Don't expect a bunch of look-alike, sound-alike people in this year's "American Idol" final 12.

The differences are enormous. Just consider the three who advanced on yesterday:

• Jorge Nunez is a comparative-literature major who was hoping to be a lawyer. He's sung in choirs, he said today, but that's about it. "This is the only big thing I've ever done with music."

• Lil Rounds grew up amid the music of Memphis. Still, she's confined her singing mostly to church.

• And Scott MacIntyre? Well, the list goes on and on.

At 23, MacIntyre has a degree from Arizona State University and a Master's from the Royal College of Music in London. He's also studied in Boston and Toronto and Salzburg, Austria. He's won competitions, soloed with orchestras, performed at the Kennedy Center. And he's cut six CD's.

Despite his blindness, he has also done a couple musicals and some dancing. "As long as I don't fall off the stage, I'm OK," he joked.

This show may be a jumble of opposites, but MacIntyre says one thing has linked them since the Hollywood round: "Where else can you find 150 people in one place who love music?"

Two of the finalists, Rounds and Alexis Grace, are from Memphis. "She's a great girl, so we clicked," Rounds said.

Still, they have dipped into different parts of the city. Grace grew up around the blues clubs and now sings in them with her father's band. Rounds is familiar with that music -- "I have a grandfather who played with B.B. King" -- but her own taste has been for gospel.

In case you're wondering, this is not "Lil" short for "Little." It's her full first name, she said, one that goes back in the family.

She had considering auditioning before, but didn't. "A couple of the years, I was with child."

This year, she made the move. "We just got up and went," she said. "I just felt it was time."

A former customer service representative, she was a stay-at-home mom before leaving for her long "Idol" stay. Her kids -- ages 5, 3 ad 2 -- understand, she said, and her husband is also into music. "I don't let him go too far with his singing, but he's a great writer."

Nunez had dropped his music hopes after auditioning unsuccessfully for a show in his native Puerto Rico, three years ago. He settled into academia, which is logical enough: His extended family includes doctors and an architect; he speaks Spanish, English and French.

Now the musical ambitions are back, especially since he received a text message today from Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. "That was the best thing that has ever happened to me," he said. "They told me that I brought them to tears."

For MacIntyre, the music is a given; he's been playing the piano since he was 3. What people seem most interested in are the complications for someone who has been virtually blind since birth.

Once, Ryan Seacrest even mistakenly tried to give him a high-five. "That's happened to me my whole life," MacIntyre said. "People try to wave to me, try to high-five me. I had one guy who tries to fist-bump me."