Brooke White says that for the past two weeks she had a “gut feeling” that she would be leaving “American Idol.”

When it happened Wednesday night, she was trembling, unsuccessfully fighting back tears and visibly shaken.

“I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said in a telephone news conference today. “But I am an emotional girl and passionate”
She says that she felt very vulnerable throughout the competition.

The 24-year-old former nanny from Mesa, Arizona, says it was quite a ride and she is grateful that she got as far as she did in the competition.
Her departure this week is not surprising. The idol race is shaping up to be a battle of the boys. “Oh to be a boy this year,” Brooke says, noting that the fan mail for the male contestants arrives by the ton.
Brooke was calm, cheery and seemed to be a bit relieved that to be out from under the pressure of competition.
On Wednesday night, she had trouble getting through her swan song, “"I Am, I Said” by this week’s guest mentor, Neil Diamond.

She had received good feedback when she sang the song the night before, including a “well done” from picky judge Simon Cowell. It was an improvement over the previous week when she forgot the lyrics and had to start her song over from the beginning.
Early on in this season’s competition, it appeared that winning it all would be a long shot for White whose strengths included an interesting husky voice; good performing skills; pleasant looks, good musical choices and skills as a musician.

White says she has always struggled with “confidence issues,” comparing herself to others and doubting her abilities.
She said that at times during the competition those feelings would escalate and other times she had a better handle on it.
“I didn’t start singing until I was a teenager and I never thought I had a nice voice,” she says. “I thought it was a low raspy thing. And when I would hear the other contestants sing during rehearsal, I would think ‘Wow! How did I get here?’ “
She said that her best performance was “Let it Be” and that the “Idol” experience helped her face the challenge of finding inner confidence.
White is a clean-living Mormon who says she has never seen an R-rated movie. After she auditioned, Cowell said the show would lead her to the “dark side.” She says she doesn’t think that happened. “It was an amazing journey,” she says. “My faith brought me a lot of peace.”
Her goal is to become a successful sing/songwriter like Carol King.  Her only regret is that she didn’t get to perform songs by Fleetwood Mac or Carly Simon.