Justice Murphy made a big first impression on the “American Idol” judges, and that doesn’t seem like a fluke: The Alabama State University student describes her outlook with a star’s presence and confidence.

For example: She knows that the further she advances, the more she’ll be pushed out of whatever genres she might consider her comfort zone. The thought does not faze her in the least.

“I’m very versatile,” she said. “I don’t think I have ‘a’ strength. I can sing anything. I can sing opera songs. If you gave me an opera song right now and told me I had 30 minutes to learn it, just like Aretha Franklin, I would go out there and I will sing that opera song. I will sing it how it needs to be sung.”

As she told Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Katy Perry in the episode that aired Feb. 25, she’s done most of her public singing in a church setting. Initially that was Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Marianna, Ark., near her hometown of Forrest City. Since she started at ASU it’s been First Baptist Greater Washington Park in Montgomery. She said it was Worship Arts Director Guenada Lambert who pushed her to sign up for an online “Idol” audition.

“Yeah, it started online in my room,” said Murphy, 21. “I was actually getting ready to go to work. I’m a waitress. I had no intentions on auditioning but my choir director, she had asked me, she was like, ‘I really think you should do it. I really think it’s time.’ And I was like, ‘OK, well, if you think it’s time, then it has to be time.’”

In that first session she sang songs associated with two previous “Idol” winners: “Before He Cheats” by Season Four winner Carrie Underwood, and the jazz standard “Summertime,” sung by Fantasia on her way to winning Season Three in 2004. Murphy said she sang for multiple listeners in that audition session, and by the time it was over she’d been told she was moving forward.

“We learned right there,” she said. “So that’s the great part about it.”

The next stop was the Tuskegee audition shown in the broadcast. She tackled “Summertime” again and got the approval of all three judges. Perry and Richie said the performance as a little over the top – Perry called it “a little bit Broadway-esque” – but all three said they saw star power. “Everything about you really sets off all of the right emotions for what we look for in ‘American Idol,’” said Bryan.

Murphy said the critique didn’t bother her.

“It was actually great,” she said of the feedback. “Like, I mean, ‘Summertime’ is a jazz song. So I just wanted to give it that jazzy feeling. But besides that, I was, I was fangirling the entire time. Anything that they told me I was taking it all in and I was willing to work on anything that they said.”

She said “fangirling” was particularly true of getting to sing for Perry.

“That was mind blowing for me,” she said. “Literally, like, Katy Perry was somebody that I danced in my room in the mirror to. I used to play on the playground with my friends and we’d come up for dances and songs and Katy Perry was definitely one of those artists. So that was so amazing.”

While she doesn’t consider herself a student of the show, it’s no accident that she auditioned with songs referencing Fantasia and Underwood. Murphy said she appreciates the way they went on to stardom after winning on the show.

“I absolutely love that,” she said. “And that’s what I love about ‘Idol,’ too, that your career doesn’t stop. It keeps going. And Fantasia, I grew up with Fantasia like all through my house. Just to see her overcome so many things, that is just so amazing, to see her get everything that she deserves.”

Murphy is a biology student who aims to continue on to dental school and become a pediatric dentist. She’s got it mapped out – but ‘Idol’ will make for an interesting diversion. And if she continues to build on her first impression, it could be a big one.

“I want people to know that I am a sweet girl when you get to know me,” she said. “I’m very talkative. I’m outgoing. I’m full of life. Whenever you see me, I’m never scared. I’m never shy. I’m just full of life like I’m just a kid.”

“Somebody told me that, ‘You have favor over your life.’ But when you’re anointed, it’s just so hard for people to bring you down to a lower level or to make you feel less of yourself. So I just thank God that he has placed this anointment over my life.

“So when people see me and they get a feel of who I am, it’s just so amazing,” she said. “So I’m so excited for people to see the kind of person that I really am and just to see how different I am as a star on the stage and then just a regular person in regular life.”