Jenna Foraker sat in the front row, her finger continually touching the headphone connected to her ear.
For Foraker and fans of her brother, “American Idol” contestant David Cook, Tuesday was an important night. As top three competitor, Tuesday was the night voters would decide if her brother would make it to the final round.
With so much on the line, Foraker didn’t skip a beat voting through the Bluetooth headphone connected to her cell phone.
“I’m optimistic without jinxing it,” Foraker said. “I don’t think anything is guaranteed.”
Although she was already in graduate school when her father married David’s mother, Foraker said the family is close, and she said she always had an idea David would go far with music.
“I always knew he was really talented,” Foraker said. “I knew if he wanted to he would be (successful in music).”
So the news that David and his younger brother Andrew were trying out for “American Idol” came as no surprise to Foraker, who lives in Lee’s Summit.
While only one of the Cook brothers made the cut, Foraker said Andrew is nothing if not happy for David.
“That’s just Andrew,” Foraker said.
Still the nearly overnight fame her brother is receiving does take some getting used to. For instance, when David returned to Blue Springs for a homecoming celebration last week, he had a body guard in tow.
But Foraker said like everything surrounding David and the show, she and her family have learned to accept things. She says the only thing that’s really changed about their family dynamic is they have more family meetings these days.
“We’re strategizing now,” Foraker said. “We’re all worried about how we’re going to get out there.”
Even though she feels an “overwhelming” sense of pride every time her brother steps on the “American Idol” stage, the fact that his sudden stardom hasn’t gone to his head, makes Foraker even more proud.
For her, the David she saw last weekend during his homecoming celebration is the same David she’s always known.
“To me he’s the same exact David he’s always been – slightly better hair,” Foraker said.
While David credits his family for keeping him grounded, Foraker said her brother does a good job keeping himself grounded – she said it’s just the way he was raised.
Fans got to see a lot of the grounded nature in David when he visited last weekend, a trip in which Foraker said her brother was running on pure adrenaline.
“He was so exhausted,” Foraker said about the limo ride back to his hotel following the Royals game. “He was loving every second of it. I think Andrew’s face said it the best. This is exactly what (David) wants to do with his life.”
David’s humility was evident during his visit Friday when his fans, more than once, moved him to tears. The head of his official fan club Angela Hart, neighbor of the Foraker family, agrees the competition hasn’t changed David.
“He was very excited,” Hart said of Cook last week. “I think he was just in awe disbelief of what that was,” Hart said. “I think he was taken back by the support. He was truly thankful.”
