For Elliott (born Efraym Elliott) Yamin, 28, “American Idol” resulted in something more valuable than fame and fortune.
Yes, it gave him a terrific opportunity to develop a music career. And yes, it transformed a talented but untrained young man into a self-confident singer.
But the real change was deep; Yamin, who finished the fifth season of “American Idol” last spring in third place, discovered a critical part of his authentic self.
In his MySpace biography Yamin describes the feelings that performing evoke in him and speaks about the self-awareness those feelings have kindled.
“When you look out into the audience and see people singing along and smiling and laughing and crying, you feel an incredible connection,” Yamin wrote.
“The fact that you are able to move people that way is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever experienced. I thrive on it. When I’m on stage I’m home — I have a sense of belonging I’ve never felt before.
It feels like what I was born to do. It has put my whole life into perspective. I finally figured it out; I finally got it right: I’m a singer,” he wrote.
And Simon Cowell, the show’snotoriously hard to please judge, agreed. Last year, he said that Yamin had potentially the best male voice in the history of the show.
Yamin, who will appear at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater on Saturday, June 2, at 8 p.m., is the first Jewish performer to come this close to winning the “Idol” title in its six years on the air.
He is the eldest son of a Jewish father born in Baghdad and raised in Israel and an American Jewish mother born in Philadelphia and raised in Richmond, Va., he said in a telephone interview with The Chronicle last Friday.
Before last year, Yamin had not gotten many breaks in life. Not only did he lose most of his hearing in one ear as a result of multiple, serious childhood ear infections, he was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 16.
When he was a young teen, Yamin’s parents divorced and his father moved from Richmond, where the family had lived since Elliott was 10, back to Los Angeles, where Elliott was born.
Though his mother was once a professional singer and his family and friends had always acknowledged and supported his singing ability, Elliott hadn’t been able to find a way to develop his talent.
Dropping out of high school in his sophomore year (he later completed the equivalent of a high school diploma), he had spent more than a decade working in uninspiring dead-end jobs.
He has said repeatedly that he made the trip from Richmond to Boston to audition for “American Idol” because his friends encouraged him and because he “had nothing to lose.”
On March 20, 2007, almost a year after his “American Idol” season ended, Yamin released his debut album titled “Elliott Yamin.” Then on May 18, this year, he kicked off his first solo tour in Alexandria, Va., and he will tour through June, he told The Chronicle.
An unassuming person with a Southern drawl and an air of excitement and gratitude for the opportunities he’s enjoying, Yamin said that among the opportunities he’s been offered, he is honored by the chance to tour with the USO, which is, according to its Web site, a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide morale, welfare and recreational services to U.S. soldiers. “It’s our way of giving back to our country,” he said.
Yamin, who wears a diabetes pump, also wants to help young people, by teaching them about music and diabetes. Someday, he says, he would also like to be a good dad.
Yamin is proud of his Jewish heritage and religion and feels a connection to Israel, which he has visited twice, he said.
And as for being the “Jewish guy” on “Idol,” Yamin said, “There are a lot of Jewish people in this industry but not many of them are performers. [When I was on the show] I felt like I was making a lot of Jewish people proud.”
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