Top 12 Profiles: Didi Benami

Name: Didi Benami

Hometown: "A little place I like to call...Los Angeles." (or as those stupid commercials from Disney Channel & the Brothers Who Must Not Be Named proclaim, "LA, LA, bab-ay...")

Age: 23

Place: 10th (gah!), eliminated during R&B/Soul Week

Best Semifinal Performance: Her intimate, delicious Top 16 week take on "Rhiannon" beats out her fine version of "The Way I Am" during Top 24 Week. It catapulted her into the finals, showed her smooth, distinctive vocals, and really just rocked (in an acoustic fashion).

Best Finals Performance: "Play With Fire" during Rolling Stones Week (wow, so far the first 3 finalists eliminated have had their best performances during the night where they all took on the Stones. Who would have thought?). Fiery (haha, pun :) ), committed, perfect. It really showed what Didi was capable of (sadly, that made things to come much, much more harder...).

• The Early Days: The audition rounds were nearly devoid of Didi's sparkling presence and loads of talent...that is, until the quite-glorious "The Best of The Rest"/"Road to Hollywood" episode where the producers actually decided to give us an hour of singing that was primarily good. (What a concept...)  Didi's audition of "Hey Jude" was beautiful...her tone was quirky but excellently controlled, her phrasing was unique but not awkward, her pitch was next to flawless, and she really made a strong impression with just a short snippet of a song. (The fact that Simon was unmoved by this, and flippantly gave Didi a "very small 'yes'" was nothing short of criminal. It's times like these that remind me that having Mr. Cowell gone now is not so bad.) Didi did end up bursting into tears afterwards, and her audition segment did end up feeling like it was dragging on too long, but that's the darn judges/producers' fault, and not poor Didi's (hello, she was auditioning for something that could change her life...and her friend just died, and she was singing for her...I definitely was willing to cut the girl some slack). Things only got better with Didi's truly revelatory take on "Terrified," a gorgeous Kara DioGuardi/Jason Reeves-penned tune that Katharine McPhee had released just a little bit earlier. Didi took no prisoners with her confident, stunning rendition. Finally, her last Hollywood Week performance, "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan, was not as flat-out terrific as her other two previous tunes, but it was still a nice choice by Didi, and it continued her 3-for-3 record going into the semifinals.
• Top 24 Week ("The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson): Beautiful, assured, and wonderfully nuanced, with a nice, intimate arrangement. (I don't even want to think what this would have been like with a 'full-band' treatment...aieee...) A little tiny bit flat at some points, but I thought Didi really nailed it (and introduced hopefully a good segment of the public to the terrific songcraft of Ingrid Michaelson...VIVA LA INGRID!), and the fact that it was a very current song choice was very wise on her part. Simon's whining about the number being 'indulgent' (oh, please let his replacement NEVER utter that pointless word) and a little public disdain about how it wasn't all that and a bag of chips definitely soured a bit of the momentum Didi should have gained, but she still moved on to the next round, and it was an excellent way to start off her semifinal run. 
• Top 20 Week ("Lean On Me" by Bill Withers): OK, just listened to this again on YouTube for the first time since March...and I was surprised at how much better I liked it than back then. I still noticed Didi had a few pitch and control issues (she went flat and a bit all over the place at a few moments) this time around, but her performance sounded much more cohesive and it worked a lot better hearing it again. So I actually like it now. It showed a different side of Didi's vocals (a side that she polished and presented much more effectively two weeks later with "Play With Fire"), and it was miles better than quite a few of the other contestants. The fact that the judges tore it to shreds (example: what was with Randy's stupid, patronizing "Hey, how ya doin', it's American Idol, yeah!" intro to his critique? ugh...) was lamentable. Then, I kind of agreed with it, sadly. Now, I look back on it with sadness as well...but because I didn't quite give it enough credit then. What were you 4 guys on behind the table? (Danny Gokey juice? OK, sorry, I couldn't resist...)
