Cassie Diamond

Cassie Diamond is a country singer who rose to fame after coming in as the runner-up for URAPS Idol 11.

Cassie Diamond (born Cacilda Jenkins on May 9, 1989) is an American country/pop recording artist. She came to prominence first in 2009, trying out for URAPS Idol 10. After failing to go through the first round and the Wildcard round, she found a space for her in the reality show line-up on their 11th season, becoming the runner-up to Genevere Johnson.

Early life
Raised on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Cassie is the second child of Thomas Jenkins, a farmer, and Michelle Jenkins (neé Almeida), a choreographer. Named after her portuguese maternal grandmother, Cacilda was granted the nickname Cassie from an early age. Not much is known about Cassie's family background; it is believed the family did not have a financially stable situation when Diamond was younger but they have recently enriched. After years of performing and trying to be discovered in her local Texas country scene and recording a few demos in Nashville, Tennessee (the faux surname Diamond came about during this period), Diamond decided to call it quits on the music scene. Things would soon change when Thomas decided to take his daughter abroad to visit the United Kingdom for the first time.

Uraps Idol 10
Arriving in the UK for the first time, Diamond has recalled being "blown away" by the mainstream success and star status that country singer Lindsay Belle. Noticing that there was room, as little as it is, for country music outside the United States, Diamond decided to stay in Europe to prepare herself for her Uraps Idol audition. However, the Andrea Twain song choice didn't please judges or audience, thus she was eliminated. However, Paulo Araujo decided to pick her for the Wildcard round, where she got a second chance. Her version of Duffy's Rockferry pleased judges, however, she failed once again to entice the audience, being eliminated for good.

Uraps Idol 11
Cassie returned to Idol ready to hear her third no, but her audition of Reba McEntire's "I'm A Survivor" sent her through with three cheers from the judges and audience appeal, closing the second Heat round. Noted for her glass-shattering vocals and her quick ability to bring songs from different genres to her level, Diamond was the early favorite for the competition, being only matched by Genevere Johnson - both of them have had their down moments with the judges but have sailed through quietly with the audience, escaping the bottom 3 every week until the finals. She has received universal praise from judges and critics for her "storytelling" skills, emoting songs perfectly and making them their own, however she found criticism for trying too much to stay current and modern instead of tackling the country classics that have shaped her as an artist. In the show's live final Cassie Diamond was named runner-up to Johnson with 38% of the public vote.

Post-Idol
Following the end of the show's season, Diamond decided to wait a little until dust settled off and the rightful winner released her material, so she moved back to the Jenkins family properties to work on her debut album by herself. After months of isolation in the United States, working secretly with producers on Nashville, Houston and Atlanta, Diamond seemed settled on her debut single being the pop-leaning midtempo Burning For You. Initially deciding to stay independent, Diamond planned to released her debut single in September but after receiving a very interesting proposal from Saturdays Records, postponed the release until late November. However, label execs weren't pleased with Diamond's idea to release on Christmas enviroment and arranged another setback, pushing the single all the way to late January.

Diamond has stated that the album will only be released after the second single comes out. She has remained tight-lipped on which collaborators will appear on the album if any.