While traveling around the United States with the
American Idols LIVE! 2011 Tour, Season 10’s seventh place finalist,
Stefano Langone,
hopped on the phone with us to talk about his favorite places on the road, the fans, and more.
One of the first stops on the tour was in Stefano’s home state: Washington. “Performing in my home state was great,” Stefano shared. “I got a huge response there, it was so cool. Just to know that you have real fans and people that have been supporting you the whole way from your hometown is such a great feeling…I really have family and friends on the whole west coast. All my family is from San Jose; I’m from the Bay Area, Santa Clara Valley. So I had people at the Sacramento show, people at the San Jose show. At the San Jose show I had actually over 250 people there, more than were at the concert in the town where I was born. It was all the Langones!”
An Idol Community member wanted to know about Stefano’s most memorable fan moment. He shared, “It’s funny because one time I had some Twitter fans that really wanted me to give them a shout out on television. I was like, ‘There’s no way in heck that I can do that.’ So they were like, ‘Okay, wink or do something cool.’ So what I did was I did an ear tug after one of my performances on the live show, and it was a shout-out to some of my fans. It was just a shout-out to the people I know really care; the people who are real fans. It’s just one of the things on the long list of cool fan moments.”
The fans have also given Stefano some cool gifts during the tour meet-and-greets. “I’ve been getting some amazing gifts—scrapbooks, letters, I got a really cool dog tag with my initials, and just really cool stuff. I’m definitely not opposed to gifts, but it’s always weird accepting stuff from someone you don’t really know and have no idea even what their name is, but it’s a pretty cool experience.”
Of all the places Stefano has traveled with the tour, what places has he enjoyed the most? “I have really enjoyed Arizona, we were there for a day and it was gorgeous,” Stefano recalled. “You know what? Actually, Nashville was my favorite. I’m going to put that out there right now. Nashville was so awesome, the town was awesome, the people there were cool. It was just a great energy and a great feeling. I have a feeling that I’m going to really have a lot of fun in Chicago and New York.”
American Idol is currently auditioning talent for Season 11, and Stefano offered up the following advice to the contestants: “Just be confident and know what you have. They want to see a real performer. They want to see someone who is comfortable in their shoes and can go out and show everything they have. That’s really the best advice I can give. And best of luck to everybody that’s going out there and auditioning!”
To all of Stefano’s fans, he says, “Thank you so much for the support. Stick with me because I’m going to be sticking with you. Be ready for the album. Go buy that album when it comes out. And keep it safe.”
When we asked how the tour was going, Stefano seemed to be distracted by some of the tour bus shenanigans and said, “The tour is going great. I’m having a blast and enjoying – oh my God if you could only see what is going on right now. The guys, oh my god! Sorry, I cannot repeat what is going on. It’s pretty wild, we’re pretty crazy (background laughter). Just know that we’re insane.”