Lazaro Arbos | American Idol Season 12

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.

Original article here