David Hernandez, who made headlines two weeks ago when his past as a male stripper was exposed, was the first finalist eliminated from American Idol. The castoff spoke about the experience.
“I still feel surreal, like this whole experience has been really surreal. I feel very, very thankful to have even had this opportunity. I think it’s a huge accomplishment to go from nobody to the top 12 of American Idol out of 110-thousand people, you know, I have nothing but thanks, you know, to American Idol, to everybody who’s given me this platform, you know, so I’m very excited.”

Hernandez addressed whether his past came back to haunt him in the competition.

“Gosh, I would like to think not, you know, but that’s really neither here nor there. That’s really not even something I can control and not even worth really thinking about, you know. I like to hope that everybody voted based on my talent and song selection which I think it came down to song selection, you know, and if it didn’t, then oh, well, you know, what do you do? You can’t change a person or their past. It just is what it is.”


The 24-year-old Glendale, Arizona native told us what’s next.

“I would like to get a record deal. Broadway’s definitely in my dreams. I’m looking for, you know, basically some great opportunities that I hope come my way and I’m definitely going to get out there and hustle and make things happen, and you know, I’m currently unemployed so anybody out there that has a great offer for me, let’s talk.”