KEVIN COVAIS SEASON 5 MADE IT TO No. 11 GREW...

KEVIN COVAIS SEASON 5 MADE IT TO No. 11 GREW UP IN Levittown REMEMBERED FOR His sweet ballads and baby face earning him the nickname "Chicken Little," a label he didn't mind. "It was all about going along for the ride, and I don't take myself that seriously," says Covais, 26. "Who doesn't like to be called cute and adorable? It was more positive than negative." AFTER 'IDOL' He's acted in "Men in Black 3," "Transformers: Age of Extinction" and on the Disney Channel show "Good Luck Charlie." "The experience was unbelievable in every sense of the word," Covais says. "I never expected to make it as far as I did." Credit: Newsday / Chuck Fadely

After 15 seasons, hundreds of shows and thousands of performers, “American Idol” is being sent home (cue the exit music and collage clip). But before the final notes are sung Thursday night, we look back at the Long Island contestants we voted and rooted for over the years.

JOSEPH MURENA

SEASON 4

MADE IT TO Top 20

GREW UP IN Smithtown

REMEMBERED FOR Delivering a passionate version of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”

AFTER ‘IDOL’ After releasing an EP and appearing in the Off-Broadway play “My Big Gay Italian Funeral,” he’s been writing and producing dance music.

“The show opened up so many doors for me,” says Murena, 37, who works full time as a state Supreme Court officer. “It gave me a whole other world to be a part of.”

KEVIN COVAIS

SEASON 5

MADE IT TO No. 11

GREW UP IN Levittown

REMEMBERED FOR His sweet ballads and baby face earning him the nickname “Chicken Little,” a label he didn’t mind.

“It was all about going along for the ride, and I don’t take myself that seriously,” says Covais, 26. “Who doesn’t like to be called cute and adorable? It was more positive than negative.”

AFTER ‘IDOL’ He’s acted in “Men in Black 3,” “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and on the Disney Channel show “Good Luck Charlie.”

“The experience was unbelievable in every sense of the word,” Covais says. “I never expected to make it as far as I did.”

JARED COTTER

SEASON 6

MADE IT TO Top 16

GREW UP IN Coram

REMEMBERED FOR Singing Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” a performance he dedicated to his parents.

AFTER ‘IDOL’ Signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony/ATV and manages artists like singer-songwriter Kiana Ledé.

After two years hosting shows on the Fuse channel, Cotter wrote a string of hits with Jay Sean, including the No. 1 song “Down” featuring Lil Wayne. He also wrote for Fifth Harmony, Flo Rida and David Guetta.

“ ‘American Idol’ made me no longer scared of anything,” says Cotter, 34. “Once you know 40 million people have seen your face, everything else is soft in comparison.”

JACKIE TOHN

SEASON 8

MADE IT TO Top 24

GREW UP IN Oceanside

REMEMBERED FOR Singing and playing guitar on an indie rock version of Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance.”

AFTER ‘IDOL’ She’s written songs for artists like season 5 runner-up Katharine McPhee, Allen Stone and Christina Aguilera, performs stand-up comedy, acts on TV shows and commercials, and is launching a music project called Powerfox.

“I auditioned in New York where 118,000 showed up to try out,” says Tohn, 35. “I was hyper-aware of how lucky you had to be.”

ROBBIE ROSEN

SEASON 10

MADE IT TO Top 16

GREW UP IN Merrick

REMEMBERED FOR Nailing Elton John’s “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word” on Wild Card night and controversially getting eliminated.

AFTER ‘IDOL’ He teaches music business at Nassau Community College and continues to write and record. He’ll appear at Amityville Music Hall on May 28. Rosen, 22, will graduate from Hofstra University next month and penned the official school song, “Blue and Gold,” which he will perform at the ceremony.

“ ‘Idol’ was the best thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “It really built up my confidence as a performer, a singer and a person.”

JAX

SEASON 14

MADE IT TO No. 3

GREW UP IN Atlantic Beach before moving to New Jersey. However, she has fond memories of her younger years on Long Island.

“It’s where I started singing. I learned how to read, write and socialize from all the theater programs like the Long Beach Theatre Guild,” says Jax, 19. “I was a crazy kid who lived right down the block from the beach. All my friends and I were beach bums who would run around barefoot all the time.”

REMEMBERED FOR Being the Long Islander who came the closest to winning.

AFTER ‘IDOL’ Jax is touring and recording her debut album. She also played a sold-out show on Sunday at The Studio at Webster Hall in Manhattan, which Robbie Rosen opened.

“Because of ‘Idol,’ people pay attention and take what I say seriously,” Jax says. “It’s unbelievable what that national platform can do for a person.”

ADAM EZEGELIAN

SEASON 14

MADE IT TO Top 16

GREW UP IN Wantagh

REMEMBERED FOR His wild Afro, big personality and high energy on songs like Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock.”

AFTER ‘IDOL’ He performs with local cover band The Influence and will appear as a finalist on Fox 5’s “New York’s Star of the Day.”

“My favorite part was interacting with all my fellow contestants,” says Ezegelian, 22, who is finishing his degree in toy design at Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. “It was a great environment to be in.”

ERIC LOPEZ

SEASON 14

MADE IT TO Hollywood Week

GREW UP IN Wading River

REMEMBERED FOR Performing Queen’s “The Show Must Go On” in front of Adam Lambert, who currently fronts the band.

AFTER ‘IDOL’ He’s performing in “Phantom of the Opera” in London.

“You say you are not going to act like a nut job, but you get caught up in the moment and forget that you are being filmed,” says Lopez, 21, who will appear in a Broadway-aimed musical, “Holloway.”

SAL VALENTINETTI

SEASON 14

MADE IT TO Hollywood Week

GREW UP IN Bethpage

REMEMBERED FOR Winning a $100 bet with Harry Connick Jr. for naming the original title of the Frank Sinatra song “Fly Me to the Moon” (it was called “In Other Words”) and flirting with Jennifer Lopez.

AFTER ‘IDOL’ He performs standards at Italian restaurants on Long Island and will be a contestant this year on “America’s Got Talent.”

“ ‘Idol’ proved to me that a career doing something you love is totally possible and within reach,” says Valentinetti, 20, who is studying mass communication at St. John’s University.

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