Massapequa Park's Jesse Findling makes it into 'American Idol's' Top 20

With his heartfelt performance Monday of Ed Sheeran’s “Photograph,” Massapequa Park’s Jesse Findling reached the top 20 on ABC's "American Idol."

Judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood stood and applauded for the 20-year-old at this season’s new Ohana (Hawaiian for “family”) round. “Carrie was saying how my voice is so smooth and just flows,” Findling, 20, told Newsday by phone, “and she said I'm believable and I'm authentic when I sing and you can believe every word that I say. She called me ‘the boy next door.’ And I feel like one of the best things you can be as a singer is authentic. So for that to shine through — especially in a round where it's about family and the emotions of the song are so important — and or her to notice the authenticity was awesome.”

Findling had chosen “Photograph” for this family round in order to dedicate it to his late grandfather Harvey Findling, a professional photographer for weddings and other events.

The melancholy ballad from Sheeran’s 2014 album “x,”  “touches on how important it is that we should make memories with the people that we love,” said Findling, a 2023 Massapequa High School graduate currently taking a spring-semester break from upstate Binghamton University, where he is a junior majoring in biology. “So it just felt like a great way to honor him.”

He added that because of the family theme, “The emotion of the song was super important this round. That's something I don't struggle with — emoting when I sing — but I wanted to make sure that the way I was emoting wasn't all sad. Because this song for me is more bittersweet than sad. It's about me remembering my grandpa and the happy memories we had with him. So the way I delivered it, it's obviously a sad song, but I had a smile on my face throughout a lot of it.”

Whatever happens next, Findling got to spend several days in Hawaii “in late January,” he says, “when it was snowing back on Long Island. ... That made me enjoy it so much more!”

And true to the Ohana theme, “My whole family was there: my mom, dad, brother and sister.”

“I wish we’d been able to do more with each other, because I was busy the whole time — but it was a good busy,” he said. “And it's a journey and an experience that I can have now forever.”