By Kathleen Capetta
From our January 2025 issue
For six weeks last spring, Mainers rallied around Cumberland’s Julia Gagnon. As the singer advanced through several rounds of competition on American Idol, watch parties sprang up in living rooms and bars like the Quarry Tap Room, in Hallowell, where Gagnon had won a spinoff contest, Central Maine Idol, in 2023. In May, when Gagnon was one of only seven Idol contestants left standing, students at her alma mater, North Yarmouth Academy, gathered on Yarmouth’s Main Street with handmade signs to show their support. A few days later, Senator Angus King called to wish Gagnon luck “on behalf of a proud state.”
Gagnon ultimately fell short of the semifinal round, but with her soulful renditions of hits by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Adele, and Whitney Houston, she made it farther than any Mainer ever had. After her final performance, she was overcome with gratitude for her home state, telling a local news station: “All I wanted to do was get home and write a song for home.” In June, she released a folkie single called “Here in Maine” and embarked on a tour with the same name. It kicked off with a sold-out show at Portland’s Merrill Auditorium and included a dozen more stops across the state.
Among those stops was a spot Gagnon has loved since she was a child: Cumberland’s Twin Brook Recreation Area. Town officials, though, had the venue moved to the Cumberland Fairgrounds at the last minute. Turns out that a 250-acre park that hosts runners, dog walkers, Nordic skiers, and youth sports was not equipped to handle hordes of adoring Gagnon fans.
