“Idol” star Syesha “Happy” and Ready to Move On

Posted May 15, 2008 by Walt Belcher

Updated May 15, 2008 at 02:25 PM

Syesha Mercado has no regrets about her “American Idol” experience and she’s ready to move on to greater things.

“In my eyes I am a winner,” she said in a telephone news conference today. “I am very, very happy and at peace….Only great things can come from now on out.”

The 21-year-old singer from Sarasota was the last woman standing and one of the top three finalists until Wednesday night. A record 56 million votes were cast and she came up short.

She says that she realized that she probably would be going home after Tuesday night’s performance when she “got too many bad comments from the judges.”

Even the usually complimentary Paula Abdul seemed disappointed. Mercado performed Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You,” Peggy Lee’s “Fever” and Gia Farrell’s “Hit Me Up.”

Of those three, she felt she did her best on “Fever.” She said that she had accepted her fate and decided to move on.

Last week, the Booker High School graduate made a triumphant return home. She was welcomed with parades, awards, accolades and a key to the city. Clips of her visit were shown on “Idol” Wednesday night.

“I can’t wait to get back to visit,” she says. “I want to go to Siesta Key and back to my school again and I want to see my friends and family.”

But it may be awhile before she returns because all of the top finalists perform on next week’s season finale and rehearsals begin for a summer “Idol” tour that launches in July (and stops in Tampa on Aug. 21).

Mercado says that the “Idol” experience taught her how to relax and enjoy performing instead of overworking and stressing out.
She says that while she is still evolving as an artist, she sees herself as a cross between Alicia Keys and Christine Aguilera. “I love pop and R & B,” she says.

As for her future, she wants to do it all: Broadway, a recording career, acting in films and television and even owning an organic food restaurant.

During the show, her father, Jose Mercado talked of how proud he is of her and mentioned that she was an inspiration for him to stay sober. Mercado has talked before about his battles with alcohol and drug abuse. She has said that he was in and out of her life.

“My dad is showing me that he is proud of me and one day he’ll make me proud,” she says, noting that his struggles made her a stronger person. “And it made me humble and really sad a lot of my life,” she says. “It made me more understanding and more tolerant.”

She says her father’s past does not determine who she is.

She can’t or won’t predict which of the final two will win the competition. “David Archuleta has a beautiful smile and makes a connection with the kids who watch” she says. “David Cook makes the girls go crazy; and the older women like him.  I am like a big sister to one and a little sister to the other.”