Richard Jason Helton (born May 17, 1981; as Rolando Alberto de Jesus Rivas, Jr.) is an American Contemporary Christian music artist, who first came to prominence as the fifth place finalist on the first season of American Idol. The first Wild Card contestant in the history of the series, they initially failed to reach the Top 10, but they were brought back by the judges to compete in the finals. In 2004, they released the album Real Life with GospoCentric Records, which peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Christian Music chart and number 19 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. Helton's song "My Devotion" was nominated for Urban Recorded Song of the Year at the 36th GMA Dove Awards in 2005.
Early life and background Helton was born in Pasadena, Texas, on May 17, 1981, as Rolando Alberto de Jesus Rivas, Jr., to a Nicaraguan father. Shortly after their birth, they were adopted and renamed Richard Jason Helton. At the time of Helton's American Idol appearance, their adoptive parents, Glen and Sue Helton, worked respectively as a vice president of Popeyes Chicken and as an administrative assistant for an architecture firm. From the age of three, Helton impressed their parents with vocal imitations of various music artists. They sang in church growing up and started performing in talent shows at age five. Soon after, they were enrolled in a performing arts school. By high school, they were involved in community theater. Before going on American Idol, they were a youth worship leader at their church.
When Helton first started performing music publicly as a child, they still lived in Pasadena, but their father's job caused the family to move frequently. Helton lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina when they were in middle school. They transferred schools about a dozen times until they were midway through ninth grade, at which time their family established long-term residency in the Atlanta area. They graduated from Central Gwinnett High School in 1999.
At age sixteen, Helton began performing in schools across the East Coast and the Ohio Valley, as part of a music tour that was sponsored by Reader's Digest. Helton performed over 150 shows on the tour, over the course of two years. Paula Abdul and the Backstreet Boys had both performed in earlier versions of that same tour at the start of their respective careers.
After high school, Helton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where they joined a Christian boyband called Soul Focus. While in Nashville, they also worked as a waiter. According to the bio on Helton's (now-defunct) official website, Soul Focus "was invited to tour with a major Christian artist." A 2004 profile on Helton published by CCM Magazine wrote that, around the time that Helton was in Soul Focus, "he went on the road for another artist, selling merchandise". By the end of 2001, Soul Focus had disbanded without a record deal. Helton then moved back to Atlanta, where, according to CCM Magazine, they worked as "a personal trainer and a gymnastics instructor for children." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that, before they went on American Idol, Helton "taught dance" at the YMCA in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Before moving to Nashville to join Soul Focus, Helton had recorded demo albums that, according to the Mansfield News Journal, had been "turned down by a few record companies." Helton later recounted their experiences in Nashville, saying, "I was kind of discouraged when I got back, but I've never been the type to just give up when I've got my sights set on something. I had learned a lot from the whole Soul Focus experience that really prepared me for things that were to come." Less than a week after resettling in Atlanta, Helton learned through a television commercial about the auditions for American Idol's first season.
In addition to Christian music, Helton was inspired by a variety of genres, including R&B, pop, and contemporary country. Around the time of their American Idol audition, Plus One, Jars of Clay, and India Arie were among their favorite artists. They have also cited Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Bryan White, Vince Gill, and Natalie Grant as some of their primary musical influences.
American Idol Helton auditioned for season one of American Idol in Atlanta. They were the first person to audition in the city. Their performance during the Top 30 semi-finals polarized the judges, causing Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson to break into a lengthy argument. Although the conflict was real, it was partially redubbed and also edited together with staged takes before going to air, so as to make it less heated. In his 2011 book, American Idol: The Untold Story, Richard Rushfield noted that even as the fight was sanitized for broadcast, American Idol "reveled in the altercation" and "was all but turned over to repeating the clips". Rushfield identified this as a defining moment in the early history of reality television, writing, "All of a sudden, here was this renegade show, American Idol, that was celebrating its backstory, playing up its frictions, and openly acknowledging its missteps. Every tabloid brouhaha would be played up on the Idol stage rather than being shoved under the carpet. It was completely unprecedented in American programming."
Although not voted through to the Top 10 during the semi-finals, Helton was chosen by the judges as the season's only Wild Card finalist. While participating in a photo shoot during the first week of the finals, they fell off a stage and was briefly hospitalized. Helton's performances throughout the finals continued to divide the judges, and they were voted out of the competition in fifth place. A week after they left the competition, Q100 radio hosted a homecoming party for Helton at the Mall of Georgia.
