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| Alejandro Aranda and Host Ryan Seacrest from last week’s “American Idol.”
Photo: ABC |
The second season of ABC’s “American Idol” comes to a close with a live three-hour finale, airing in real time from coast-to-coast on Sunday, May 19. Real-time voting It’s a first for the show.
In all of its previous seasons, including the years on FOX, the show has had a two-night event, with overnight voting. How the real-time voting will affect the voting remains to be seen, but the Top 3 finalists, Alejandro Aranda, Madison Vandenburg, and Laine Hardy are focused on performing and giving their best.
During last Sunday’s Semi-finale, the local Pomona native thanked his hero, artist Twin Shadow, for his inspiration and guidance throughout his music career.
Alejandro talked TVMusic Network and other reporters backstage after the show about making it to the finale and his songwriting process.
Check out the interview below:
How are you feeling? Are you excited? Still in shock?
Alejandro: Yeah, I’m excited. I’m just definitely tired more than anything, but I feel great. That’s awesome.
Are you scared to win or would you be happy to win?
Alejandro: Uh, I dunno. I Dunno. I mean if I win, cool. If I don’t, still awesome. [I] made it kind of far. So it means a lot.
We’ve heard a lot of original songs from you thus far. Is that, is that scary for you? Are we going to expect that in the finale?
Alejandro: I think so. Yeah. I love writing music and so I kind of like wanted to keep true to that and the show’s allowed me to play my own songs.
Are these songs, songs that you’ve written recently or songs that you’ve written in the past?
Alejandro: Yeah. A bit in the past, but I try to write a song a day. Yeah. It’s kind of hard being on the show, but that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m tired. You can find the time if you really love it. Music and lyrics. Cranking it.
Do you have any advice for others who want to be songwriters?
Alejandro: I think the thing I would say is you got to keep trying and understand that nothing is nothing you write down that’s from your soul is bad. Most people in the pop scene, they have forms. It’s like there’s shouldn’t be any forms. You should just write out how you feel.
You almost gave up music because you just didn’t know where to go. So how did you continue? What made you want to keep going?
Alejandro: I think the pressures of life, of course, stress and jobs that you worked. You do so much and try to make something happen and it doesn’t happen. I think the expectations that I had during that time were very, they were kind of high and so nothing was really happening for me. Like the jobs that I had were terrible and I was trying to play music and wasn’t going anywhere.
I was trying to get gigs and playing as a musician and I couldn’t get gigs. And so when [Twin Shadow] aka George Lewis Jr. came in, actually, he provided me with a laptop, a microphone, a guitar.
He put me on the first tour ever as a touring musician. My first flight put me on my first TV appearance with him and I played my first festival. He’s helped me… basically, reinvent myself and understand that music is everything and stay true to who you are and things will work out.
You’ve had some really good fun feedback from all the different judges, but at this point, do you have a favorite?
Alejandro: No. They’re all great honestly. I mean it’s hard to pull favorites when everyone was so kind. Katie’s awesome. Lionel is awesome too. And the Luke Bryan, he’s awesome too. They’ve all said very kind of thing. They’re all great people.
You’re going to go home and see your hometown, have everyone see you and support you. How’s that going to feel?
Alejandro: It’s going to feel probably a little weird cause you know, living in your hometown for so long. And you’re kind of like a ghost in the wind, you don’t even really know anybody. And then you go from that to everybody knowing who you. It’s probably going to be an amazing feeling. I think when I’m in the moment, I’m, really going to feel it. But it feels awesome knowing that I’m going to go to that.
What you do on your days off from the show?
Alejandro: Days off we try to sleep. We’re boring. Write songs.
Have you gotten recognized when you’ve gone out on the streets here?
Alejandro: I don’t really get recognized. [Fellow Idol contestant] Wade [Cota] gets recognized. I think because he’s so tall.
Are you ready for that?
Alejandro: No, it’s going to feel weird.
What about the Future? Will you come back and play next year on the show?
Alejandro: I don’t like to think about the future, but hopefully I’m playing music and I’m still creating music and trying my best with anything. So if I come back and play a single, like just going to be the same thing, just trying to play music.
How many songs have you written?
Alejandro: I don’t even know. Probably a lot. There’s a lot of bad ones about pancakes and stuff. I just get ideas out (laughs).
The next #americanidol is revealed, preceded by special guest performances, on the highly anticipated grand finale of @AmericanIdol, Sunday, May 19 at 8:00 p.m. EDT, airing and voting live coast to coast on ABC! #ABCPublicity
