**This is how many of Jason's fans felt about his treatment by TPTB at AI.
From troubledhollywood.com...an open letter to Jason:
LETTER TO JASON Yeah, I know, I really should be writing some celebrity gossip this morning. Some days there isn’t much, but today, we have jurors thinking Uma was being less than honest, Star calling out Babs, Amy being arrested, and talk of Charlotte teaching Adam the Facts of Life (that would be Mrs. Garrett and Mr. Sandler) in a love scene, but today, all I can think of is Jason Castro.
Jason, I’ve been a faithful viewer of American Idol for seven seasons, and I’ve been writing about it for four. I started writing about it after the last dismissal of a contestant that had me this upset, when Jon Peter Lewis left in season three. Like you, Jon, was truly an individual and a one-of-a-kind performer. He was just out there doing his thing, to steal a phrase from Randy Jackson.
Still, in all these years, I have never seen American Idol chew someone up and spit them out the way they did to you this season. They needed you this season. You brought something different to the show, something we hadn’t seen before. You brought a different vibe to the show. At first it was just a different type of fun, but once you sang Hallelujah, we saw there was something there behind what seemed like indifference earlier. You let your feelings come through in that, and it was something we weren’t really seeing in the other performers at all.
Why the latitudes aren’t given to you like they are “Li’l Archie” is beyond me, as when they show began, you were just three years older. And if it’s true that experience adds years, he’s years past you. He’s already been in a contest like this and won. He knows what it takes. He grew up on the stage. You’ve been in some battle of the bands things and sung at some coffee houses, but nothing comparable to this.
While David Archuleta picks the same type of song week after week and is heralded for doing so, you did that and were told you needed to reach out and do more. You tried that in the second Beetles week, singing Michelle, a song you didn’t know, and realized the mistake you made with that, determined not to do it again. The following week you were trashed for singing Fragile, a song that was close to your roots. You were assumably a little confused, as were we. And anyone that has heard the studio version of this will tell you you did Sting proud, capturing the essence of the song.
With a tough theme of Dolly Parton music, you did really well, singing a great folk version of one of her tunes. You even made her sit up and take notice. But when you really shined was the following week, singing and playing the ukulele for Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Watching you sing that night, you truly felt and meant every single word in that song. You had such hope.
But the hope seemed to turn into dread, pardon the pun, as you were hit with bad luck of the draw for singing position and songs. Maybe it wasn’t just luck, though, as suddenly, you were a threat for the title. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but even I have to question why it was that only three people from the final 6 were forced to draw from a hat to see who had to sing Memory from Cats. Why not all of you? Is it because they wanted their most expendable to sing it? I’m not going out on a limb to suggest neither David had to pull from the hat. “Yeah, let’s make the 21 year old construction science major from Texas sing this sappy song from a musical about cats.”
That was truly the beginning of the end, where we could see that you were beginning to accept your fate. You knew you weren’t wanted. And when Paula, usually your biggest fan, criticized a song before you even sang, we knew it was over for you. It was great that Ryan stood up for her the next night saying the rumors about her were untrue, but would it have killed anyone to publicly apologize to you for sabotaging your last song? There’s no way you could have done well with it, knowing that someone already hated it before you even stepped out on the stage.
As Chris Daughtry and Kellie Pickler will tell you, losing American Idol isn’t a bad thing. It’s sometimes better than being the runner-up, ask Bo Bice about that one. Enough people are upset about you leaving that I’m secure in the thought that we haven’t seen the last of you, or Michael Johns and Carly Smithson for that matter. Somewhere out there, there’s people that will treat you much better than this.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And the dreams that you dreamed of
Once in a lullaby Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly
And the dreams that you dreamed of
Dreams really do come true
Someday I’ll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney tops thats where you’ll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly
And the dream that you dare to, why, oh why can’t I?