So I guess 2010 won’t be the year of the Asian American Idol with 21 year old John Park being voted off the show last night with 3 other contestants. Even though I’m not one of those AI fanatics who text in their votes every week, I was still excited to see Park’s singing skills on the reality show because hey, who doesn’t love a good looking Korean male crooning songs on live television?
I caught Park’s performance on Tuesday night, where he sang John Mayer’s Gravity and though I was rooting for my fellow Asian American, I’m not surprised to see him go. The combination of a poor song choice (I think my eyes glazed over in the first five seconds before he was finally able to sing) and his lackluster stage presence, as well as the judges’ criticism, didn’t make John memorable enough to keep the audience interested. I had a sinking feeling during the song that night that he wasn’t going to make the cut, because even I was more into eating my dinner than paying attention to him on stage.
Judging from EW.com Popwatch’s exit interview with Park, the Northwestern student seems to realize his mistakes.
A lot of it were nerves. Not necessarily nerves, but just distractions. And thinking way too much about what people are going to think. My voice coach told me something that kind of hit me. He said, “Don’t sing to people. Sing to God. And if you’re singing to God, then you can truly just pour out what’s in your heart, and not have to worry about what other people are going to think.” I think that’s one thing that I lost sight of — coming from the heart instead of thinking about all of these things, these distractions in my head.
Park’s statement makes a lot of sense, since he clearly didn’t look too comfortable sitting on that stool but kudos to the young man on his final performance last night! He’s got talent. And it’s okay. He’ll still make a great doctor, lawyer or…well, that’s about it, right?*
*That was a joke.
