Lazaro Arbos, 21,
a native of Cuba who now resides in Florida, blew the nation away last week
with his rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s song “Bridges over Troubled
Water”. Arbos may seem like just another face in the crowd, but there is
something quite unique about this handsome heart throb – he has a speech
impediment that he’s been dealing with for years.
At the age of ten, Lazaro and his family moved to the United States where his
stuttering took a turn for the worse. His mother says, “When we got to the US,
his stutter got much worse to the point where he couldn’t speak and I had to
say everything for him.” Stuttering from the age of six, Lazaro and his family
struggled with his speech problem almost all his life. At one point, it was so
bad that he couldn’t speak at all. His family says they don’t know where the
problem originated. He went through therapy to try to improve his speech, but
no improvement showed after much treatment.
Lazaro’s stutter not only affected him at home, but also at school.
“No one wanted to hang out with me in school. Because I had no friends to go
out with, I came home,” Lazaro told Idol.
Although Lazaro
has struggled to fit in, he doesn’t let that get him down. He says, “I’ve
always taught myself even though it’s not going good now, but you can’t let
things get you down ‘cause you have to keep going.”
Despite his impediment, Lazaro found a way to communicate with the people
around him – through music. Lazaro’s only form of communication came from his
ability to sing.
“Normally when he wouldn’t be able to tell me something because of the stutter,
I would just say “Sing it to me. Sing it to me”, his mother says when
interviewed on Idol.
Lazaro added, “Ever since I was small, I’ve always wanted to sing.”
Lazaro never gave up on his passion, and that showed tonight as he made it
through the next round of the competition receiving a golden ticket to
Hollywood. Lazaro’s talent blew the judges away landing him with yeses from all
four of the judges. Lazaro’s dream won’t stop here though. America has already
fallen in love with him, and his voice!
We love Lazaro and hope to see him excel in this competition!
What do you think? Will Lazaro make it through the heat of the competition or
will he take down all of this other competitors? Find out on the upcoming
episodes of Idol continuing next Wednesday (January 30rd) at 8:00 EST.
