While you can make a good case for either as the eventual last woman standing, there are indications that Brooke has the stronger fan base. The fact that Carly hit the bottom three in a week where most believe she performed well (or at least not badly), and in a week where other mediocre or worse performers such as Michael Johns were left unscathed, has to be considered a danger sign for her.
Carly might be the new Nadia Turner, with nonmusical attributes -- her accent and her tattoos -- that could be pushing some voters in the direction of someone like Brooke. In the same way that Carly's bottom-three appearance might be an ominous sign for her, it's a positive sign for Brooke that she remained outside the bottom three despite a performance of Here Comes the Sun that did not prompt warm thoughts in the judges and in many viewers. She has passed the first test of fan-base strength: do you have enough fans to get you past your first problem week?
Brooke strikes me as something of a hybrid. She has a very wholesome image, but as a married woman of 24, can't really be termed an ingenue. What's more, her musical sensibility isn't youthful. The charts are dominated by dance music of all sorts, but Brooke may have as little rhythm as anyone we've ever seen on Idol, as can particularly be seen in the results-night group performances. Neither does she provide the soaring notes that are the Idol equivalent of triple jumps in figure skating: the laypersons' (and too often the judges') shorthand for who has real singing talent and who doesn't.
Along with Jason Castro, Brooke has been broadly classed as a "folk singer," which in Idol parlance means that she has done best with subtle accompaniment, including accompanying herself on piano and acoustic guitar. Her voice is not bland, though; at her best she conveys a surprising amount of feeling, even soul. This ability to sell songs emotionally is what really separates the very good from the great on Idol; it is more than anything why Fantasia beat Diana and why Taylor beat Katharine. Idol has been opening itself up to singers outside the "big voice" mold in recent years, with the addition of genre performers like John Stevens and Chris Daughtry -- people you can't see performing Whitney Houston songs (or whoever the male "untouchable" equivalent of Whitney is; Idol has never come to a consensus on that).
But the singer/songwriter or song-stylist sensibility had been mostly ignored until this season, no doubt because singers in that style have difficulty making a first impression. Idol made a stab in that direction last season when the quirky Leslie Hunt made it into the semifinals. Many viewers wanted to see someone in her mold succeed on the show, but she was done in by the combination of iffy song choice and a lack of early airtime.
Brooke has been more fortunate in both respects. Her audition was good enough, although viewers were probably more likely to recall the footage of her on nanny duty and her admission that she had never seen a R-rated movie. But in Hollywood, she seemed much more animated, possibly because she was playing the piano (Brooke has been helped immeasurably by the new rule giving contestants permission to play instruments, or in David Cook's case, hold an instrument while looking cool). Footage of her in Hollywood was prominently featured in the show's commercials, the first clues that she was a semifinalist and that her potential was recognized.
Her first two semifinal performances weren't especially memorable, although she took the hint from everyone comparing her to Carly Simon by doing the least bitter version of You're So Vain ever. But her last semifinal performance got people to really sit up and pay attention for the first time. Brooke's acoustic take on Love Is a Battlefield, on which she managed to find the real song hidden under the original version's busy production, was the very definition of the non-karaoke effort the judges are always urging on the contestants (even if '80s veterans Randy and Paula seemed dumbfounded by what she was doing).
Still, there wasn't anything about Brooke yet that necessarily indicated she had a good chance to win, or even outlast Carly. That all changed when she got behind a piano and threw herself into Let It Be, displaying an interesting country lilt for the first time and seemingly becoming overwhelmed with emotion, which excused, or perhaps explained, her vocals not being completely up to par. Here Comes the Sun followed, and more about that later.
Two weeks ago, I discussed whether or not someone would emerge as the consensus rival to obvious frontrunner David Archuleta, in the same way it didn't take long in Season 4 for Bo Bice to become the anti-Carrie. With Carly's bobble last week, it now appears as if the main contenders for that honor are Brooke, David Cook, and Jason Castro. All three have shown the ability to find songs and arrangements that highlight what they do best and minimize weaknesses, but I think Brooke is more likely to get to the final week because she's a more experienced performer than Jason and has a more versatile voice than both Jason and David. And being wholesome doesn't hurt.
