Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Profiles of Idol’s 12 female semifinalists follow.

Check back next week. I’ll be blogging live during the performance shows and grading each contestant.

Between now and then, I hope to bring you more on this year’s top 24.

Ashley (Makailah) Rodriguez: This 22-year-old from Boston was introduced to us as Ashley Rodriguez but has performed as Ashley Makailah. After she sang “If I Ain’t Got You” for her audition song, Kara told her she has “the kind of look and voice that could be very commercial.” Translation, she’s a looker with a gorgeous smile. In her Idol video, Ashley says she has wanted to try out for Idol for a while, but made a pact with her mom that she wouldn’t until she was almost finished college. She graduated from the Berklee School of Music in December, where she majored in music business management. She went there on a full, four-year scholarship. She plays the guitar and piano, according to her MySpace. And she has toured internationally with a gospel group called Overjoyed. Link: Go here to watch her audition again. Go here to hear two of her songs on MySpace. Impression: No doubt, Ashley can flash a gorgeous smile. More importantly, she has sounded very good every time she’s been on stage. I smell finals in her future.

Crystal Bowersox: If talent was so sparse in Chicago, I have no idea how Idol passed on showing the audition of this fine 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Ellison, Ohio. I was smitten the minute I heard “Farmer’s Daughter,” one of her songs, on MySpace. And before they were taken down, she had a batch of impressive originals on Reverb Nation. She indeed grew up on a farm in northwest Ohio and later moved to Chicago. She’s a single mom and has a sunflower tattoo on her back in her son’s honor; she says he was her motivation for trying out for Idol. Last summer, she was one of the winners of the Toledo Blade Battle of the Bands competition. Prior to Idol, she had been performing and recording her original music with a 27-year-old bass guitarist named Frank May. On MySpace, she classifies her music as acoustic, folk rock, blues. Her most memorable performance, she says, came at age 2 when she was Susie Snowflake in a school performance and made her dad cry. Links: Go here for Crystal’s performance of “Natural Woman” in round one of Hollywood, here to watch her perform “Piece of My Heart.” Impression: Did you she her whip out a harmonica to go along with her guitar on the final day of Hollywood? And don’t forget that vocal on day one. The real deal, folks. A strong contender to become the season nine Idol, based solely on talent, not sideshows or backstories.

Vered “Didi” Benami: Didi’s the 22-year-old from Hollywood who got so emotional during her audition and says she sings for a college roommate who died suddenly. Here’s the rest of the story. The roommate was Rebecca Joy Lear, a singer/songwriter from Wichita, Kansas, who helped Didi develop her musical ability. According to Didi’s MySpace, they decided to stick it out together at Bellmont College in Nashville, though their real desire was to perform and entertain. Rebecca died in a car accident in December 2005. Now Didi wants to spread Rebecca’s music as well as her own. On MySpace, Didi describes her music as soul/country/pop and she used to have six songs there, including a great vocal on a song called “Lullaby.” From the sounds of her Idol interview, she auditioned because she was off work as a waitress because of wrist surgery when Idol visited Los Angeles. About that first name — the Hebrew definition of “vered” is rose. Link: Watch Didi’s Idol audition here. Impression: Get the tissues ready, Idol. Because it looks like Didi is going to shed more tears than Brooke White and Ramiele Malubay combined (for those who remember the tear-filled season seven). That said, Didi has a pleasant voice.

Haeley Vaughn: The Fort Collins, Colorado, teen got rave reviews from the judges in Denver for what I thought was an overrated version of Carrie Underwood’s “Last Name.” She says the fact that she’s a black female singer who wants to sing country/pop, not just R&B and soul music, should set her apart. She was born prematurely, weighing 2 pounds at birth; then lost her father at age 10. He was a singer, and she says she thinks she got some of her voice from him. In her Idol interview, Haeley says she’s been watching Idol and wanting to auditon for a long time. This season was the first time she was old enough. She plays guitar and writes music as well. Link: Go here to watch Haeley’s Idol audition. Impression: I simply don’t get this selection. Hey, Haeley has a great smile, seems very personable. But I’ve heard her sing three times on the show and haven’t been impressed yet.

