Rich "It's Your Love"

Quite a few people have asked for more video of Rich singing. So this is a song Mom *LOVES* to have him sing. And she sang backup for it :).

Rich - In top 5 at BYU-Idol

At the finals for BYU-Idol, after they all performed, they called out the top 5 (out of 15 finalists), and Rich was there in the TOP FIVE with 3 girls and one other guy!!! Then they called the top 3, and he didn't make it. But we were THRILLED anyway. Mostly he was competing against people who have had a lot of vocal training and are studying the performing arts, etc. Rich does none of that and just sings for fun, and we think he is *AWESOME*!! He definitely did NOT have a large family entourage like a lot of the other kids. PLUS, he is so "low key", he didn't want to beg people to come and cheer for him. He also had a roommate, Tyler, in the finals. Tyler has a GREAT voice too, and had a huge family group supporting him, but he did NOT make it to the top 5. So that shows that a lot of "other people not attached to Rich" cheered for him.

I think he would have done a LOT better with a different song selection. I did not know the song he chose at all, but he tells me it's a really popular song at dances, etc. It seemed a little "monotonous" to me, but what does an old mother know?! The biggest problem (that he did not anticipate) was that in his nervousness, the song was a little low for him. So that was a bit of a struggle. But even with the song selection, he was GREAT! They asked the top-5 to give their thoughts and Rich said something like, "I don't deserve to be up here - one of these other people behind me does. But (waving to the audience) Thanks a lot!"

This video is actually from his qualifying round and I love it!

We had to entertain a young woman from Venezuela who was here to work with Mark for a week, and she was there with us. I said I wished I could clone Rich, and she said, "When you figure that out, send three to Venezuela - One for me, one for my sister, and one for my best friend :)."