Brooke has three problem areas she needs to deal with as she proceeds. First, song choice is much more critical for her than for most contenders, because she can't belt her way out of trouble. Your basic Idol female can take overripe schlock like I Have Nothing and can save it for voters and judges by hitting the big notes -- Carrie made her living on the show by doing just that -- but Brooke has to find songs with lyrical content that enables her to use her tone and phrasing to emote. She has to play the "you made that song your own" card, and so far the judges have been willing to go along with that, even though I'm convinced Randy and Paula don't understand her appeal.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Brooke's weaker efforts so far have come on Happy Together (bouncy if not lyrically upbeat) and Here Comes the Sun. It could be that the combination of her Sunny-Brooke Farm image and uptempo material comes across as just being a bit too much, like eating Halloween candy for dinner and Easter candy for dessert. Brooke even wore a yellow outfit last week, as if we hadn't already been beaten over the head with pleasantness. Here Comes the Sun, in its original form, was a wonderful moment from The Beatles, a last gasp of positivity from the group as it was in the process of breaking up. But what's great about it isn't on the page; it's in the production and in George Harrison's guitar (Brooke would have just compounded her problem by playing guitar).
Obviously, Brooke doesn't want to go to the piano-guitar well too often, or stay seated as if she's literally afraid to move around. But since she's naturally happy and positive, she needs to keep finding songs like Love Is a Battlefield that permit her to show an emotional contrast, difficult as this might be with some of the theme weeks that lie ahead. Her voters want to see her in pain for two minutes, not "Story Time With Brooke."
Second, given the age difference between Brooke and the person she will need to overcome in the end, David Archuleta, it's natural that some will want to make the contrast, which might not be completely fair to either one, between the showbiz kid with the big voice but questionable life experience and emotional range, and the mature woman who may not have the powerful voice but has real artistic integrity. We had a version of this same argument last year when it wound up as Jordin vs. Blake. Brooke would be smart to play up the "true artist" image. Her MySpace page is down for the duration, but getting more of the word out about her original music would help her as it clearly helped Blake last season, letting people know that if she were to win, she would be putting a personal stamp on her Idol reign.
But while there's no question that her upbeat image is a major benefit to her, it would be good for Brooke to show a little edge too. She can't go too far -- we don't want her to become the latest Idol entrant in the Smoking Gun annals -- but some display of angst, an indication that her life hasn't been 24 uninterrupted years of rainbows, lollipops, and straight A's, would allow potential voters to feel like they are supporting someone who can be complex, who might one day write her own version of You Oughta Know (hey, we can always hope). Showing more complexity than a 17-year-old boy shouldn't be too much to ask.
Finally, Brooke needs to mind how she carries herself in interviews. The problem with being the good girl is that any deviation from utter goodness will land you in more hot water than it will your rivals. Her personality is already as big a drawback for Brooke's detractors as her performances are, and more antics such as we saw last week following Here Comes the Sun will only make matters worse. It was hard to tell exactly what inspired her babbling as Simon Cowell was trying to critique her; mostly, it appeared to be a nervous acknowledgment that she knew she hadn't done well. But it went on for way too long, and she didn't seem to be paying any attention to what the judges were saying, which is never the impression you want to leave.
Talking back to the judges usually hurts a contestant with the audience at home, but banter that doesn't quite come up to the level of backtalk can be almost as problematic. Fantasia and Katharine McPhee, who both liked to chat with the judges in this way, ran into a real backlash for perceived "attitude." Fairly or unfairly, many saw Brooke's behavior last week as a sign she can't take criticism. She may feel that the judges are pals now and she can kibitz with them in the same way she did during her Philadelphia audition, but silence is the safest approach.
This is only Brooke's portion, read the full article about all the Top 10
here.
Portal 
Latest images 
