The route "Boy Band" contestant Michael Conor took to the ABC show was by no means routine. The Shaker Heights teen was getting ready for Spring break when he got a direct message on Instagram.
"I didn't really have a big following or anything I didn't know how they found me and when they said it was ABC I was like ok this is a joke, there's no way," he said.
Next thing you know he found himself talking by Skype with ABC team and soon on his way to Los Angeles for the taping of the premier.
"I didn't really know what to expect I thought I'm a rapper mostly and this is sort of a singing competition from what I'd heard," Conor said. "But they really liked me."
In addition to being a rapper Michael Conor is also a classically trained violinist, "I kind of use that to segue into making my own melodies and stuff," he said.
Conor recently released a music video of some of his work titled "Shine." It's shot in the Lomond neighborhood where he grew up around the elementary school where his musical talents first began to blossom.
"That school, was a very big, big place for me in shaping me I know a lot of the teachers there were very open to creativity and they encouraged us to just really be ourselves and I think that really had a big impact on me," he said.
His hope is to one day follow in the footsteps of former Shaker Heights High School students Kid Cudi and Machine Gun Kelly. "I just saw their success and it made me want to do it even more," he said. "Boy Band" airs Thursday night at 8 p.m. on News 5.
Update: Conor made it through the first round of Boy Band that aired on Thursday, June 22.
