Brooke White, the willowy 24-year-old from Mesa, Ariz., was sent home Wednesday night. But with so few left, it wasn’t a huge shock. The judges seemed consistently iffy about Brooke’s folk-pop style in recent weeks, with Simon Cowell actually describing one of her Neil Diamond performances Tuesday as “a nightmare.”
Paired in the bottom two with Syesha Mercado, Brooke said at one point that she was in “that happy, grateful mood” no matter what happened. But the results at the end of the hour brought on some heavy tears from the contestant who has cried consistently on results nights throughout the competition.
The bigger shock came at the very beginning of the show when Ryan Seacrest informed Jason Castro that he was safe, despite a week that could best be described as tepid. It’s the dreadlocks, isn’t it? And that cute look of bafflement and naiveté? And maybe a public vote of sympathy after Paula Abdul’s strange double judgment of his single performance the night before.
But there were several happy surprises to pad out the cruel hour.
First Happy Surprise: Guest vocalist Natasha Bedingfield gave David Archuleta a big ol’ hug and a kiss. (Ryan joked that David might ask her to the prom.)
Second Happy Surprise: One of the night’s call-in questioners turned out to be a woman named Tara Miller, who kissed 9-year-old Simon back when they were growing up in England. Do you know her?
Third Happy Surprise: Mr. Neil Diamond himself. Despite looking like an old sailor, he was in fine, gravelly form singing his new single, “Pretty Amazing Grace.” –Tom Gliatto
Tell us: Did America make the right decision in sending Brooke home? Will you miss her?
F Micelotta/American Idol 2008/Getty
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