Jason René Castro (born March 25, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter and the fourth place finalist on the seventh season of the television series American Idol.
Early Years
Born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Rowlett, Texas, he currently resides in Rockwall, Texas. His parents, René and Betsy Castro, are Colombian, and he is the first person in his family to be born in the United States, followed by younger siblings Michael and Jackeline (Jackie). Their father, René Castro, is an architect and singer-songwriter.
He is a Christian. He attended Vernon Schrade Middle School as a child and went on to Rowlett High School where he was a left winger on his school's soccer team and an honor student. He received a 1340 out of 1600 on his SAT. Castro was a junior majoring in Construction Science at Texas A&M University on a full academic scholarship when he auditioned for American Idol.
He was the love interest of Cheyenne Kimball on her MTV reality show, Cheyenne and was also featured in her music video "Hanging On".
Castro sports dreadlocks and has worn them for the past three years. His mother, Betsy, helped put them in.
Castro was a male model since he was 8. He moved to Glenwood, IA when he was 10 and dated Brittney Rodgers for several years.
Musical Background
Castro grew up playing drums. He taught himself to play the guitar in college. He had no formal voice training before auditioning for American Idol and had previously sung only 5 times in public, mostly during church services
Castro performed as a drummer with the punk rock band Charlemagne, which later became Keeping Lions. He has stated that his musical influences include Ray LaMontagne, Ben Harper, Bob Marley, Carlos Vives and Kirk Baxley.
Overview
Castro auditioned for American Idol in Dallas, Texas, singing the Ray LaMontagne version of the song "Crazy". He was not shown on the television series until the final 24 due to legal restrictions on the songs he chose to perform. During a March 17, 2008 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, judge Simon Cowell chose Castro early as one of his four favorites in the competition, along with David Cook, David Archuleta, and Brooke White On April 12, Ryan Seacrest and the three judges appeared in Larry King Live, Larry King revealed the results of his website poll which asked "Whom do you want to win American Idol?" and said that Castro was in the lead.
Castro is the first contestant in the history of American Idol to ever play an instrument on the American Idol stage. He played the guitar during the Top 24 performance night when he sang "(What A Day For A) Daydream". He is also the only contestant so far to have played the ukulele on the show. He played the instrument while singing Over The Rainbow, after learning to play it in less than a week. Castro also sang in three languages on American Idol, supplementing English songs with Spanish (a combination of Sting's "Fragile" and "Fragilidad" on March 25, 2008) and French (Paul McCartney's "Michelle" on March 12, 2008).
Before he was eliminated, Castro was in the bottom three only once. He was voted off the competition on May 7, 2008. On May 8, a day after Castro's elimination, a poll conducted in The Ellen Degeneres Show's website revealed that 75% of the public didn't agree with the results.
iTunes
Castro's rendition of the song "Hallelujah," which he performed on American Idol, led to a surge of popularity for the Jeff Buckley cover of the Leonard Cohen song from the iTunes Store, propelling it to the 1 spot on the iTunes singles chart. Buckley's version of the song sold 178,000 digital downloads in the week following Castro's performance, to debut at 1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart. According to the March 22, 2008 issue of Billboard this was the highest boost in digital sales a song had ever received after being performed by a contestant on American Idol. It was the first time Buckley's version of the song charted on a Billboard chart, as well as the first U.S. number one song on any chart for Buckley, who died May 29, 1997 at age 30. Jason Castro’s rendition of the song propelled Jeff Buckley’s version to be certified Gold and Platinum as a single on April 22, 2008.
Castro's version of the song "Hallelujah" briefly appeared in the 1 spot on the iTunes chart before it was removed due to American Idol not wanting any contestant to be favored.
Castro has also bumped the sales of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s "Over the Rainbow" to 6 on the iTunes Top 20. Castro is the only Idol ever to bump another artist’s single to the iTunes Top 10 or to the Billboard chart.
