Friday, March 13, 2009

Jorge Nunez: "I have no regrets"

When Jorge Nunez faced the dreaded media conference call with the eliminated contest on Thursday, he didn’t seem upset at all. In fact, he seemed like a guy with a whole new career ahead of him…

There were some interesting questions on the call, including one about whether voters misunderstanding the whole United States-Puerto Rico relationship (i.e. that Puerto Rico is not really part of America and therefore a Puerto Rican should not be the American Idol) knocked him out of the competition (Jorge didn’t think so.). And then there were the several questions asked in Spanish that Jorge answered only with a cryptic “I can’t really talk about that right now.”

Here are a few of the other things that Jorge had to say…

On his future plans: “I’m going to finish college anyway, but I’m going to keep going with music. Music is my priority now.”

On his choice of “Never Can Say Goodbye”: “I just wanted to do something different, because I didn’t want to stay in the same kind of vibe when singing. I didn’t want to just sing ballads throughout the whole competition, and since it was the first time on a big stage, I wanted something that I could play with, move around, have a little fun on stage, and I had a lot of fun there.”

On what the judges said to him after the show: “Well, the judges did encourage us both to keep going and I think that the most important thing that I have now is God and I know this is going to be great.”


On what he learned from the experience: “I’ve learned that being a singer is more to stay true to who you are no matter what other people might think, because everyone has a different opinion in the end. The artist is the person who believes in himself as who he is and what he wants. And I always kept that integrity throughout the whole show. I always picked the songs I wanted to sing, and I have no regrets.”

On not being saved by the judges: “I was not hurt because I believe that a person shouldn’t have any excuse, and when something happens, it’s because it’s meant to be so. I just took the hit like a man, and you know what? Things are going to be great for me, because this is just the start of something much bigger.”

On the Judges’ Save itself: “I think it’s a really good thing because there have been people like Chris Daughtry, like Clay Aiken, like Jennifer Hudson, that didn’t win and they’ve done great and you always think they should have gone further. Clay Aiken by himself, he had a great deal and he was lucky. He is so amazing, and Chris Daughtry, he also did a great job, but there are people that should have gone further in the competition and I bet that’s going to help out with the competition and with who gets the prize in the end.”

On Country Week: “Actually, country week was kind of intimidating for me…Because I’m Puerto Rican, if I ever got to sing country for ‘American Idol,’ I bet that I was going to be not only the first Puerto Rican in the top 13 of ‘American Idol,’ but the first Puerto Rican singing country ever in the history of Puerto Ricans…Basically, I had a few songs picked. I had ‘I Know You Won’t,’ by Carrie Underwood and I had ‘Anyway,’ by Martina McBride, because they’re ballads. They’re kind of a country ballad, which is cool and I can actually get used to that.”

On Simon’s “Bad” Slam: “The thing is that Simon is the kind of person that if you say something, he’s really fast. You can’t play with Simon. He’s really fast, he’s smart, he’s witty, he’s just going to get you. But to me, it was at the moment, it was funny, but it was like you know what? Simon, come on, but he’s a great guy and that is the first time that he has told me something like that throughout the whole competition and I am really happy with his comments towards me. I know that he liked me in some way.”

On the contestants he got closest to: “There are a few people. I love them all. They’re all great, but if I had to pick people from the contestants that I actually got to know better, I love them all but, but I would say Lil Rounds. She calls me ‘Jorgito,’ which is Georgy in Spanish, and Allison, because she’s a Latina too and we used to speak Spanish around the house, and Jasmine too, but she’s not here anymore, but we’re really close.”

His closing comments to the media: “I just want to say that this has been such an amazing experience and there is nothing to feel sad about when you’ve done so well and you’re the top 13 of 100,000 people. If anything, you should feel happy and you should keep pursuing your dream because now is the time. This is just the start of something much bigger for you. That’s all I have to say. I’m feeling really happy and again, you’re going to see more of me.”

Photo Credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX