Up Close With The American Idols - Chikezie - Page 3

That was a great performance. One of the best I've seen on American Idol.

Thanks!

Saw it coming.

Yeah. At that point I'd done everything that I wanted to do. I thought, 'I got into the top ten - I honestly don't care at this point.'

Oh man... There's The Who and Jet, like I've mentioned. Stevie Wonder, definitely my favorite artist by far. John Legend. I mean, I respect anybody that can sing there own music, write their own music, and play there own music. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Like Aretha Franklin, people who really paved the way. And you got the blues side, B.B. King. And I'm loving Coldplay right now. Loving "Viva La Vida." I have so many favorites I could just go on and on. Anybody that can sing their own music, write their own music, play their own music has my respect.

Well, I dabble. It's something that I know well enough that I can pick up one song if I have to. You know, like rehearsing a song like crazy until I get it. So I can have it stage-ready. But definitely guitar is something I'm much better at. I wanted to play a Gavin DeGraw song on guitar. Or rearrange some other song, kind of acousticize it, you know?

Oh yeah, you could pick whatever song you wanted. I picked three that show different dimensions. I only picked one from the show because I didn't want to do too much of what I'd done before. I really wanted to show something new. So the first one I picked was Donny Hathaway's "I Believe To My Soul," the one I did on top 20 week. The second one is "Caught Up" by Usher because I hadn't done something young, fresh, and hip. And then the last one is "So High" by John Legend. Also something fresh, but soulful.