“American Idol” finalist Matt Giraud seemed to have more lives than Rat Packer Shirley MacLaine during his run on the show. First he made it to the finals thanks to the wild card, then made “Idol” history two weeks ago as the first contestant to ever be saved by the judges. So what will be his next incarnation?
“I can’t wait to see my name on a trivia card,” he said Thursday during his elimination conference call.
OK, so the save only bought Matt another lifeline for two more weeks, after his performance of “My Funny Valentine” failed to touch the hearts of enough voters to rescue him again. Still, Matt doesn’t believe that the judges’ save was a waste of time.
“It shows people that the judges can see something in someone,” he said. “They didn’t pick me because of my looks, they picked me because they saw something in my talent and that’s a good thing.”
Matt also said he wasn’t surprised that he was voted off Wednesday night, but he didn’t expect to be standing next to Adam Lambert when Ryan Seacrest announced this week’s bottom three.
“It was kind of a cruel twist to have him [Adam] pick who he thought was the lowest vote getters and stuff,” Matt said “And we kind of played with him backstage saying, ‘why didn’t you pick us to be the highest vote getters or whatever?’ Kind of playing with him. But it felt kind of uncomfortable, but I’ve been there before, so I could deal with it.”
Blues man Matt, who almost always wore a hat on the show, now wants to try wearing a different chapeau when it comes to his post-“Idol” career.
“You know I’d actually like to get more into the rock or some soulful rock, maybe like a twist of blues on it,” he said. “I’d love to see myself as a lead man with a piano and a band around me and touring and doing good music, maybe to the likes of Gavin DeGraw and The Fray and stuff like that.”
It’s ironic that Matt, whose trademark was jazz and blues, should leave during standards week, thought Matt said he couldn’t have left on a better note.
“I was at complete peace with myself, because I went out doing what I love to do, Jazz Week in the matter of dreams,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to do, play piano, I wanted to play jazz and meet my idols and I actually accomplished everything I had to do. So I knew I did a good job and I appreciated Simon’s comments and I’m moving on.”
--Daniel Bubbeo
