Jordan confident, collected for 'Idol' performance
• Want to root for Jordan Segundo?
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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| When Jordan Segundo sings tonight, his family will be there to offer encouragement. Present at the broadcast will be his mother, Jodi, and his two brothers, 8-year-old Joey (bottom right) and 10-year-old Wayne.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser |
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| Segundo competes tonight with (clockwise, from right of him): Kimberly Kelsey, Samantha Cohen, Louis Gazzara, George Trice, Equoia Coleman, Rickey Smith and Vanessa Olivarez.
Fox |
Jordan Segundo Age: 18 Birth date: Feb. 3, 1985 School: Farrington High (senior) Lives in: Kalihi Vocal training: None Musical experience: Took piano lessons "but not too good"; performed at school, church, etc. Goal: Besides winning "American Idol," writing songs Favorite artists: Janet Jackson, Brian McKnight Favorite types of music: Soul, rhythm 'n' blues, pop, Hawaiian |
"It's a song I've rehearsed, but never performed publicly," said Segundo, 18, by phone from Los Angeles.
He had started practicing another tune when producers told him they had obtained performance rights to "For Your Love," his song of choice.
"From the first time I heard it, it was catchy; the melody's good. I'm hoping it will work out for me," he said.
Segundo left Honolulu on Wednesday and has been busy with meetings and rehearsals with his seven competitors ever since, leading up to the showdown tonight. His mother, Jodi, and his two brothers, Joey, 8, and Wayne, 10, joined him on Friday and will be there for his big moment.
Segundo hadn't been told where he will be in the sequence — first, fourth or last — of the eight anxious contestants trying for a slot in the Top 10. Two will win, in voting tonight, with results announced tomorrow night.
Segundo sounded calm and collected, he said he has formulated a strategy to impress the voting public: Put on a happy face. Skip the aloha shirts. Be truthful. And pray.
"I'll be against other talented people," he said last week while still at home. "I have to have fun. But I have to play the game right.
"Some people think this is all fun and games. It's not. This is a serious competition."
Doing it right means no gimmicks, he said.
"I think I have to be myself. If you're not yourself from the very beginning, you're faking it. If you're gonna shine, you have to be honest."
He prepared five songs, including a couple of other Stevie Wonder titles, before getting his first choice approved.
"When I hear a song, I listen for melody, then lyrics," he said.
After watching others compete last season and over the past five weeks, Segundo, a Farrington High School senior of Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese and German descent, said that talent and performance aside, image counts. An idol needs to look and act like one.
"I pick up quickly, when I watch the show," he said of right moves and wrong ones.
"Stage presence is so important — especially facial expressions." So he has been practicing and repracticing.
Clothes count, too. He had been wondering about what to buy. Or how he could afford to outfit himself in new duds. Then Armani Exchange here came to his rescue and provided two complete outfits, from head to toe. "It's several hundred dollars worth!" he exclaimed.
Figuring he's from the land of the aloha shirt, he wore one during earlier runoffs.
Wrong move.
"Simon (Cowell, the vitriolic, say-it-like-it-is judge) hated it," Segundo said. "With my A/X outfits, I'll look cool, slinky, more GQ than hip-hop."
Is he fearful or intimidated by Simon? "Not at all. I'm cool with him; we've talked during filming breaks, and I have no problem with him. But my tactic will be no matter what he says, good or bad, I will tell him thank you. His opinion may sway the voting, but the viewers will make the ultimate call. Besides, I have enough confidence."
He says, "I think it's been an accomplishment to make it this far. It's been a cool experience. Win or lose, I'll be able to look back at the fun and excitement."
But he's not taking chances. "I'm also praying a lot," Segundo said.
Segundo has been practicing his song with the aid of a recorded track played on a minicassette player. "I'm singing a lot, but also saving my voice," he said. "I need to know I'm in the right key."
He is one of two high schoolers in the cluster of eight semifinalists.
