Next up in our tour of the top 24 is Rudy Cardenas. Rudy, the son of Univision anchor Rudolfo Cardenas, is a 28 year-old originally from Venezuela but now calls North Hollywood home. Evidently Cardenas auditioned in both Memphis and Seattle with only his Seattle audition being aired. He very aptly chose a Journey song – “Open Arms”. For those that don’t know, Randy Jackson played bass guitar for Journey from 1983-1986; Cardenas was smart picking a song so near and dear to one of the judge’s hearts. He did a spectacular job but Simon Cowell cut him off and immediately said “It’s a no.” What? Wow. Thankfully Paula Abdul jumped in with a “one million percent yes”. Now it was up to Jackson – “Well, I do love the song, you know, it is an amazing song. I do think that you have a good voice” and with that gave his yes vote and Cardenas received his golden ticket. Watch his audition on YouTube.
Now Cardenas is no stranger to performing – he is a member of a group called M-Pact which is always touring plus has a CD available for purchase on their website. M-Pact has been called “one of the best pop-jazz vocal ensembles in the world” (San Francisco Chronicle) and has received numerous honors including Billboard’s Best Unsigned Band of 1999. Yes, M-Pact has been around for awhile. I wonder how the band is going to do on their tour without Cardenas as he’s going to be in Hollywood belting out the songs to try to make it to the top!