Long Beach Man Heads to the "American Idol" Semifinals Tuesday

Fans continued to fill message boards on Facebook and all other social media Friday for Long Beach's Clint Jun Gamboa, who was named an American Idol semi-finalist Thursday night. Clint--or as he's called in a family home video, "June Bug," below-- is the one with big glasses.

He and the other contestants return Tuesday, when the males sing, Wednesday when the females sing, and Thursday the big reveal of who viewers picked airs Thursday.

Gamboa first wowed American Idol judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson in San Francisco a few weeks ago with his version of Billionaire.  http://youtu.be/KBk6lC7zJBcl

He told the judges that he learned to sing in gospel churches. In the biographical stretch with Idol host Ryan Seacrest that ran a couple weeks ago, Gamboa proudly talked about being from Long Beach and being a music host for a "dive bar'' karaoke night. Turns out the Royal Room visited in the clip is in Bellflower.

Here are some other You-Tubes of Gamboa, who competes next Tuesday.

A home video with Gamboa family members harmonizing to Apologize with only acoustic guitar, which is labeled "June Bug Gamboa-Filipino" and re-posted Friday:  http://clintjungamboa.blogspot.com/

Singing Journey's Faithful at a karaoke competition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atvVbV-JLf4&feature=related

After San Francisco came what's called Hollywood week, when the 300 contestants were whittled roughly in half, and sang a solo and then sang in a group. Gamboa sang Georgia on my Mind.  

While Gamboa may be a Karaoke King back home, he seemed to lose favor with some fans (and perhaps even some judges?) when he kicked the cherubic Jacee Badeaux out of his group, explaining that the 15-year-old's singing wasn't fitting with the rest.

Thursday night's program did not feature the singers in full solos, just snippets from this or that drama, including parts of the solo and--of course--capital-D drama.

Maybe he's more comfortable with it because, as he describes in the first sentence of his official Facebook fan page bio, "Clint is the male equivalent of a Diva. He sings with a powerful voice, and isn’t afraid of a karaoke machine. Even though this may sound like an insult to many American Idol contestants, Clint Jun Gamboa has won one of Southern California’s biggest karaoke contests, two years in a row. A title he secured thanks to a cover of Journey’s “Faithfully.”  One thing is for certain. Clint Jun Gamboa has a massive, powerful voice. A characteristic very unfamiliar to your typical karaoke singer. However, some critics cite troubles with his vocal range, suggesting that Clint Jun Gamboa needs to learn how to smooth out his voice in order to reach higher notes. Despite being labeled as a karaoke star, Clint Jun Gamboa is seemingly prepared for his role as a underdog on American Idol Season 10."

If you will be watching Tuesday night in Belmont Shore, where will you be watching, and are you cheering for Clint Jun Gamboa or another contestant?