The 2005 book Uncloudy days : the gospel music encyclopedia by Bil Carpenter summarized Helton's time on American Idol by writing, "Though he has a pleasant, smooth vocal, he was criticized by the judges for having a somewhat stiff and wooden stage presence." Carpenter called Helton "A well-mannered, humble Christian" and felt that these attributes were not always appreciated by the media. Burt Bacharach, who mentored each finalist during Top 5-week of the competition, complimented Helton as having "a real sweetness about his persona".
During the competition, Rodney Ho of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that Helton "exudes an enduring innocence". He further called Helton a "sweet teenybopper favorite" who had "shown surprising strength in the competition" and praised Helton's performance of the Stevie Wonder song "Superstition". However Ho also considered Helton less attention-grabbing than some of the other finalists from American Idol's first season. While Kevin D. Thompson of The Palm Beach Post expressed admiration for Helton's ability to rise above Simon Cowell's criticism, he concurred with Ho a few weeks into the finals that Helton was likely to be overshadowed by some of the other competitors. By the Top 6 round, Zap2It called Helton one of the "longshots" to win the competition. Richard L. Eldredge of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution considered Helton's elimination from the series a "surprise", noting that Helton's performance during Top 5-week had been well received. Ho disagreed, expressing the view that Helton was an underdog who had "lasted longer than many expected".
During their time on American Idol, Sharon Waxman of The Ottawa Citizen called Helton a "heartthrob", while Carla Hay of Billboard described them as a "singer with teen Idol looks". An article published by Northwest Florida Daily News at the time likened Helton to The Backstreet Boys. Further boyband comparisons came from Dana Gee of The Province, who wrote that Helton had that "cross between Joey Fatone and Lance Bass thing going on", Julie Hinds of the Detroit Free Press, who wrote that Helton possessed "the peppy personality of a boy-band star", and Jessica Shaw of Entertainment Weekly, who upon Helton's elimination from the competition wrote, "I'm sure there are a few prayer-loving teens who are weeping their eyes out, but the rest of us know what Simon knew all along: This guy was barely good enough to be a boy-band understudy." John Benson of the Mansfield News Journal described Helton instead as "falling somewhere between Boyz II Men and Craig David". Tom Conroy of US Weekly compared Helton to Jon Secada, writing that the two singers shared "the same endearing humility, brimming passion and sturdy-but-not-flashy vocal style."
Performances WeekThemeSongOriginal artistResultAuditionFree Choice"Never Can Say Goodbye"The Jackson 5AdvancedHollywoodFree Choice"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay"Otis ReddingAdvancedSemi-final Group 3Free Choice"I'll Be There"The Jackson 5Wild CardWild CardFree Choice"Lately"Stevie WonderAdvancedTop 10Motown"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)"Four TopsSafeTop 81960s"Under the Boardwalk"The DriftersSafeTop 71970s"Superstition"Stevie WonderSafeTop 6Big Band"I Won't Dance"Fred Astaire & Ginger RogersBottom 2Top 5Burt Bacharach Love Songs"Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)"Christopher CrossEliminated
Music career
2002–2003: American Idol tours and related projects Helton returned to American Idol shortly after their fifth-place finish on the series to perform a group medley during the season one finale and to participate in the two-hour American Idol in Las Vegas TV special. Through October and November 2002, they joined their fellow finalists from that season of the series as a performer on the American Idols Live! Tour. During that tour, they reprised their performance of the Stevie Wonder song "Lately", which they'd performed on American Idol during the wild-card round. Helton also recorded "Lately" for the compilation album, American Idol: Greatest Moments, which charted at number four on the Billboard 200. USA Today considered Helton's track to be one of the album's highlights, describing it as "a sweetly affecting cover".
Shortly before the 2002 American Idol tour, The St. Petersburg Times reported that Helton was "talking to record labels" and pursuing a career in Christian music. On November 28, 2002, Helton performed during the lighting of Macy's Great Tree at the Rich's department store in Atlanta's Lenox Square. By the end of 2002, Helton had established a deal to appear alongside other American Idol finalists in commercials for Old Navy. Throughout the Spring of 2003, Helton participated in Coca-Cola's Behind the Scenes With American Idol promotional tour, in which he and a selection of other finalists from the first two seasons of the series performed across the country in shopping malls owned by the Simon Property Group. In May of that year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Helton had been cast "in a local independent film" titled Mrs. Johnson. That June, Helton performed at the Southeast Emmy Awards and in a benefit concert for community service organizations in Forsyth, Georgia. Towards the end of 2003, Helton participated in The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference.
2003–2005: GospoCentric Records