- Be attractive, or at least non-conventially so-- no ugly people end up on this show.
- Be a redhead (not an automatic, but there's always at least one)
- Physical Disability, but still musically active (wheelchair, prosthetics, partially deaf, etc)
- Neurological Disability, but have overcome it (depression, epilepsy, ADHD, low-spectral autism)
- Varied Body Size (esp girls)
- Androgeny (incl. trans characters)
- LGTB (trans, homosexual, bi, cross-dressing, etc)
- Minority Ethnicity (Black, Asian, Indian, Jewish, etc)
- Minority Religion (Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, etc)
- Minority Genre Preference (esp country)
- Attitude/Ferocity, but with a button (some vulnerability) that can reduce you to tears
- Musicianship (play guitar, ukelele, keyboard, etc)
- Have an interesting musical background (just started, belonged to a touring blues group, started a college acapella team, etc)
Archetypes That Usually Appear[]
Can be more than one
- The Mean Girl/Guy
- The Nice Girl/Guy
- The Nerd
- The Christian
- The Clown
- The Diva (usu. Guy)
- The Country Character
- The Shy-Turned-Sexy Character
Others[]
- Contestants often get set against each other in rivalries, though such pairs don't necessarily make it to the final six/seven (in whole or part)
- Usually one contestant will quit