Matt Giraud Stands Out On Idol Tour
The "Saved" Contestant is Proving Why He Deserved a Second Shot
Aug 16, 2009
Yes, this is the same Matt Giraud that during season eight of American Idol, who would become the first ever "saved" contestant, to go on and compete for two additional weeks, before being eliminated during the Top 5.
Giraud was also the contestant that kept surprising the judges and left them not knowing what kind of artist he was going to be post-Idol. Judge Kara DioGuardi told Giraud that he was going to have to figure out what which way to go music-wise with his career.
"You keep going between the rock side of pop and the r&b side of pop, and at some point, you're going to have to commit," DioGuardi told Giraud after one of his performances on the show.
In a post-Idol interview with Entertainment Weekly's Michael Slezak, Giraud discussed DioGuardi's comments. Giraud feels that he does not need to musically pick a side.
"I know they always say in Hollywood there is no room for versatility, they want you to pick your market and go for it," Giraud said during the interview. "There's too many sides of me musically that I love. I love folk, I love jazz, I love rock, I love pop, I love gospel. And I know I love all these styles, you know I do them. I actually worked hard at learning and trying to do them all correctly."
Giraud continued to say in the interview that it was weird to be told that, "we only like you in this box", when it came to certain genres of music.
Giraud the Piano Man
Giraud has only been playing piano for a handful of years and learned to play by ear. In a relatively short period of time, he has shown that piano playing is definitely his forte.
At the end of the first song in his set, The Black Crowe's "Hard To Handle", a small piano rises up from under the stage and Giraud lets the crowd know what he is made of. Giraud's obvious passion for playing piano leaves an impression on the Idol fans, by the sound of their applause at the end of the song.
He picks up his token fedora up off the piano and places it on his head, before kicking off his second song of his set, Ray Charles' "Georgia On My Mind". Giraud had success with the song previously during the "Hollywood Week" round of the Idol competition.
Giraud closes his set with The Fray's hit song, "You Found Me". He had performed the song during the ill-fated "Top Downloads Week" on Idol. The judges panned the performance that week, but out on tour, it seems to be a hit for Giraud, as he exits the stage leaving the crowd in San Jose that night wishing his set was longer than three songs.
Good Reviews Roll In for Giraud
The fans are not the only ones taking notice of Giraud during the tour this summer. He has been getting rave reviews from critics since the tour started back in July. Good reviews seem to be something that Giraud definitely appreciates.
"Hallelujah!" Giraud says laughing during a pre-show interview. "The reviews have been pretty good, and I've been really lucky to get those."
Giraud continued to say that people have been telling him that, "I'm surprisingly entertaining".
The American Idols LIVE! Tour
Fans can still catch Giraud and the nine other Idols, including the winner, Kris Allen and runner-up, Adam Lambert on tour through mid-September. For more information about the tour dates, fans can visit AmericanIdol.com. And for more from Matt Giraud, fans can follow him on Twitter.com/MGiraudOfficial.
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