• Top 16 Week ("Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac): For once, I actually don't have much to say beyond what I said that week. Roll the tape:  "I'm not of the persuasion that thinks that Didi should stick herself in a guitar-slinging 'coffeehouse' corner and stay there (haughty pigeonholing is strictly verboten in my book), but I have to admit tonight's return to her cozy acoustic roots was very welcomed on my part. Her finger-picking, delicious cover of "Rhiannon" was truly excellent, driven by smooth, almost perfectly on-pitch vocals and a subtle reimagining of the tune. Like her very good take on "The Way I Am" two weeks ago, Didi fiddled with the melody in the best way, and adding onto the skills displayed in that performance, she really brought some understated life into the song. I audibly expressed my joy at multiple points while she was singing." So, to recap, it was an excellent return to form for Didi, I loved it to pieces, and to add, it was just at the right time...it propelled Ms. Benami to a well-deserved spot in the Top 12. Definitely a "moment" for Didi.
• Top 12 Night/Rolling Stones Week ("Play With Fire"): To this day I can still distinctly remember, with no effort at all, Didi's top-notch version of this Stones tune (one that, like nearly all of the songs that night, I did not know)...granted, I've listened to both the recording and the studio version quite a bit since then, but still, Didi really made her mark with this performance that really had its fair share of fire. Her vocals were spot-on. She attacked her lines with the fury of a cobra (let me know if that analogy doesn't quite work...), yet it sounded effortless. And her phrasing was brilliant. BRILLIANT, I tell you. (OK, I'll try to keep my fanboy urges down a wee bit...) With the previous week's excellent take on "Rhiannon," Didi made a case for herself as a top 12 finalist. With "Play With Fire," Didi made a case for herself as an "American Idol" winner. (These were the glorious days when a Siobhan/Crystal/Didi final three was still a grand possibility, as I noted in my recap then. See below for how that wonderful dream fell apart, due to the unbearable cruelty of Idol's voting public. :/ )
• Top 11 Night/Billboard #1 Week ("You're No Good" by Linda Ronstadt, most famously): Like I began my revisiting of Paige Miles' semifinal trainwreck of "Smile" during last week's profile, I shall start off this section with the phrase, "and this is where things got ugly." But this time, I'm not talking about the performance...I'm talking about the judges. Didi pulled off a fine version of this (admittedly 30+ years old, but still dang good) Linda Ronstadt hit, complete with an excellent, swing-driven rearrangement, and very convincing and charming interplay with the bassist, and yet the judges attacked her for it. I thought it was a strange but still very good song choice (it fit Didi's voice like a glove), and she performed it extremely well. Kara, Simon, Ellen, and Randy going to town on it (and Simon even went for the obvious, unfunny pun that it was "no good") was highly unwarranted. And it only was a sign of things to come...
• Top 10 Night/R&B-Soul Week/The Week That Brandon Wept ("What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin): Like this. The week that it all ended. The week that Didi, by far one of the best voices in the competition that deserved nothing less than a 3rd-place finish (and perhaps even more than that), was eliminated without even a tear by a merciless voting public obsessed with scratchy Lee, "cute" Tim, and high-schooler Aaron Kelly rather than actual talent and vocal ability. OK, so I'm going off on a tangent right now. Let's return to what I thought of the performance, shall we? I liked it. Back then, I was a bit ambivalent on it. But listening to it now, and listening to it afterwards (on my iPod, baby), and all that...it just clicked. I saw it as emotionally powerful and committed rather than over-the-top and dramatic. I saw her liberties with the melody as artistic rather than demonstrations of how Didi was supposedly 'lost.' (And let's not forget that this was the infamous critique where Simon decided to bash the hard-working "Dancing With The Stars" singers. For the third time in this recap, I must proclaim that I am glad to see that bratty little Brit gone.) The pitch was there. The emotional investment (which definitely was missing from a lot of performers this season) was there. The distinctive, powerful vocals were there as well. Didi laid it out all out on the stage, and yet she was roundly criticized for it. And on top of that, $#%!ing Ryan Seacrest had to go and hunt for Didi's tear ducts with an awkward, painful, bordering-on-cruel Q-and-A afterwards when he kept digging at Didi, asking why she had picked that particular song (Didi, for her part, wisely and impressively chose not to give in and resisted any crying/fishing for votes). Next night, America sent her home, and even after a beautiful reprise of Didi's shining moment with "Rhiannon," the judges refused to save her (yet they used the save the very next week on Michael Lynche...ugh). Shameful, "Idol." Simply shameful.

