Celebrity Interview: David Cook (American Idol Gives Back)

American Idol (TV) winner David Cook teamed up with the UN Foundation to help raise awareness for a very special feature on Idol Gives Back. The Emmy award-winning special has become a staple each season and to date has raised over $140 million which has benefited charities worldwide. On April 21, 2010, Idol Gives Back returns and international superstar David Cook is lending his help. In a recent interview, Cook, who was calling in from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, talked about his awe-inspiring trip, the remarkable people he met with, and how he feels that this trip will trickle into his music.

Why did you want to go and spend time there and call attention to the plight there?

I think, specifically, to come out here and work with the Biruh Tesfa School and the initiative set up by the U.N. and the U.N. Foundation, I wanted to be involved with this program specifically because women are the backbone of society, in my opinion. Every family has a matriarch, and they are the glue that holds that family together. You have to give these girls a basis. You have to give them a platform with which to start from. I don’t think anybody can deny that education plays such an important role just across the board. And the fact that that’s not a right for these girls, but in a lot of cases it’s a privilege, that’s pretty abhorrent. So that was a major mitigating factor for me. That’s why I wanted to get involved.

What were your first impressions of Ethiopia, and what surprised you most about the country or the people?

I have to say I was completely shocked by this country in an extremely positive way. When you hear Africa, I immediately think impoverished and everything that goes with that. But I came here, and the people here are so amazingly sweet. They are such nice people, very accommodating and get that we are out here trying to help. The city itself, Addis Ababa, is beautiful -- really lush, very green. It definitely has an infrastructure in place. I think it’s just a matter that they just need that kind of boost in the right direction.

Were there particular exchanges with specific girls you met that really drove home on a personal level what donations could bring to them?

Sure. Well, I actually got a chance to meet two girls in particular. One was a seven-year-old girl named Magnus. Both of Magnus’s parents have passed away, and she has been at the school for seven months. I think, obviously given the circumstances -- not having either one of her parents, she’s actually living with her aunt now -- to meet this girl and, forgive me, whatever I say about this girl is not going to come across over the phone as well as it will if you were to ever meet this girl. She is one of the most vibrant, joyous girls that I think I’ve ever met. The girls at the school genuinely want to learn. They want to have that education. They want to have that opportunity, and that’s inspiring to see a seven-year-old girl want to build a better future for herself. I remember being seven years old, and I didn’t have that foresight. These girls are wise beyond their years, and both fortunately and unfortunately they’ve kind of had to be.

Do you think that as awe-inspiring as this trip has been, will it find its way into the new music that you have been writing?

It would be really hard to fathom that it wouldn’t. I think anybody that isn’t completely self-absorbed, it’s impossible for them to come to this kind of a situation and not be moved by it and not be changed by it. To really drive home the fact that what these girls are dealing with -- girls that don’t get an education here are immensely more likely to fall into the sex trade or into domestic servitude and then that opens it up to so many other different things. HIV is one of the main killers here. And so, to see that firsthand, I would almost say it’s a definite that I am going to bring that back, and it will find its way into my career path.

Closing Remarks.

Bottom-line again just to reiterate what I said at the beginning. This has been an absolute honor to even be asked and to be able to come out and be involved and really see this kind of basis for a really big change. It’s been really inspiring and educational and definitely something I look forward to bringing back home. Thank you to everybody involved.