Stay-at-Home Mom Headed to Hollywood After Rendition of ‘Jesus, Take The Wheel’

by Zachary Mettler | March 11, 2025 | Family

Stay-at-home mom Breanna Nix has claimed her golden ticket after a moving audition for American Idol.

The show’s 23rd season premiered on ABC on March 2, 2025, with Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie returning as judges, along with season four winner Carrie Underwood, who replaced Katy Perry. This season’s first episode garnered 5.91 million viewers.

In the season’s second episode, which aired on March 9, American Idol viewers met stay-at-home mom Breanna Nix.

Nix walked onto the stage with her husband and young son, Emerson, whom she introduced as her “sidekick.” Underwood warmly invited Emerson to sit with her while Breanna auditioned.

Nix told the judges about herself, remarking in a self-deprecating way, “I’m 25 years old; I’m just a stay-at-home mom.” This prompted Underwood to reply, “Never say, ‘I’m just a stay-at-home mom.’”

“You have the most important job,” Underwood countered, adding as she looked at Emerson, “And I’m sure he loves it.”

In an interview on the show, Nix explained, “Being a stay-at-home mom, it’s chaotic, it’s crazy.” But she added,

It’s one of the most amazing things that has ever been able to happen in my life. Emerson is a blessing that I didn’t know I needed.

She went on to share how Emerson inspired her journey to lose weight.

“Right after I had my son, I was over 315 pounds,” she disclosed. “I just remember being in the delivery room and just looking down at him knowing that if I wanted to be the best mom that I could, that this lifestyle wasn’t going to work. And I decided to lose weight.”

“I’m [auditioning for American Idol] because I want Emerson to know that anything is possible,” Nix asserted. “He’s watching his mama go chase after her dreams. I just hope one day that he’ll do the same thing.”

Breanna proceeded to deliver a stirring rendition of Carrie Underwood’s popular song, “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” which has been certified Multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Breanna’s tryout impressed the judges enough to earn her a ticket to Hollywood, where the show’s best contenders will head next.

You can watch Breanna’s audition below:

Breanna’s personal testimony is an important cultural moment, especially given the decline in family formation America has seen in recent decades.

Her story of marrying young and having a child, which helped her find purpose and motivation, carries a message that needs to be told. Both young men and women in our culture should be reminded that their primary vocation is not their career, increasing their income, traveling luxuriously or building friendships – it’s to get married and have children (unless pursing a celibate life for undivided devotion to Christ).

But according to Pew Research, a growing number of young adults today say that having a job or career they enjoy (71%) and having close friends (61%) is more important to them in living a fulfilling life than having children (26%) or being married (23%).

Pew Research has also found that the share of U.S. childless adults under age 50 who say it is unlikely they will ever have kids increased a staggering 10% from 2018 to 2023 – from 37% to 47%.

Additionally, Pew Research reports, one-quarter of U.S. 40-year-olds have never married – a record high.

At the same time, women who do want children today (and that’s a shrinking number) are frequently not having as many children as they say that they want.

Perhaps counterintuitively, Gallup released a poll in 2023 finding that Americans’ preference for larger families hit the highest level since 1971.

Today, “45% of Americans see three or more children as ideal, a steep increase from 38% in 2013, and an even wider gap from 33% in 2003,” Melanie Notkin summarizes in the Institute for Family Studies.

“Conversely, the percentage of Americans who favor smaller families of two children or one child has trended downward over the last two decades. Today, 47% of American adults prefer a smaller family, down from 53% a decade ago, and 55% in 2003.”

So, how do reconcile these various trends?

On the surface, while a growing number of Americans may say they prefer larger families, their actions often don’t match their words.

Indeed, according to a major academic study which appeared in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, “perhaps the key explanation for the post-2007 sustained decline in US birth rates is not about some changing policy or cost factor, but rather shifting priorities across cohorts of young adults.”

Young adults today all too often pursue education, career advancement and wealth generation over marriage and family formation. And the young adults who do desire to get married and start a family may leave that goal behind in pursuit of other priorities.

Additionally, perhaps older adults who have only one or two children, or none at all, now regret not having more kids, leading to Gallup’s findings.

At Focus on the Family, we strongly affirm the right of mothers to choose to stay home and raise their children. We honor the tremendous value that stay-at-home mothers provide. Indeed, raising the future generation is one of the most important jobs young women could aspire to.

Congratulations to Breanna Nix for earning her golden ticket. But as Breanna surely knows, her real “golden ticket” in life is her marriage and motherhood – an important reminder for us all.

To speak with a family help specialist or request resources, please call us at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).

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Discovering Your New Identity as a Stay-at-Home Mom

The Value of Stay-at-Home Moms

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Dad Wants to Help Stay-at-Home Mom

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Brad Wilcox: The Correlation Between Marriage, Happiness, and Wealth

Why Americans Over and Under 50 Say They Don’t Have Kids