Alumna is contender in Nashville Star national competition

"This is unlike anything I've experienced in my life, because I'll never be able to recreate this."

"I died a thousand deaths tonight waiting for the outcome," said Marty Jamrose, father of Nashville Star contestant and Purdue University Calumet alumna Nicole Jamrose, after she was selected to continue in the competition, Tuesday evening, April 4. "But, I had confidence in my little daughter, I knew she could do it."

Singer, guitarist, songwriter, and one of 10 contestants selected from 20,000 people nationwide to compete for a recording contract, the 34-year-old Jamrose has made it through weekly eliminations, leaving her among six contestants to compete again Tuesday, April 11 at 9 p.m. on USA Network.

The fourth Nashville Star show, April 4, went down to the wire for Jamrose, as she was one of only two contestants left as the hour-long program was winding down. One was going home, but Jamrose, a 2002 Purdue Calumet hospitality and tourism management (HTM) graduate and Dyer resident, made it.

"That moment was such a dream," she said. "It was so surreal."

According to Jamrose, her experience in the competition in which viewers vote by placing up to 10 phone calls and/or five emails for their favorite performer, has been an experience she will never forget.

"This is unlike anything I've experienced in my life, because I'll never be able to recreate this," said the wife and mother of two. "My family comes to see me, and I make it work."

In addition to her family, her friends are excited and proud of her, too.

"It was so overwhelming to wait so long. She was selected early in the first two shows," said her friend and fellow Purdue Calumet HTM graduate Abbey Richardson. "It was inevitable they were going to play the sweat-it-out game. Everyone here knows she has what it takes to make it as a friend, as a wife, as a mother and an entertainer."

Jamrose has performed for several years at various northwest Indiana locales.

"Six years at Kenwood Tap has generated a lot of business with her versatile talent, singing anything you want her to sing - blues, rock 'n roll and country," said Flo Decker, Kenwood Lanes Tap owner, who has traveled to Nashville Star to see Jamrose perform. "You can't ask for a nicer person. She's like another daughter."