Jason Castro was born on March 25, 1987 in Texas to Colombian parents Rene and Betsy Castro. He grew up playing drums and started learning guitar in college. He once played drums for rock band Charlemagn which was later on renamed to Keeping Lions. But, he never had any formal vocal training before auditioning in "American Idol" and sang in front of public only at church services.

In 2007, Jason decided to try out for "Idol" in a Dallas audition. He recalled what made him interested in taking part on the show, saying "I had watched Chris Daughtry do something different on the show and I started scheming, like, 'There hasn't really been anyone on Idol like me - a serious singer-songwriter who plays guitar."

He impressed fans with his rich tenor voice, distinctive looks and endearingly innocent charm and became judges' favorite along with David Cook, David Archuleta and Brooke White. He appeared on the show for the very first time during the Top 24 performance because there was legal restrictions on the songs he chose to perform.

During that first appearance, he brought his guitar and became the first "Idol" contestant to play an instrument on the stage of the singing competition. He also became the only participant to sing in three languages; English, Spanish and French. Before voted off the competition on the Top 4 result show, he was in the bottom three only once.

Jason returned to the "Idol" stage on the finale show. He was the only former contestant who was given a solo set. He performed a rendition of "Hallelujah" and helped boost the digital sale of the Jeff Buckley's cover version on iTunes. His performance led the revamped song land at No.1 on Billboard Hot 100 and gave Jeff his first chart-topping single on any chart.

Soon after the show was ended, Jason hit the road with the other Top 10 contestants for "American Idol Live! Tour". Post the traveling show, he moved to Los Angeles, began writing songs and eventually was signed to Atlantic Records. He is set to release a self-titled album "Jason Castro" on April 13, 2010 and headline a tour to support the record beginning April 17 the same year.