Do I think Didi should have made it to the finals? Um, I think you might have been able to gather the answer to that by now...

Do I think she deserved the place she got? Ya think??? Nope. Didi's way-too-early ouster was yet another criminal moment in Season 9. (Plus, she was the third girl in a row to get sent home. What is with teeny-bopper's irrational hatred of female vocalists??)

Will I buy her CD, whenever it comes out? Like heck I will. And it had better come out soon. Didi deserves nothing, and I repeat NOTHING, less.

Top 12 Profiles: Paige Miles

Name: Paige Miles

Hometown: Naples, FL

Age: 24

Place: 11th, eliminated during Billboard #1 Week

Best Semifinal Performance: All 3 of them weren't that great, but I would probably say it would be the performance that opened the live shows of Season 9, her take on Free's "All Right Now." I panned it mercilessly then, but now, looking  back at the lamentable 2 weeks she had afterwards, it sounds actually kind of good, in a certain way.

Best Finals Performance: Definitely "Honky Tonk Women," her Rolling Stones Week selection. Even though it had major issues (and Paige was, you know, kind of suffering from laryngitis...), it was still miles, miles, MILES (for once, that was an accidental pun :) ) better than the trainwreck that was "Against All Odds," Paige's second and last performance in the finals.

• The Early Days: Paige was one of the poor souls who didn't get a whiff of screentime (save for an unfortunate few seconds as part of one of the dueling "Bad Romance" groups during Hollywood Week) prior to her live show debut (and they made her go first, no less), but in her interview package before her Top 24 performance, they did show a little of her final Hollywood solo, a fairly solid take on "Living For The City" (though not as amazing as Siobhan Magnus' version of the same number during the same stage of the competition...but that's for later...).
• Top 24 Week ("All Right Now" by Free): Not the best way to make a first impression...and I'm referring to both Paige and "American Idol" season 9 in general. Like I said above, listening to it now, it sounds much better and a little less all over the place, but still...Paige's low range was about 10% vocally accurate, and she didn't quite have control over her notes. It was a fairly interesting song choice (yeah, then I didn't dig it, but I've changed my tune a bit), but it didn't quite click with me, and it was, unfortunately, a foreboding sign of things to come...
• Top 20 Week ("Walk Away" by Kelly Clarkson): Another number that sounds much better now than when I heard it previously (I definitely don't remember Paige hitting this many notes, but I guess my memory was faulty, as usual), but also another number that was 1-800-Underwhelming. Some parts were actually kind of good, and then some parts (like the unwieldy ascent to should-have-been-a-glory-but-it-didn't-really-get-there-note towards the ascent) were bordering on painful. Yet again, Paige displayed major vocal control issues (something that may, as I have learned since then, have been because she was battling vocal health issues...yikes).
• Top 16 Week ("Smile", the jazz standard): And this is where things got plain ugly. The song started off pleasantly enough...with some tasty jazz piano and (I don't usually notice these things, but it stood out to me at first) a nice look by Paige. But then she started singing, and it didn't go well at all. She went flat almost every other line. She sounded thin. There were a few scandalously botched melismas. There was a weird shift into a bossa-nova feel (that Randy, of all people, correctly identified...I almost wanted to hug him at that moment). And she stayed chained to her mike stand, looking as if she was about to cry. (That part was sad. On a few levels...) It was literally hard to watch (also on a few levels), which, given the fact that the song is called "Smile" and its lyrics are meant to be somewhat uplifting (sure, it can be sad and introspective, and great versions in that vein have been done, but in the end it's telling everyone to "smile"), was a pretty bad sign. The fact that Paige gave this kind of lackluster, ghastly performance in the deciding week of the semifinals should have made her elimination the next night a no-brainer. She simply hadn't done much of anything in her 3 chances to wow the voting public that merited an inclusion in the Top 12. Sadly, she went on instead of Katelyn, and the world wept.
• Top 12 Night/Rolling Stones Week ("Honky Tonk Women"): Who'd have thought Paige would have given one of her best performances on a night that she was battling laryngitis? But she did, and while it was not even close to approaching amazing, and the fact that she landed in the Bottom 2 the next night was still fairly deserved, it was probably her shining moment in the competition. She worked the stage well, she coaxed a few more correct notes out of her lower register (and a little more of a soaring, on-pitch quality in her upper register), and it actually kind of worked. (Emphasis on "kind of." Small steps, small steps.)
• Top 11 Night/Billboard #1 Week ("Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" by Phil Collins): It's nice that Paige had a chance to shine during Stones Week. Because in her following performance, she subsequently crashed, burned, and flat-out bombed on an uninspired Phil Collins tune (one that has been oft-covered on the "Idol" stage). Even listening to it now, I'm pretty sure Paige hit a total of about 10-12 notes the whole song, tops. (That's not much of an exaggeration.) Randy (oh, heavens, why is he the only judge I've mentioned so far?) actually had a moment of conciseness and accuracy when he said that it was "honestly terrible." Again, since that night I have watched Paige's fascinating "Idolatry" interview on EW.com, in which she explained her voice wasn't in good shape at all and thus it affected her performance, but still...ouch.