Janell Wheeler: Potentially, this year’s country beauty on Idol. Hey, all the best seasons have had one. She certainly has the best country song I’ve found among the female contestants — the saucy “Red Dress,” which disappeared from MySpace this week, a hint to me that Janell had likely made the semifinals. Janell’s no stranger to these types of competitions, having won Orlando’s Got Talent in September. She’s 24, from Tampa. She writes on MySpace that she “wears flip-flips year round, but I also strut around in heels as often as possible.” She sings country-pop now, but says she studied musical theater and experimented with hip-hop music as well. “So as I have tried out many styles,” she writes, “the one that always fit like my favorite pair of jeans was my country … it was my favorite before it was cool to like.” Oh, and Janell calls herself Sunshine Cowgirl. Link: Go here to hear Janell sing; here to watch her performance on day one of Hollywood. Impression: Janell sounded good in her audition, great on day one of Hollywood, not so great on day three. I’ll be rooting for her to make the finals for the sake of musical diversity if nothing else.

Katelyn Epperly: We met this 19-year-old from Des Moines, Iowa, during the Chicago auditions. She’s the gal who said she was always “stand-offish” about the idea of trying out for Idol, until the divorce of her parents. She wants to start a new chapter in her life, and she wanted to cheer up her mom, a big fan of Idol. So far, so good. Of course, Katelyn has been singing for a while, in the jazz choir, chamber choir and a cappella choir at Valley High School in West Des Moines and as lead singer and songwriter for Katelyn and the Bruises, with former boyfriend Nick Frampton, who told the Des Moines Register he was initially intimidated to work with her because she’s so talented. She told Idol she also performed with an experimental rock band. In her Idol video, she says she’s also learning the business side of the music industry, from engineering and production to booking agent duties. Links: Go here to watch Katelyn’s audition again; go here to hear Katelyn and the Bruises. Impression: Katelyn has an interesting sound, at least on the Bruises music. But this is an awfully talented group of ladies. Will interesting be enough?

Katie Stevens: This 17-year-old from Middlebury, Conn., was told she “could win it all” by Kara during the group performance episode from Hollywood Week. She was featured during the Boston auditions, the young girl with the grandmother recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “She’s probably not going to remember me much longer,” Katie told Idol during the filming of that episode. “So I want her to see me succeed in my dream before she forgets who I am.” She’s a high school senior who won the Miss Westbury’s Outstanding Teen pageant last January and went on to finish as first runner-up in the Miss Connecticut Outstanding Teen competition, where she sang a Whitney Houston song. Oh, and she can speak Portuguese, thanks to her grandmom. Link: Go here to hear Katie sing two covers in YouTube videos I’ve embedded in a blog on the teen. Impression: I always worry about these 16-year-old girls who decide to audition the first year they’re eligible for Idol. They’re going up against much more experienced competition. Some (Allison Iraheta) can handle it. Many (as we saw in last year’s semifinals) cannot.

Lacey Brown: Lacey’s MySpace music page has disappeared. But a fan site has cropped up with a couple snippets of her songs. No one should be surprised that Lacey has been successful on Idol this year. She made it to the judges’ mansion episode in season eight before being cut in favor of Megan Joy. At the time, Lacey said her mother had been bugging her to try out for Idol for three years and that she’d been singing seriously since age 13. No one had to bug Lacey to audition again in Orlando. “I thought I should try again and see if I can make it a little farther,” she says. In last year’s Idol video, she said her favorite music is “blues, indie, anything that has a unique sound and is pretty catchy.” On her MySpace, she wrote: “I enjoy a lot of things about my life. My Church, my friends, a good pair of jeans, my little bird Tik and my family.” Both of her parents are pastors. Links: We didn’t see Lacey’s audition until the Road to Hollywood episode. Here it is. And you can find two 30-second song snippets on this fan page. Impression: Lacey sounds better on the MySpace music I listened to (before it disappeared) than Megan Joy ever did on the Idol stage last season. Of course, sounding good, performing live, under Idol pressure is a little tougher than getting a recording right. There’s no second chance.

