the background as Idol contestant Ryan Hammond is told he is going to Hollywood and celebrates with his family.
The television exposure comes twelve days after American Idol contestant Jake Durkin performed Metchosin-based artist Jesse Roper's song Anytime of Night.
Edel called Victoria home for 7.5 years before getting married and moving to Seattle. He said the timing couldn't have come at a better time, as he found out American Idol wanted to use his song just after his car was broken into and his guitar pedals were stolen.
"I forgot my pedals in my car and my window got smashed and the pedals got taken," said Edel. "In the morning, when I discovered this, my wife and I went out for breakfast so it wouldn’t ruin our day! When we got back to our car to clean it up, one of the producers from American Idol called and wanted to use 'Finish Line' on an episode after discovering it on Spotify.
Finish Line was originally released a year ago and was produced by former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and co-writer Chris Walla.
"Walla has a hand in this one, he played the guitar part on it and produced it," said Edel.
The song is about Edel's wife's graduation and lyrics in it refer to each individual path in life.
"The forces of society and time seem to want to tell us what the gold standard is for our life, but I think we work it out in our own ways. Time is sort of irrelevant," he said.
Edel is currently touring in Germany, but hopes to have news of a Victoria show sometime in the spring.
