Biography
Early life
Born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Rowlett, Texas, he currently resides in Rockwall, Texas. His parents, René & Betsy, are Colombian, and he is the first person in his family to be born in the United States, followed by younger siblings Michael & Jackie. He plays guitar and grew up playing drums and didn't start singing until he was in college.Castro attended Rowlett High School and graduated in 2005. He was a member of the high school soccer team. Castro was a junior, majoring in construction science at Texas A&M University before auditioning for American Idol.Jason is an active Christian and he was in the 5th grade choir.
Musical career
Castro performed with rock bands named Charlemagne and Keeping Lions. He auditioned for American Idol in Dallas, Texas. He wasn't shown on the television series until the finals due to legal restrictions on the songs he chose to perform. He has stated that his musical influences include Ray LaMontagne and Kirk Baxley.He made some appearances on the MTV reality show Cheyenne and was also featured in Cheyenne Kimball's music video "Hanging On".
Reaction to "Hallelujah" performance
Castro's rendition of the song "Hallelujah" performed on American Idol -- combined with the judges' favorable comments -- propelled droves of viewers to the iTunes Store to download the Jeff Buckley cover of the Leonard Cohen song, which propelled it to the #1 spot on iTunes' singles chart. Buckley's version of the song sold 178,000 digital downloads in the week following Castro's performance, to debut at #1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart. According to the March 22, 2008 issue of Billboard Magazine this was the highest boost in digital sales a song had ever received after being performed by a contestant on American Idol. It was the first time Buckley's version of the song charted on a Billboard chart, as well as the first U.S. number one song on any chart for Buckley, who died May 29, 1997 at age 30.