LIer Samaera Hirsch finishes as second runner-up on 'Alter Ego'

Samaera Hirsch, the Glen Head singer who has been a front-runner on the Fox singing competition "Alter Ego," came in as second runner-up on the season 1 finale Wednesday night.

"I was obviously a little bit disappointed," Hirsch, 21, said by phone Thursday from New Orleans, where she is a senior business major at Tulane University. "I kind of had a feeling I wasn't going to win, but I was so happy I made it to the finale that I didn't really even care that much that I didn't end up winning."

On the show, in which real-life singers perform as CGI avatars, Hirsch as Misty Rose competed in the finale against Night Journey (Israa Darwich), runner-up Seven (Kyara Tetreault) and winner Dipper Scott (Jake Thomsen). Hirsch performed Ariana Grande's hit "One Last Time" in competition and "Fix You" by Coldplay after her elimination.

"I didn't really choose it," the North Shore High School graduate said of the Grande song, "but out of the options they gave me, it kind of fit me the most. I'm a big Ariana Grande fan — I love singing her songs. And the song itself, the message — one last time — was appropriate for the finale because that was my last time singing as Misty."

As to the fate of that avatar, "I'm not sure, in regards to my rights to her; I'd have to check with [the producers]," Hirsch said. "I loved being her, but I think it's time for a new chapter of my life. It was a fun experience to play someone else, or that part of myself through someone else, and it was pretty liberating. But now I'm excited for everyone to finally meet the real me as an artist."

To that end, she said, "I'm working on a bunch of demos. I've had a bunch of meetings with people in the last couple of weeks that are interested in helping me develop my career. And it's really cool to feel that sense of confidence in me succeeding." Hirsch has stayed busy since the finale was shot in August. She sang the national anthem at the Knicks' Madison Square Garden game on Oct. 24, and at a New Orleans Pelicans game at the Smoothie King Center in mid-November, she said.

But the most important development may have been a note from her father, Jamie Hirsch, she said. She explained, "He formerly was like, ‘You're not going to make it onto the show, a music career is so hard, blah, blah, blah.’ And I got a text from him last night saying, ‘I think that if you really work hard, you can make it in the music industry.’ And that was a shocking text to receive. Obviously my parents are supportive, but that was the first time I've ever heard him say something like that, because they thought a music career is kind of unrealistic."