A rural O'Brien County woman is one of four contestants still alive in a nationally-televised country music competition.

Shawn Mayer, a 21-year-old from May City, claimed the final spot at the end of Monday night's "Nashville Star."

Mayer now lives in Madison, Tenn. Her official "Nashville Star" biography describes her as someone who has "worked on a hog farm, is a mechanic and a volunteer firefighter" in May City, which has 45 residents. She went to school at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn.

(NBC Photo by Frederick Breedon) Shawn Mayer performs her original song "I'm Not Looking Back" during the July 21 episode of "Nashville Star." She is one of four finalists still in contention for top honors on the NBC reality series.

Mayer's spot in the final four also earns her a homecoming in northwest Iowa. Producers for the NBC show have confirmed that Mayer will make an appearance, and will be available to sign autographs, at around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Southpark Mall in Spencer.

From there, she'll travel the familiar roads north of Hartley for a 9 p.m. concert and street dance Wednesday night on Main Street in May City.

Camera crews for the NBC show are likely at both events and producers would like big crowds to greet the singer as she returns home.

(NBC Photo by Frederick Breedon) Shawn Mayer of May City is joined in the final group by Coffey, a 29-year-old single dad from Bangs, Texas, Melissa Lawson, 31, a working mother of five boys from Arlington, Texas and Gabe Garcia, a 28-year-old Tex-Mex cowboy from Lytle, Texas.

About 45,000 people auditioned for one of 12 spots in the televised finals. The contestants perform in front of Grammy nominee John Rich of Big & Rich, platinum-selling artist Jewel and award-winning songwriter Jeffrey Steele.

The judges' comments after each performance serve as a guide, but text-message votes and toll-free phone calls decided the eliminations each week. Mayer was in the bottom two and avoided elimination for the second consecutive episode. She received enough votes to finish ahead of Ashlee Hewitt, a 20-year-old from Lancaster, Minn., who grew up in a family of 13 children.

Mayer is joined in the final group by Gabe Garcia, a 28-year-old Tex-Mex cowboy from Lytle, Texas; Melissa Lawson, 31, a working mother of five boys from Arlington, Texas, and Coffey, a 29-year-old single dad from Bangs, Texas.

The four remaining finalists and Hewitt performed songs they created themselves on the show's "original song" night. Mayer performed "I'm Not Looking Back" a song she wrote after leaving her boyfriend behind to pursue her career in Nashville.

"I was down in here, Nashville, completely by myself -- nobody here. I went through a bad breakup," she said in an interview Friday. " It wasn't my ex-boyfriend's fault. By all means, he was the greatest guy you could possibly ever imagine. It was just a situation that the distance was taking its toll and I felt that, throughout the fights that I was making -- I loved him so much that I hated to see him upset and not happy, so I let him go."

The song came from her sorrow at about 4:30 a.m. Her performance of the song earned her another round of praises from the judges on Monday night.

"The last couple of weeks you have taken quantum leaps -- absolute quantum leaps," Rich said before the final elimination was announced. "You were flip-flopping several weeks in-a-row. The last two weeks have been slam dunks. If you're gone tonight, it's just a matter of bad timing. That was a great performance. So was last week (when she sang 'Before He Cheats')."

Jewel said "I'm Not Looking Back" played to her strengths as a performer.

"You're dangerous and you're best on your own material," she said.

Steele was her mentor in the week leading into the show. He took her to the Grand Ole Opry for one of the filmed, rehearsal segments.

"That song could be cut by Faith Hill, Martina McBride -- anybody," he said. "Whatever happens tonight, win or lose, you have a career in this town no matter what anybody tells you."

The show will make one more elimination during its July 28 episode. The remaining three performers will be assigned phone lines so viewers can vote for their choice of "Nashville Star."

The series is hosted by country music performer and "Hannah Montana" actor Billy Ray Cyrus.