Why I Cheer Her On:: American Idol’s Brooke White

Not her best photo, but stunning nonetheless.

I haven’t talked “American Idol” in a while. It’s probably because I’m tired of getting those silly e-mails about how I’m a horrible person because I don’t like so and so or because I think this or that. I mean, really, it’s a T.V. show–there’s no need for all that hate.

While I like several contestants, there’s one that touches my heart in a special way and that is Brooke White. While she massacred one of my favorite Beatles songs, “Here Comes the Sun” on Tuesday night, I thought, it’s OK because it was Brooke. Still, when I watched the results show tonight I was afraid Brooke would wind up in the bottom three, or even worse, get kicked off the show. I doubt she’ll be the next “American Idol” but I believe she still has a way’s to go.

However, last week’s performance of “Let It Be” from the Lennon/McCartney Songbook was phenomenal. She was so infused with passion for the song and the music. She has a quality about her that makes my soul scream, “This is what it means to be a musician.” I would call her an “old soul” if I had any idea what that meant. Incidentally, “Let It Be” is a song that’s been very meaningful to me personally, so Brooke’s conviction echoed my own. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to her alto voice.

Here’s a video of Brooke singing “Let It Be”…

To truly appreciate Brooke is to truly appreciate singer/songwriters. She’s not the best singer on “American Idol” but she’s the most passionate, at least on most performance days. Plus, she can play guitar and piano, so her understanding of music and melody seems to run deeply through her veins. Truth be told, I’m usually wiping tears off my face as the judges give their critiques. She’s gentle, demure, and kind, but her ferocity comes through in her music–she is also a tempest of emotion and she feels deeply. It’s as if she takes every feeling she’s every had and throws all that energy into an performance. That’s how I felt when I watcher her sing, “Let It Be” last week.

Again, I wasn’t too crazy about “Here Comes the Sun”, but had to laugh when Simon said, “The performance was terrible from the horrible dancing to the…lack of conviction.” The dancing was pretty terrible, but it was uniquely Brooke. She knew she didn’t “nail”it and seemed at peace. Yet I cheered loudly when she was the first of the contestants to be named in the “Top Ten”.

Yet I await the week Brooke will be in the bottom three, and eventually she’ll go home and go on to do other incredible things. But it wasn’t this week, was it? Rock on, Brooke, in your singer/songwriter sort of way!