Do I think Paige should have made it to the finals? Nope. She wasn't impressive, consistent, or just plain good enough to earn her spot. The fact that she did end up getting it over much more talented singers (Katelyn, Lilly, and Janell, anyone?) was rather lamentable, and was one of the first injustices of a long and awkward season.

Do I think she deserved the place she got? Actually, to tell the truth, no. Although "Against All Odds" was indeed her worst performance (and one of the worst in "Idol" history, while we're at it), and Paige hadn't really delivered at all so far, she at least had an intriguing voice under all that inconsistency, bad song choices, pitch issues, and vocal health problems. The guys, on the other hand, for the most part...didn't. So the fact that America sent yet another female packing for the second week in a row was not that great.

Will I buy her CD, whenever it comes out? It depends. Paige actually got a prime chance to show off her recovered voice on Finale night, when during the girls' Christina Aguilera medley, she sang the heck out of "Fighter." It was by far her best vocal on "Idol," and, in a first, I actually loved it. (Her "Living For The City" performance on "David Letterman" deserves honorable mention as well.) So I'm curious to see what she comes up with in the future. Unfortunately for Paige, given her 11th-place slot, exclusion from the tour, and general downward trajectory on "Idol," that might be a while coming.

Top 12 Profiles: Lacey Brown

Name: Lacey Brown
Hometown: Amarillo, TX
Age: 24
Place: 12th, eliminated during Rolling Stones Week
Best Semifinal Performance: Definitely "The Story" during Top 16 Week.
Best Finals Performance: It's a hard choice here...OK, obviously she only had one chance to sing during the finals, and that was her pleasant, string-quartet-a-licious take on the Stones' "Ruby Tuesday."

