"American Idol" hopeful Jasmine Trias signed autographs for fans last night as she arrived in Waikiki for a public reception.
Trias spends whirlwind
2 days at home
"Reppin' Da 808." "Imua Jasmine."
"Hey Simon, We Do Have 5 Phones!"
That's how several of the many signs and banners conveyed their love and pride for 17-year-old Maryknoll School senior and "American Idol" contestant Jasmine Trias, as she made an emotional return to her campus yesterday morning while on a Fox network-sponsored whirlwind trip back to Honolulu.
She, her father and brother, and show producer Simon Lythgoe caught a red-eye flight back to Los Angeles last night, after Trias helped with a torch-lighting ceremony in Waikiki at the Duke Kahanamoku statue before hundreds of her adoring fans.
All the adulation comes after Trias became one of three finalists, along with Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo, for the national TV talent contest.
After Thursday's visits with acting Gov. James "Duke" Aiona and an autograph session at Tower Records Keeaumoku that lasted two hours, Trias said yesterday she got only four hours of sleep despite being in her own bed at the family's Mililani home.
But she certainly got an adrenaline boost when she stepped on campus before assembly started in the common area of Rogers Hall.
With a flower behind her right ear, and wearing a black stretch top, jeans with a belt with the word "JASMINE" in silver, and a pair of fuchsia leather "Bullit" pumps from designer Steve Madden, Trias looked very much the star among her uniformed schoolmates.
There were plenty of hugs all around before, during and after the assembly.
With a two-man TV crew documenting the event for Tuesday's show and all the local news media, yesterday's assembly included additional onlookers, including Maryknoll's board president, Al Wong.
"This is great for Jasmine, and great for the school, because it showcases one of our many talented students," he said.
Trias listened as school President Michael Baker told her and the crowd: "When I called you a celebrity of Hawaii the last time you were here, I might've shortchanged you, because you've truly become a celebrity of the entire country.
"While it was your talent that took you to Hollywood, it's your character that has kept you there," he said, to applause and cheers.
In her remarks, Trias was busting-out happy to be back in a familiar and supportive environment, as the beaming faces of her fellow seniors looked on.
After receiving a blessing led by the Rev. Marc Alexander, Trias was about to sing "The Power of Your Love" with the school's music ministry.
Lythgoe, home video camera in hand, motioned to high school Principal Betsey Gunderson on stage and told her that Trias was not supposed to sing at all on this trip, for fear of tiring her voice before returning to Los Angeles and the contest. But at the behest of Trias and the students, Lythgoe relented and gave Trias the OK.
With Trias singing the verses and the students joining her on the uplifting chorus, it made for the chicken-skin moment of the two-day trip. The moment brought tears to Baker and Gunderson, who shared a box of tissues.
Trias then led a rousing rendition of the school's alma mater, and after signing autographs for some schoolmates, it was off to radio station 1043XME at Pioneer Plaza downtown.
Earlier yesterday, Trias reacted to a question from deejays "Hawaiian Ryan" Matsumoto and Tanisha Carmichael at the 104.3 KXME radio station.
SHE PASSED through a gauntlet of fans in the hallway, receiving lei upon lei, leading into the on-air studio where personalities "Hawaiian Ryan" Matsumoto and Tanisha Carmichael were doing their morning show. The room was decorated with balloons and streamers, the walls covered with large white paper sheets with enthusiastic greetings from well-wishers as well as drawings by students from Ewa Beach Elementary.
During her 20-minute radio interview, Trias was at ease with two of her most vocal fans. Hawaiian Ryan and Tanisha peppered the freewheeling conversation with questions of all sorts, and Trias was at her diplomatic best.
Question: "Who was your favorite celebrity guest on 'American Idol'?""Jasmine Trias for president!" Hawaiian Ryan proclaimed.Answer: "Barry Manilow, because he really worked with us."
Q: "What was your favorite performance?"
A: "During Soul Week, the first week of the competition, when I sang 'Inseparable.'"
Q: "OK, be honest when I ask: Who do you prefer, Randy or Simon?"
A: Pause. "Paula!"
Q: "Clay or Ruben?"
A: "Tamyra Gray!" she said before dissolving into laughter.
Q: "If you weren't on 'American Idol' this season, who would you root for?"
A: "Camile."
Trias also briefly reiterated something she mentioned at the governor's office Thursday. She's lobbying to get the "American Idol" summer tour -- featuring the 10 finalists, including herself and Maui's Camile Velasco -- to make a Hawaii stopover during its trek through the mainland and Canada.
AS FOR what song she will perform on next week's crucial show (one of three that will include choices from a guest record executive and the three judges themselves), Trias said she was thinking of doing some "old-school Whitney (Houston)."
While Trias was signing more autographs after the interview, Lythgoe said she will be doing a lot of recording today back in L.A., "tracking the three songs she'll be singing, in rehearsals leading up to the show, plus start recording her first original single that will be released after the finals."
And he's hoping that Trias will make the final two, so he can return to the islands to set up a "big, camera remote shoot at her school that will be fed live to the East Coast telecast, starting at 2 p.m. that day."
Trias' trip ended with an evening visit to Waikiki that required a partial shutdown of Kalakaua Avenue. Neither rain nor wind stopped hundreds from coming to see Trias, who made an appearance with Mayor Jeremy Harris.
The turnout shocked even Trias, who was moved to tears.
"I'm in shock right now," she told a sea of people gathered at Queens Beach. "You guys have made my dream come true."
Families flocked to the beach in hopes of getting a glimpse of Trias. And at Kuhio Beach, Trias was greeted with hula, the mayor and more than 300 screaming fans.
"I think we ought to make her the next mayor," Harris told the crowd. "Your fans here have been waiting for hours in the rain."
Among those fans was 9-year-old Cherry Yamani, sporting a garbage-bag raincoat that city workers had offered to attendees when the rain came down.
"I am Jasmine's No. 1 fan," Cherry said, as she looked at her aunt, who was sitting in the sand huddled under an umbrella. "We want to see Hawaii's idol."
Trias arrived at Kuhio Beach about 7 p.m. in a sport utility vehicle limo. Bad weather foiled plans to have her come ashore in an outrigger canoe and ride in a horse-drawn carriage down Kalakaua Avenue to Queens Beach.
Robert and Bernadette Kea brought their two young children to see Trias. "Finally somebody from Hawaii is making us proud," Robert said.
Star-Bulletin writer Mary Vorsino contributed to this report.
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Much aloha, Jasmine
Hawaii's "American Idol" hopeful
wows her hometown fans in
a two-day return
Jasmine Trias was applauded by an adoring crowd yesterday morning at Maryknoll School, where she is a senior.
Jasmine Trias was greeted at Honolulu Airport Thursday by the press and a large crowd, including Flo Reis.
Jasmine posed for photos and hugged fans at a public reception in Waikiki last night.
Jasmine seemed a bit embarrassed Thursday afternoon in the governor's meeting room as Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona read a proclamation from Gov. Linda Lingle.
