How you can help Julia Gagnon advance on ‘American Idol’

Julia Gagnon of Cumberland will be seen performing on Sunday’s “American Idol,” filmed at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii. Disney/Eric McCandless

Editor’s note: People can vote from the start of each week’s episodes, Sunday and Monday, until 6 a.m. the following day. Online voting information can be found at idolvote.abc.com and text votes can be placed by texting the number of the contestant you like, which will be given out during the show, to 21523. For more information on how and when to vote, go to idolvote.abc.com/#faq.

Maine’s Julia Gagnon could be the next “American Idol” winner, but she needs your votes.

Gagnon, a 21-year-old college student from Cumberland, will sing on Sunday’s episode, the first this season when viewers across America will be invited to vote for contestants they want to advance to the top 20. Gagnon advanced to the top 24 after impressing the show’s judges by singing “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls” on the April 1 episode.

Voting will begin when the show starts at 8 p.m. Sunday. Fans can vote up to 30 times for a contestant – 10 times each online, on the American Idol app or by text. Gagnon is performing along with 11 other contestants Sunday night – in an episode filmed in Hawaii – while the rest of the top 24 will perform in an episode airing Monday night. The results of the voting – who made it to the top 20 – will be revealed in an episode April 14.

People can vote from the start of each week’s episodes, Sunday and Monday, until 6 a.m. the following day. Online voting information can be found at idolvote.abc.com and text votes can be placed by texting the number of the contestant you like, which will be given out during the show, to 21523. For more information on how and when to vote, go to idolvote.abc.com/#faq.

A publicity photo from Sunday’s episode shows Gagnon singing outside at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii, wearing festively-colored Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears. Others show her near the beach working with vocal coach Tori Kelly and posing with other contestants.

Vocal coach Tori Kelly works with Julia Gagnon, of Cumberland, on an “American Idol” episode airing Sunday. Disney/Eric McCandless

Once the top 20 contestants are revealed April 14, the singers will perform and viewers will be asked to vote again, according to the ABC website. Then on April 15, during a live episode from Hollywood, the 10 top vote-getters from the night before will be revealed. But the show’s celebrity judges will add four contestants they deem worthy, to create a field of 14 singers going forward. No information on episodes beyond that is available.

Gagnon, who graduated from North Yarmouth Academy and is a senior at the University of Southern Maine on a pre-law track, had been reluctant to share her gift for singing because she didn’t want to stand out among her classmates in Maine.

The Guatemala native says she’d been bullied and harassed for her looks and background, and that made her want to be quiet and blend in. But after a talent show during middle school, her chorus teacher, Nora Krainis, encouraged her to sing publicly and worked with her parents, Meg and Jim Gagnon, to create opportunities for her to sing more.

Gagnon decided to try out for “American Idol ” in part, to share a special moment and journey with her birth mother in Guatemala, Sara Ramos, who is seriously ill and fighting an infection, Gagnon told the Press Herald in March. She successfully auditioned for the show in Nashville last November, then competed against 150 others in the show’s Hollywood Week competition and made it to the top 24.