Charity
A mix-up led a sudden rise in donations for a West Michigan-based charity. The blog Castrocopia.com suggested that fans donate money to Castro's favorite charity. The former Castro fansite, Daydreamingboy.com, claimed Castro's charity was GLOW Ministries, a Christian group based in Zeeland, Michigan that helps the poor in Haiti. Their website is usually quiet, but before long they had hits from 15 different countries with many online donations. "Before this we weren't really hearing from people online," said Snyder. "And didn't get a whole lot of contributions online." The problem was, Castro didn't even know about GLOW. Jason was referring to the GLOW 5K run in Texas, a charity where money that goes to various service agencies for children. Snyder said the mistake has brought a lot of money and attention to her cause. Castro stated he was glad the Zeeland nonprofit got some well-deserved donations
Castro's father had been instrumental in starting a soccer ministry at Lake Pointe Church to reach out to the community. Jason played soccer in high school and has been to Russia three times with Higher Goal Soccer Ministry.
He has also done charity work during his university career. In 2007, he joined Aggie Men's Club, a fraternity organization.
On December 13, Castro performed alongside R&B singer Patti LaBelle for a Christmas concert in Garland, Texas benefiting the Best Education Foundation, an organization that supports the city's school district.[28] He also auctioned himself off for charity courtesy of the Grammy Foundation and MusiCares. The bid ended on the 11th of December, earning $5,689 for the charity. The winner of the auction will have a lunch date with Castro.
Post Idol
After his elimination Castro made appearances on Live with Regis and Kelly, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Sauce, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Access Hollywood, Today, Best Day Ever, Larry King Live, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet as well as dozens of local FOX television affiliates and numerous radio stations across the country. Castro has been the subject of articles in newspapers and magazines including People, Star Magazine, US, OK!, USA Today, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and Billboard.
Jason Castro with Longhorn fans at the 2008 Red River Shootout.Castro returned to the Idol stage for the season finale, and was the only top 12 finalist who performed a solo. He sang "Hallelujah".
Upon returning to his hometown of Rockwall, TX, Thursday, May 29, 2008 was declared "Jason Castro Day". Castro was honored with a parade and a ceremony/concert. He was presented with a key to the city by the mayor of Rockwall and a US flag that flew over the nation's capital by Texas congressman Ralph Hall. Castro also performed 4 songs for the crowd, including an original song that he had written. The parade and concert was estimated to have attracted close to 15,000 fans and was the largest event in the city's history.
Castro completed the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2008 with his fellow contestants during the summer. The tour ran from July 1, 2008 to September 13, 2008.
Castro is currently writing and recording songs for his upcoming untitled album. He also recorded "Hallelujah" in Toronto, Canada for the Mexican indie film, Tierra de Tigres, (the title was later changed to Amar a Morir) which is set to premiere in the spring of 2009. On November 3, Castro shot a homemade video of himself performing the song "Sweet Medicine", an original song he had written and put the video up on his YouTube account. However, it is unknown if this song will be released on his upcoming album. He recently took part with the "I Am Second" campaign and openly discussed his Christian faith.
Castro signed a management deal with Hard8Mgt, a firm that manages other musicians such as Jakob Dylan, Dashboard Confessional, Augustana and others.
On November 29, 2008, Castro performed a live concert with his band, The Heavy Steadies at the Flytrap Music Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma which included new songs from his album. On December 15, Castro released the Christmas song, "White Christmas" as a free download through Amazon.com as a gift for his fans. On December 24, 2008, Castro performed "White Christmas" at Lake Pointe Church's Christmas program.
Younger brother's journey on American Idol
Castro's younger brother, Michael, auditioned for Season 8 in Kansas City, Missouri. Castro stated in an interview for FOX News that his brother is a better singer than he is. On January 14th, 2009, it was revealed that Castro appeared on the second episode of the eighth season of Idol alongside the rest of his family and a family friend to help support his younger brother during his audition. 20 year-old Michael said that he started singing after Jason made a career out of it. It was proven that Michael had just as much trouble with interviews as Jason did, and when comparing himself to Jason, he said that Jason was more "girly" and he was not. Michael sang the song "I'm In Love With a Girl" by Gavin DeGraw, and received a golden ticket to Hollywood.
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