Watch ‘Idol’ Hopeful Brittany Zika Duet with Sara Bareilles

Brittany Zika has only received about four minutes of "American Idol" screentime so far, but already I heart this girl so hard. I loved her goofy personality and dorky horn-rimmed spectacles from the moment this "Tripster The Hipster" tripped while bounding into the Portland audition room Wednesday night, and I was thrilled/relieved when she sang Brandi Carlile's "The Story" and actually had a beautiful voice that belied her geek-girl exterior.

Brittany is a persistent type, it seems, since she once convinced her own idol, Sara Bareilles, to bring her onstage for a "Gravity" duet just by waving a glitter-glue cardboard sign above her head. "My dreams LITERALLY came true when Sara read a sign I wrote on cardboard a few minutes before I left home for the concert. The sign said,'Will you let me sing Gravity with you on stage...pretty please?' Sure enough, after a wink and reading my sign aloud to the audience, she let me up on stage for a duet!," Brittany posted on her YouTube page. "I was crying and nervous so I didn't do as well as I would have hoped, but I got REALLY into it! Hope I don't come off as UpStagey! Anyway...My life is either complete or just beginning when it comes to showbiz...either way, I'm the luckiest, happiest young woman in the world!!!!!!!"

With gumption like that, I guess it was inevitable that Brittany would leave the "Idol" audition room with a golden ticket in hand. (And well-deserved!) And hey, if Brittany doesn't make it past Hollywood Week, maybe she can round up a few Season 11 castoffs and form an a cappella group to try out for Sara's reality show, "The Sing-Off." (Assuming "The Sing-Off" gets a fourth season, that is. ) But I do hope Brittany sticks around on "American Idol"--and that "Idol" stylists let her keep her big "Blossom" hats and nerd glasses, too. She looked a lot cuter before Randy Jackson made her take them off!

Related links:

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More on "American Idol"

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