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David Hernandez was always a bit of a wild card for me. He was handsome but fairly nondescript and forgettable. He had a nice enough voice but again how memorable was he. Then, the internet blew up with the story about his having worked as a male stripper prior to American Idol and suddenly he was arguably the most recognized face on the show ... and abs ... and chest ...

In AOL's coverage of the exit interview with David Hernandez, he emphatically stated that he doesn't believe that his past vocation had anything to do with his sudden vacation (see what I did there?). He blames it solely on song choice. He should also put some of that blame on his bad performance of said song. And on that horrible running through the crowd thing he did. Did that work out for Chris Slight last year, David? No. Unless you're Taylor Hicks you can't pull that off.



Elisabeth Hasselbeck of The View wasn't so quick to say it wasn't a conspiracy to eliminate David Hernandez. She purported that perhaps his phone line was blocked so that calls couldn't come through. She admitted basing this theory entirely on the fact that he's a good singer and she doesn't think he should have been eliminated so soon. But I'm sure she's not the only one who will wonder about such things. After all, it wouldn't be the first time Idol has come under fire for the early elimination of a talented but gay singer (or at least danced gay in this case).

David, though, isn't buying it. Or at least he doesn't want to believe it. "I don't like to speculate about that kind of stuff because I like to have faith in Idol. They've given me this huge platform and I totally respect everything that they do on that show," he said. "I'd like to think America voted on me and it was legitimate." Of the fact that he was outed to America and subjected to intense media scrutiny regarding his stripper past, David said, "This has actually been really good for me because I learned to have a thick skin and still be able to get on stage and perform for 35 million people." He's not ashamed of his past and ready to move on to his future, hopefully in singing.

Unfortunately, the writing appeared to be on the wall. While he'd been popular early on and we'll never know if his past hurt him in the votes, legitimately or otherwise, but it just wasn't good enough. Even in his encore of "I Saw Her Standing There" it was just not a good fit for his voice at all.:


For the Top 12 performance his original choice had been "Let it Be," but apparently Brooke White beat him to it. David indicated that Idol has a first come, first served policy for song selection, which makes sense. Unfortunately he must have been channeling Jason Yeager's energy because it was so over the top and corny. Maybe the media scrutiny was getting to him and he overdid it here to compensate.:


Again, here I thought he oversang it a bit, but there is no denying that David can sing. It was the part where he sang "If you whisper like that" that really annoyed me. He does some weird things with his face, but again has a really nice, strong voice.:


This was David's shining moment this season. He took "Papa was a Rolling Stone" and just wailed it. The performance was spot-on and the vocals were amazing. This was the point where I thought he may be a dark horse contender to make it pretty far. Unfortunately, this turned out to be his peak and he slipped from it after.:


On "Midnight Hour" in Top 24 week, David showed that he had some power and range to his pipes. He was a little shaky in places and seemed a bit overwhelmed by the whole experience, but showed a lot of raw potential.:


Remember back to Hollywood Week. Back then we didn't know anything about this guy other than that he could sing. Then he started singing "Love the One You're With." Just him and the piano. The differing vocal styles and range he showed were just staggering. This may have been one of the best single performances of the entire series. As Randy said, it was amazing from "Note one.":


Back before Idol, David performed as part of a singing quartet called The Vinyl Four. Some reports have them a cruise ship group, but others don't say that. Nevertheless, David sang lead on "The Longest Time" in this video and while not as good as he'd show us later, he was pretty good. The dancing and the whole thing is incredibly amateur, but you can see the potential in him.:


But for stripped down (*ahem*) vocals, look no further than a couple of videos of David singing in a recording studio with a buddy. First up is a pretty good version of "Amazing Grace," thought it's not necessary to do vocal runs on every single syllable. It takes forever to sing a song that way, David!:


And again on something I don't recognize right away. This performance showcases more of his range, particularly his upper register.:


As for the future, David says he's already fielding interest toward recording an album, something he hopes to have completed within the next year. But he's also interested in Broadway. Honestly, I think he could do well in either one. David Hernandez was by far not the least talented Idol in the Top 12. So while he won't be around next week to sing "Yesterday," as he'd hoped, hopefully he made enough of a splash that he'll have plenty of tomorrows to come.

IDOL SEASON 7 FAREWELLS
#13 - Danny Noriega
#14 - Asia'h Epperson
#15 - Luke Menard
#16 - Kady Malloy
#17 - Robbie Carrico
#18 - Alaina Whitaker
#19 - Alexandrea Lushington
#20 - Jason Yeager
#21 - Colton Berry
#22 - Joanne Borgella
#23 - Amy Davis
#24 - Garrett Haley