Jim Verraros

James Conrad Verraros (b. February 8, 1983) is an American singer/entertainer and native of Crystal Lake, Illinois who is most notable for being one of the top 10 finalists in the first season of American Idol. Because he was raised by deaf parents, he is fluent in American Sign Language. Jim is of Greek (father) and German, Irish, French and English (mother) descent. Verraros recently released his first internationally-released album Rollercoaster (2005), which has garnered a couple dance floor hits, including the Top 25 Billboard Dance Chart hit "You Turn It On." The album was produced and co-written by Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Gabe Lopez [1] and features four songs co-written by American Idol semi-finalist Angela Peel. The first openly gay contestant ever to be on the programme, Verraros quickly became a celebrity in the American gay press because of a controversy that erupted when Fox Broadcasting Company made him remove gay-friendly comments from his network-sponsored American Idol web site in the summer of 2002. In contrast, the winner of Pop Idol season one, AI's British parent series, was openly gay singer Will Young.