Lilly Scott: This Denver gal says people take one look at her and think she’s a punk rocker. She says she’s not, preferring more indie, folk rock and classic rock. She’s the former lead singer for a Colorado-based group called Varlet that played just that type of music. The band released an EP called “I Win” at some point, according to its MySpace page. On CD Baby, a four-track EP is available that was released in 2007. At age 5, Lilly says she sang the national anthem in front of thousands of people at Mlle High Stadium. “It was pretty epic,” she says. “I’ve been performing ever since.” She wowed the judges during the first day of Hollywood with an acoustic version of an Ella Fitzgerald song, “Lullaby at Birdland.” Link: Go here to hear Lilly singing a number of songs with Varlet; go here to hear her rendition of “Lullaby at Birdland.” Impression: Most of the Varlet music isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but the more traditional “Unlock the Door” is very good. The other ladies better not underestimate Lilly, 20, another singer-songwriter with a distinctive sound.

Michelle Delamor: When this 22-year-old beauty from Miami was booked as the opening act for something called Summerfest 2008, she described her music as pop and R&B, with “a little urban and a very soulful vibe.” She once opened for Lil Wayne at the Atlantic Center and calls that her most memorable performance. We’ve seen very little of her on Idol, but she was part of Faith, the trio that sang Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” at the start of group day in Hollywood. In a MySpace bio that has since disappeared, Michelle wrote: “I am music personified … destined for greatness and going places … A mentor of mine once said, ‘Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are foot prints on the moon.’ I take that to heart.” She says she’s very bubbly and thinks that will help set her apart on Idol. Links: Go here to watch the group day performance, here to listen to three of her songs on MySpace. Here’s Michelle talking with a reporter at a Summerfest 2008 press conference. Impression: I’m anxious to hear more from Michelle, a potential season nine R&B diva who already looks the part. She hardly seems in need of an Idol makeover.

Paige Miles: This 23-year-old from Houston recalls making her stage debut at age 7. “At that moment, I knew I loved having the microphone in my hand. And I haven’t put it down since.” Paige is a 2004 graduate of the Community School of Naples (Fla.), a college prep day school, where the drama teacher still raves about her “big belty voice” in this story posted on naplesnews.com. A former cheerleader who describes herself as “bubbly,” Paige is now 23 and says the last thing an aunt told her before dying was: “Try out for American Idol.” Paige hasn’t had much airtime on Idol, but she was a member of Team Neopolitan, which won praise on ground day from Simon for its original take on Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Links: Go here to watch Paige’s Idol video interview; here to watch the “Bad Romance” performance. Impression: An absolute unknown. Even in the “Bad Romance” segment, she wasn’t featured. It’s going to be tough to overcome that lack of attention competing against this group of women.

Siobhan Magnus: This 19-year-old from Cape Cod, Mass., was part of Destiny’s Wild on group night on Idol. That was the quartet that would have been better served by doing much less whining and letting their performance of “Bad Romance” speak for itself. Because it was quite good. Siobhan was involved in her high school’s drama club, and you can find YouTube videos of several of her performances. She was also former lead singer for a progressive / alternative / happy hardcore group called Lunar Valve. On her MySpace, she proclaims that she wants “to be a social reformer and an advocate for media literacy for young girls so I can teach them to not let magazines, television, etc., make them feel bad about themselves because media images are filthy and unrealistic.” She calls Cosmopolitan “possibly one of the most filthy pieces of media out there.” Links: Go here to hear Siobhan singing with Lunar Valve; go here to watch the “Bad Romance” performance. Impression: Given the female talent Idol turned away this year, another pick I don’t understand. The vocals on the Lunar Valve music aren’t that impressive.