American Idol hopeful, and family member of the famous Osmond clan writes about his Hollywood experience on his blog.   He explains the circumstances surrounding his “Group Day” elimination from American Idol.

Here’s the address for his blog:

http://www.davidosmond.com/blog/?cat=3

American Idol

Thanks for Your Support

First and foremost, I’d like to thank you once again for all the support and well-wishes I’ve received during my American Idol journey. Although it’s been short, the experience itself and the friendships I’ve made have been a great opportunity for me.

What a crazy night, huh!? Unbelievable actually. It’s really weird that they didn’t show anything from our group from that day, because it was without a doubt one of the freakiest days that I have EVER had in my entire life. Let me explain…

The night before, we organized ourselves into groups. We picked our song from a short list, I choreographed a dance routine, and we rehearsed like crazy until we had it down. I was stoked with how our song turned out. It sounded REALLY good, and everything was great. Even that next morning at a 6:30 AM breakfast things were totally fine. We rehearsed together and it sounded awesome. Well… at least until that afternoon.

I was sitting in the second row of the Kodak Theatre, the judge’s table was to my right. I was sitting with my “group,” and we were waiting hours and hours just for our turn to go on stage. We were group number 26 out of 28 to perform, so we didn’t take the stage until about 10 o’clock that night. It wasn’t until around lunch that the freaky thing started to happen—something that has never happened to be before in my career—I lost my voice! Not just kind of… or halfway… but full-blown laryngitis… GONE!

From midday on, I felt my voice just start slipping and slipping away, and I couldn’t do a thing about it. I didn’t feel sick at all, my voice just stopped working. It was so weird. I couldn’t even get a tone out.

So there I am, sitting in the Kodak unable to make a note, and my time to go up onstage and SING was slowly approaching. I began having flashbacks of when I was eighteen, sitting backstage at Kingsbury Hall when my uncle Donny came into the dressing room in the middle of his performance in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. “David, I have laryngitis. I’ve lost my voice. You have to go on. NOW!”

Suddenly, I understood exactly how he felt. But this time, I didn’t have an understudy. And there was no second chance. So, I took the stage with my group. I put the game face on, I danced, I tried to sing, and I was without a doubt, absolutely atrociously terrible. Ha! In fact, I sounded like the world’s WORST singer! Hey, it is what it is.

All I could do was laugh. It was too surreal! I felt like a quarter-back throwing with a busted arm. Impossible! There wasn’t a whole lot of choice either. I had to go on stage, knowing that it was going to be a total disaster, and attempt to sing despite the laryngitis and give it my all regardless. After all… I was there to sing.

Well, I was hoping they would at least give me another chance to. In fact, just like the song we sang said, “If you hold on for one more day, things will go your way.” I hoped to stick around for one more day and sing for them the way I really wanted to. The judges even asked me, “Dude what happened dawg!?” I explained that I was fighting laryngitis, but I don’t make any excuses. I was in Hollywood to sing, and asked for exactly that opportunity… to sing for them the way I knew I could. But in my gut I knew it was inevitable.

We went offstage for about 30 minutes while the last 2 groups went and the judges deliberated. During that time, the words of Barry Manilow kept running through my head. He spoke to us on the first day of the week. He said, first, “Don’t get sick!” Whoops! But he also said something profound. He said, “There is no luck in success. None at all. The definition of success is: Preparation meets opportunity! And here is your big opportunity. Are you prepared for it?”

I thought about how I’ve worked so hard and prepared my whole life, waiting for this type of opportunity to share my talents. And in that short moment, my voice was taken. I have to tell you, the way it happened was too coincidental and too freaky for me not to believe there was absolutely a reason for it. I believe everything does happen for a reason, and I am at such peace with how everything turned out.

After the judges deliberated and our group was asked to go back on stage, they simply said, “Sorry David, it’s the end of the road for ya.” That was it. No explanation or drawn out dramatics. Just a simple finish.

I thanked them for the great experiences I had, went up and gave Randy a hug, and then walked off with the 2 others in my group to wish them well. I don’t know what happened to them, but I hope only the best. There were some great talents down in Hollywood and I was just happy to be a part of the whole thing.

One of the hardest parts for me was coming home and having to hold my tongue about what had happened that week. People would wish me well and say, “We’re totally gonna vote for you!” And all I could do is smile and say, “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” I really wanted to do well on the show, just as much as my family and many of you did. Unfortunately, circumstances didn’t allow that. But I want to thank all of you who supported me and cheered me on from the beginning. It really meant the world to me and I am grateful from the bottom of my heart!

The American Idol portion of my journey may be complete, but don’t think that this is the last you’ll see or hear from me. I’m just getting started! I have been working on music ever since the Hollywood rounds and have already been in the recording studio working on tracks for a new CD that I’ll be able to tell you more about very soon. Keep checking back because we’ll be posting updates, new videos, music, and photos all the time.

In the meantime, thanks again for all the messages you’ve been leaving me here on the blog, on MySpace, and on Facebook. Thank you for joining my uPlej network. And thank you for your continued support throughout everything. You guys rock!

David

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