"I'm now 18, so I don't need a tutor," he said. "But the other high-school kid (from New Jersey) is 17, and he has a tutor spending three hours daily with him to do homework." That leaves Segundo responsible for his own math homework — which he admitted he hadn't had time to do yet, but will have, he vowed, by the time of tonight's runoff.
"I'm all right with my other electives," he said. Segundo considers himself "an average student who should spend more time with his books," but he has been preoccupied with prepping for the "Idol" appearance.
When he originally flew to Los Angeles last year for the cattle-call auditions, vying with 11,000 others, his suitcase included some local snacks.
Not this time. He has brought more clothes, for obvious reasons, but he knows he'll miss the munchies. "I know I'll miss rice, since the last time, it was baked potato, pasta, or bread everywhere," he said. "And you get so little bit of food for so much money, even at a hole-in-the-wall place."
He said he had a great Chinese dinner with the other contestants the other night.
He has had to put his Jamba Juice job on hold, at least for now.
"I've been at Jamba Juice (the Waikiki Trade Center outlet) for almost a year and a half," said Segundo. "It's been a great experience, because when you work in Waikiki, you communicate with a lot of tourists. It's been nice to see how they like it here and listen to what they have to talk about. The feedback's good; when some customers find out that I'm an 'American Idol' contestant, they say great, I have the look."
There were three Hawai'i competitors until two weeks ago, when Reno Kaleokalani David and Lee Dominguez were eliminated, leaving Segundo as the lone survivor to carry the Island banner.
"I'm praying he makes it to the Top 10," said his mother, Jodi, who has been working as a parent facilitator at Dole Middle School since September; before that she was a tutor coordinator at Kalihi-Waena Elementary, where her two younger boys attend school. "He has worked so hard, practicing a lot."
He's generally not a nervous sort, though he tends to get the butterflies just before performing.
"But honestly, when my mom's around me, I never get nervous," he said. "When she's not here, I do get nervous. So it's a comfort knowing she will be there (on the set) with my brothers."
"American Idol" has been therapeutic for Jodi Segundo. "The contest has been wonderful for the family," she said. "After 19 years of marriage, I got a divorce and have been a single parent for a year. The divorce was final two weeks ago, but we've had all this excitement about Jordan and 'American Idol.' "
Segundo said he still feels like he's in a dream. "I can't believe it's happening. It's so unreal. I see the same people (classmates, work mates) all the time, and I'm basically still the same person. But it's still exciting.
"It's just me, an 'American Idol' hopeful. I try to put myself in other people's shoes, to see how it is from the other side. But I can't. It's too crazy."
At Farrington last week, his friends and fans gathered and hoisted signs and placards with such messages as "You're Our American Idol" and "Jordan, I'm Single."
"It's so great to get support from the folks at home," he said. "I hope they'll vote for me, too."
Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.
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Want to root for Jordan Segundo?
- On TV: 7-8 p.m. today, 7:30-8:30 p.m. tomorrow, Fox 2.
- At a viewing party: Dave & Busters and I-94/AT&T Wireless will host a viewing party from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. today, with the screening on a 120-inch screen. Admission is free, with drink and food specials.
- Voting: AT&T Wireless will provide phones for voting at the viewing party; at home, viewers may also call; AT&T Wireless customers may vote via a text message: "IDOLS," with Segundo's number (to be announced) inserted (example: "IDOLS-01," etc). Voting will continue for two hours after tonight's airing, until 10 p.m. The top two vote-getters each week become Top 10 finalists, and judges and the audience pick two wild-card finalists March 4 and 5.
If Segundo wins
- He'll return home and await a call back for the finals. A camera crew will accompany him at school, at work, at home, for footage to be used on "American Idol."
- If he continues to win, making it as one of two finalists, he will compete for a major recording contract. The last two contestants will compete May 6, with the May 7 finale determining the next American Idol.
If he doesn't win
- He comes home to his life as a Farrington High senior.
- He resumes his part-time job at Jamba Juice at the Waikiki Trade Center.
