Some hopefuls claim to be shocked when eliminated from American Idol -- but not freshly ousted Brandon Rogers -- who was the first finalist sent packing from the sixth season of the reality competition series during Wednesday night's live results.
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The 29-year-old from North Hollywood, CA sang "You Can't Hurry Love" during Idol's first finals performance show of the season. Having previously worked as a background singer for such artists as Usher, Christina Aguilera and Anastasia, just how did Rogers forget his lyrics?
"It's actually kind of funny because I wish I could chalk it up to nerves, or pressure, or going first, as a lot of people speculated," said Rogers. "But honestly, it was me having too good of a time. Honestly, I went out there and had a great time. I did my little dance, my little hip shimmy. And the crowd screamed, and that was the loudest the crowd has been that whole time in the competition, and I was like, 'Whoa, this is awesome. What the heck am I worth?' I completely lost the line and my mind went blank. I reverted to a different version of the song, and just paused and waited for my opportunity to jump back in. I did so as best as I could."
Rogers said he "prepared as best as" he could every week and said forgetting the words was "my mistake. However if given the opportunity to do it all over again, Rogers mentioned one thing he would change.
"I would probably pick better songs that showed the range, and I think some of the bigger qualities of my voice," said Rogers. "I think I would have done a better job of making myself stand out vocally, like I think a lot of people were waiting for me to do. I never quite did that. But, then again, I have no regrets. Just songs that I like and love to sing, but I didn't necessarily pick songs that showed up my voice as best as I could have."
While messing up the words might have been embarrassing, Rogers said the other Idol 6 finalists -- and even the judges -- lent their support.
"Everybody was very supportive. Every single contestant came at me and told me how good I did, despite the mistake, and they appreciated the fact that I picked up. It could have been a disaster, but I tried to maintain as much as I could," said Rogers. "[The judges] all came up to me after I got voted off the other day, and nothing, but positive stuff. They all told me it was my song choice and it was not my singing, and not my ability."
Rogers revealed his career as a background singer began when he was working at Blockbuster Video and a friend encouraged him to audition for Anastasia' music director. He was hired, and said it just "snowballed into this career."
"That's one of the reasons why I never had the opportunity really to pursue my solo career because I've been singing background so consistently, that you get used to a steady paycheck, and you really do have to take that time off and make those sacrifices to commit to being an artist," said Rogers. " I think my background in background singing really helped me to give a little perspective to some of the people at how great and grand this opportunity was, and how not to beat yourself up about this. Just go with the flow and have a good time on stage. That's the only thing that I could really help everybody with. Yes, it's easy to give advice; to apply it yourself is the tricky part."
Rogers said his success on the sixth season of Idol has encouraged him to pursue a career in the spotlight.
"This show can be such a good vehicle, I'm so proud to be in the Top 12, and I'm hoping that I can use it to help kick start my career in music. This is what I've always wanted to do; I'm a career musician," said Rogers. "I think this gave me the confidence to seek a solo career. I've said this before, when you're a little kid, you don't dream of being a background singer. It's a great job and I love every second of doing it. But on the same page, I've always wanted to be on that big stage and to get a taste of that is a little too sweet to let that slip away and be relegated to the background once again. So I'm excited to continue going forward on the solo path."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio
