Brooke White

Brooke Elisabeth White, (born June 2, 1983 in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in nearby Mesa) a singer-songwriter who plays the piano and guitar, and was the fifth place finalist on the seventh season of the television series American Idol, started singing at age 15 when she tried out for the high school musical, "Meet Me in St. Louis", and received the lead role. White has performed as a solo artist with a backup band for the last four years. White's first CD, Songs From The Attic, was released by the independent label New Millennium Records Group in 2005, and was produced and co-written by Tim Simms. The album is now available for download on White's website, www.brookewhite.com, and on iTunes. On iTunes, the album has peaked at #19 on the Top 100 Albums Chart, #6 on the Top 100 Pop Albums Chart and #8 on the Top 10 Album chart in Canada. In Canada iTunes, the album has peaked at #8 on the pop charts. The album has garnered positive reviews on iTunes and on Amazon.

White's first music video, "Free", was directed by Braden Barty and produced by Tim Simms. In the video, she acts out her story as a beauty school dropout who moves to Hollywood to pursue a singing career.

White tried out for American Idol in Philadelphia. She sang “Like a Star” and she received a positive review from all the judges. During her audition, she admitted to never having seen a rated-R movie due to having strict parents, prompting Cowell to state that the show would “bring her over to the dark side.” During the Hollywood week, White performed “Beautiful” by Carole King, accompanying herself on piano. After that performance, judges were quick to point out that Brooke reminded them of a young Carly Simon or Carole King.

Since top 24, White has accompanied herself on guitar for her performances of "You're So Vain", "Jolene" and "I'm a Believer", and on piano for "Let It Be", "Every Breath You Take", "Hero" and "I Am...I Said". Judge Simon Cowell chose White early as one of his four favorites in the competition, along with David Archuleta, Jason Castro and David Cook, when he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired on March 17, 2008.

During the Lennon/McCartney week, she performed "Let It Be", a classic song by The Beatles. It was the most successful performance by her. Randy Jackson said it was a very heartfelt performance and Simon Cowell said it was one of the best of the night, believable and he thought Brooke picked good song choices in the past three weeks. It soon brought her tears of joy.

Even though Andrew Lloyd Webber was impressed the most by White and predicted a big night for her,[5] three lines into her performance of "You Must Love Me", White apologized, stopped the band, and re-started the song from the beginning. She later explained, "I lost the lyric". Simon Cowell stated that he would have done the same thing, had he been in her situation. It was the first time in the show's history that a contestant re-started a performance in the middle of the song (She previously started "Every Breath You Take" on an odd note, so she started over right at the beginning). Despite this, she was the third contestant on the April 23, 2008 results show to be named safe.

When White performed "I'm a Believer" and "I Am...I Said" during Neil Diamond week, she changed the lyric, with Diamond's blessing, in the latter song from "I'm New York City born and raised" to "I'm Arizona born and raised" to make the song her own.

White was in the bottom three twice, once on April 2nd after her Dolly Parton song "Jolene" and again on April 16th after her Mariah Carey performance of "Hero". She was eliminated from American Idol on April 30, 2008.

White cites her musical influences as the "soulful sounds of the 70's" such as James Taylor, Carole King, Fleetwood Mac, the Carpenters, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, the Eagles, America, Carly Simon, the Bee Gees, Hall & Oates, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and Phil Collins.