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Guest blogger Brooke White explains the Sinatra ’sweet spot,’ offers fifth-place wisdom

By dannygokeyfansite on | From dannygokeyfansite.com

Brooke White doesn’t have a lot of time to watch “Idol” these days,
what with her recent travels to Europe, gigs at the Hotel Café and
beyond (like her upcoming show with fellow Season 7 finalist Michael Johns in Saratoga, Calif.), as well as long days spent working on songs for her second
album. But at Idol Tracker’s request, Brooke made a date with her
television set so she could bring back this report as our guest blogger — coincidentally on the same week in the competition when she was
eliminated. Read on for Brooke’s take on Sinatra night and a little fifth-place wisdom…

First and foremost, I thought it was an interesting Tuesday night, but right
off the top, you could tell it was going to be a really challenging
one. There’s the whole layout of the stage, and Harry Connick Jr. and
his incredible band, who are doing their thing. The contestants had to
work toward fitting into that thing and finding that swing. Plus, no
instruments, which means less artistic license.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Harry Connick on "Idol." And I've been a fan my whole
life. I had the “When Harry Met Sally” soundtrack as a kid, and I've had
other albums since. He's so beyond talented. He looked like he may have
been a little nervous at the very beginning – you can’t blame him, it's
such a big stage and overwhelming atmosphere – but he was a fantastic
mentor. And I think having him on stage was kind of comforting, because
he was there with you for the rehearsal. He has a very down-to-earth
nature to him that I really liked. He's amazing and a great choice for
mentor, in my mind. Plus, I loved seeing the rehearsal!

And I felt like the judges were pretty good on Tuesday night. There have been
times when I've thought the judges were pretty off-base, but I found
myself agreeing with a lot of what they said, and I thought Ellen had a
good balance of funny and constructive criticism.

At this point in Week 5, blink and it's over. This is getting very
serious, because you're two away from getting to the Top 3 spot,
which means the hometown visit. To me, that looked so amazing and
beautiful — to get to go home and share it with your community. I wish
I could have done that. But the farther you go, something happens to you
where it starts getting not good enough. When you hit that Top 5 mark,
that's when look back on where you started and it seems unfathomable
that you could've made it week after week after week. Emotionally and
mentally, stuff really sets in, and you just have to hold it together
and do your best. Then again, this was the week I got eliminated, but
we had to do two songs.

Going first was always the dreaded spot, and Aaron Kelly had it. He’s a
sweet kid and has a really nice voice, but those initial jitters of
just getting out there and setting the tone for the stage, it did not
quite have the charisma. I think the judges ended up saying something
to that effect. He has talent, but just the emotional talent is
lacking. It’s an age thing, but it doesn't mean that he can't get it
right. He's got some experience to look ahead to, some marinating to do — that's a good thing.

Casey James I've heard good things about because my mom kind of likes
him. When he started singing, through, the tone of his voice, I felt
like he was not comfortable. I think he was trying to fit himself into
this situation, but it wasn't his thing. When they mentioned the
sustain, like he never holds a note, I can tell that belting out a
tune is not for him. He’s not “an ‘American Idol’ singer,” but he did
what he could with the situation. Regardless of whether he was super
comfortable with the song — I’m not sure that he was — I could tell he
was comfortable with himself, and I really like that about him.

As for Crystal Bowersox, I felt like she was quite natural and
understated. I could see that she wasn't belting it out, but I really
appreciate what she said: that it didn't call for it. While you’re
standing up there, it’s a very unreal feeling, but my natural tendency
was to just want to talk to the judges, have a conversation about it,
like, “OK, those are your thoughts, here are my thoughts.” It was never
to get back in their faces or be disrespectful, or not receive
criticism well, but just to let them know kind of what it was like for
me up there. And I felt that from Crystal. She’s not trying to be
sassy, she’s just saying what she feels, and I know that sometimes
irritates America, from what people have told me, but I don’t think
that people should be so harsh on them for saying their thoughts about
what they just had to do. I think it's OK to be real and honest, as long
as you're respectful and don't have a big attitude.

With Big Mike, as soon as I heard him talk, I could tell he was in his
zone and he's going to do fine. This night was for him. I felt like
there was a beginning, a middle and an end in his arrangement. The song was
dead-on for him, there wasn't a lot of coaxing to get into this zone –
he was in his element and very natural. He commanded it, he was
comfortable, he was just good.

Lee gets the gold star for the night, and I felt that way in the first
two lines of the song. Actually, I felt that way in his package piece
that ran before he went on stage. Here’s why he gets the gold star: For
one, he was somehow able to find a sweet spot in his vocal style where
I could completely hear him as an artist. That's the magic, and I would
say it definitely happened for him. Lee’s voice was independent of the
night’s style but still stood out, regardless of the style.

Siobhan probably would've done excellent this week too — and that's the hard part about the show: People go home too soon.

As far as when to adapt and when to stay true to yourself, they're both
highly important on “American Idol.” As an artist in the real world,
you're not going to be asked to sing 20 different styles, although you
might on occasion be asked to do something like what I did couple weeks
ago on “Idol” where I came back to sing an Elvis tune as a duet — that
was one of those situations that called for you to adapt. When you’re
able to both adapt and be true to yourself, that’s when the stars align
and something magical happens. At that point, you just have to be
grateful that you were able to find that sweet spot because it's either
hard or easy, but there's no middle ground.

– Brooke White

Follow @realbrookewhite and @IdolTracker on Twiiter

Photo: Brooke White poses on the red carpet at the "American Idol" Season 8 finale in May 2009. Credit: Gregg DeGuire / PictureGroup

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