•NEW YORK •Rapper Kanye West apparently is not limiting his ambitions to a planned White House run. He may also be hoping to be the next American Idol.

He turned up to audition for the final, upcoming season of the television talent show at the weekend and left with a coveted "golden ticket" to the next round in Hollywood.

His apparently surprise audition in San Francisco with an a cappella rendition of his hit Gold Digger for judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr was posted on American Idol and his wife Kim Kardashian's Instagram accounts. "He's going to Hollywood! Kanye West swung by to audition for our judges and of course, he got a golden ticket!!!" the show said on Instagram.

West has said he is serious about running for United States president in 2020 and he performed at a Saturday Democratic Party fundraiser in San Francisco headlined by President Barack Obama, who gave him some tongue-in-cheek advice about a career in politics.

But his American Idol audition was widely seen as a publicity stunt for the show, which will air its 15th and final season in January after a dramatic decline in audiences.

REUTERS