By Victor Balta
Eye On Idol
Comcast.net
Although many “American Idol” watchers didn’t understand how Ramiele Malubay made it as far in the competition as she did, it was a surprise when she was booted Wednesday night because she had never once landed in the bottom three. Ramiele stepped up to the speaker phone on Thursday to talk about her “Idol” experience. She talked about how the pressure of the show effects every singer, including David Cook whose blood pressure spiked after Tuesday night’s performance show, how the nerves got to her after a strong performance in the opening week and she could never recapture that success, and about which “Idol” she’s planning on moving in with. Check it out:
On how far she thought she could make it…
My goal was to just get by week to week. I didn’t want to think that I was going to be first place or second place, because if you think of it that way, your whole experience is totally erased. My goal was to get as far as I could. And I made it onto the tour, so that’s good.
On what plans she has to work in the Phillippines, following the footsteps of Jasmine Trias…
I was 5 years old when she moved from there to here. I definitely want to go back home because it’s home to me, and I want to see what I could do over there. I’m pretty sure I might have some things over there and (Jasmine) left a lot for me to follow. And I’m really grateful for her to be the first Filipino contestant on “Idol.”
On whether it was difficult to compete against singers who had clearly become close friends…
We never really thought of it as a competition until Wednesdays, when we realized someone has to go home tonight. We, like, help each other. We’re a big family. We’re not out to get the other person kicked off. It’s genuine and it comes from the heart.
On her decision to sing Heart’s “Alone,” which Carrie Underwood made into an “Idol” classic…
Yeah, I watched her performance and I just thought that (after) the first week that I had, I was trying really hard to bring that back. That was my goal, to bring back the first week.
On what happened after that great first week, and whether the nerves just go to her…
That first week, I didn’t know that it was such a big deal until people were telling me, “You did really well.” I let that get to my head and when you over-think things like that too much you just don’t know what to do with yourself. Also, I was just terrified of being on that big stage, and now I have to go on tour and see a lot of that big stage. [laughs]
On whether her confidence dropped, as the judges suggested it had…
They kept saying my confidence dropped and then I got into (thinking), what are they talking about? That’s when the over-thinking came in. You should never second-guess yourself. You should always go with your first instinct.
On the pressure around the competition, and how it effected David Cook…
He had clearly announced that he had high blood pressure, and he was fine. But it’s definitely a lot of pressure and everybody goes about things totally differently and we all break down in totally different ways. I believe that my breakdown was crying every week for everyone leaving. That’s how I handled the pressure and let it all out.
On her close relationship with Danny Noriega, and what’s next…
I’m not sure yet when we’re going to move in together, what with the tour and everything. But we’re going to move in. We’re a duet, we’re supportive no matter what and we just got so close and you don’t really get to share that kind of experience with just anybody. We clicked and we want to be there for each other.
On what she thought of Simon’s judgment of her…
Simon likes me, I know he does. He’s a really nice guy. Backstage when I left the show, he came and was, like, “Oh, cry on my shoulder.” He was, like, “it was the song choice.” He’s a really nice guy and sometimes he overdoes it for TV, but he just wants us to be better.