• The Early Days: Lacey showed some great promise early on with her beautiful audition of "Over the Rainbow." It was twangy, soaring, and warm, and it showed off the kind of distinctive vocals that don't usually get very far on "Idol." It was kind of a cross between a jazzy tone and a folky one, if that makes any sense. She was a bit breathy and I wasn't completely on board with her phrasing choices, but when I first saw Lacey sing this song during the "Road To Hollywood" episode (AKA The Episode That Actually Had More Good Than Bad Auditions For Once :) ), I was very intrigued. Lacey only built on that potential & promise with a simply lovely take on "What A Wonderful World" during the Hollywood rounds. Way back when I made my post summarizing my takes on the Top 24 and what they had done so far, I wrote that it was "truly mesmerizing." When I watched it over again just now, that's pretty much the same impression I had. Pitch-perfect, unique, and heartfelt...just how it's supposed to be.
• Top 24 Week ("Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac): Lacey Brown and "Landslide." By all accounts, it should have worked. Lacey's earthy instrument, in my mind, totally looked like a perfect fit for this Stevie Nicks-penned classic. But for whatever reason--nerves, monitor issues, etc.--Lacey just cracked. She was off-key, thin, and...it was disappointing, to say the least. Back then, for some reason, I still held a candle for Lacey. And she made it through to next week. Listening back on it now, it sounds about the same. Full of potential, but not quite there.
• Top 20 Week ("Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer): Not much better than the week before. Flat and thin, but still brimming with potential. Lacey was wise to take Ellen's suggestion the week prior to cover this type of song...and admittedly, though it wasn't a perfect fit, it kind of worked (the fact that SNTR lead singer Leigh Nash and Lacey have a good deal of vocal similarity both helps and hurts). Still, Lacey would have been better off taking on something more stripped-down. And the next week, that's exactly what she did...
• Top 16 Week ("The Story" by Brandi Carlile): Back then, I was kind of surprised Lacey dodged a bullet once again and made it through to the third week of the semifinals...her first two performances were underwhelming, and all the Internet comments I saw about her weren't even close to kind. Knowing that many talented girls were left, and with only 6 spots, there would have to be hard cuts (they ended up being MUCH harder than I wanted them to be...stupid America... :/ ), I was ready to give up on Lacey as a contestant. Well, she definitely made things much harder on me after this lilting, committed take on Brandi Carlile's gorgeous ballad, which I've loved for quite a while. It was exactly the kind of top-notch singing I'd been expecting from Lacey, except it felt like it came two weeks too late. Still, the fact that she made it into the Top 12 the next night helped to soften the blow that Katelyn and Lilly's elimination was on my "Idol"-loving heart. (I shall avenge them!!!)
• Top 12 Night/Rolling Stones Week ("Ruby Tuesday"): Like I said in my Top 12 recap months ago, I'm a sucker for strings. So even if Lacey's mic had been off the whole song, I still probably would have called for her to move on to the next round. (Hey, there were 11 other people to go home. Well, sort of.) But really...the string quartet was a nice touch and a fairly radical rearrangement of the Stones' original, and it fit Lacey's voice very well. Lacey was a bit all over the place at points (hello, much larger stage...) and a bit flat too, but for the most part, she made some great phrasing choices, and it really went a long way (in my view) to define Lacey as an artist. The fact that America didn't see it that way...and sent Lacey swiftly packing in the process...was kind of a bummer. It was just the first chapter in a season-long, painful saga called "Idol Voters Not Giving ANY of The Women A Chance To Grow, Because They Think Tim Urban Is Hot and Lee Sounds Great, Ugh." Or something like that. :)

Do I think Lacey should have made it to the finals? Yes. Although I wouldn't have been as torn up about her not making it as I was about Katelyn & Lilly (VIVA LA KATELYN & LILLY! Though Lilly, you should stop swearing so much in the music you have on your MySpace page...), I think she deserved to go through.
Do I think she deserved the place she got? Nope. While her making it to the Top 3 or something would have been a stretch even in my eyes, she definitely deserved a few more weeks to grow, or at least so we could have a few more excellent iTunes recordings of hers.
Will I buy her CD, whenever it comes out? Sadly, the odds don't look good for Lacey getting one out anytime soon...Alexis Grace, who last season got 11th and was viewed much favorably than Lacey, still has yet to release even a single...but when that day hopefully comes, and as long as I'm not off on my mission, I'll be there. If life is good to us, Lacey has a bright future ahead of her.