Source: USA TODAY
By any standard, Lazaro Arbos has to be one of the biggest success stories of American Idol‘s 12th season. A Cuban-born ice-cream scooper with a severe stutter, Arbos won over the hearts of many viewers and last longer than any other guy in this season’s competition. Arbos says he hopes to parlay his run on the show into a role on Glee. Here, he talks about the highs and lows of his stay on the Idol.
You didn’t look very surprised to get voted off last night.
“No, I wasn’t shocked. I know that had a bad song. However, I do think my last song was really well-sung, but, at the same time, I felt like they were like, ‘Eh, no.’”
When you finished your first song Wednesday, did you feel your performance had gone as badly as the judges did?
“I haven’t looked back at the song. I’d have to go back and look at it and see what went wrong. As far as that night, we had a last-minute key change, and it was something we didn’t rehearse. So when you go into the live show like that, the nerves can be bad.”
I got the sense from a couple things you said early in the season that you might not have been familiar with a lot of the songs you had to learn.
“I’m not from America, so I didn’t know most of the songs we had to learn. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn’t an advantage on my side.”
If you could have picked all your own material, what kind of songs would we have heard you sing?
“I love love songs; I love pop. Probably some Lady Gaga songs, certain love songs and pop songs.”
During the occasions when you and Nicki Minaj spoke to each other in Spanish, your stutter seemed to almost disappear. Do you stutter less in Spanish?
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
Is the stutter directly related to stress?
“No one really knows why. A lot of stuttering has to do with anxiety and nerves. I think that a lot of mine has subsided, because I had to let go of my nerves and step up.”
Before Idol you’d never ridden a plane by yourself, and now you’ve done so much more than that. What have you especially enjoyed getting to do – other than singing in front of 15 million people each week -— that Idol allowed you do?
“I would say the fact that we met so many stars. I met so many so many people that changed my life. I made really good friends with everyone on the show.”
When you saw one guy go and then another and then another — did you feel you might have a shot at outlasting the five girls? Or was it pretty clear to you how tough they’d be to beat?
“When Devin (Velez) got voted off, and there was me and Burnell (Taylor) left. We were like, ‘It’s two guys and five girls left; they have to let one go.’ So then I was really shocked when he got voted off. I was like, ‘What are they doing?’ Then they let me go, so it was like, ‘O-kay!’”
There are a lot of people who really like you and want to see you succeed. What would you like to tell those people?
“I would just like to say thank you for getting me that far on the show, and that I love them all.”
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