American Idol 7: Why Ramiele Lost

Ramiele Malubay had shown promise early in the American Idol process, but then never really lived up to it. Still, she hung around week after week, to the point that it seemed her fan base would carry her for a long time to come. Dolly Parton week put an end to that. So what happened? Why did Ramiele lose?

By now you probably know the drill – we’ll attempt to answer these questions by looking back at What ‘American Idol 7’ Contestants Need to Know to see where it leads us.

The first stop in our journey is to ask if Ramiele showed singing and performing talent. Let’s see what our usual crew had to say about that after Tuesday night’s performance.

Randy thought it was okay, Paula babbled something meaningless, and Simon said it was cute and well-sung, but more like a cruise ship performance. Recapper Betsy called it the “weakest performance so far” and immediately suggested this could be the end of the line for Ramiele (good prediction, Betsy!).

Among the We’ll Be the Judge of That! panel, only Tyler suggested Ramiele sounded good – and even he said the “performance had as much long-lasting flavor as cheap gum.” The rest of us weren’t as nice. Both Sandy and I noted how bored we were. And Kathy suggested all her bouncing around was a diversionary tactic so we wouldn’t pay attention to her voice. She also added an important point about Ramiele’s performance skills, which she described as “sorely lacking.”

To continue to pile on, Joseph, in hisNGH Report, ranked Ramiele dead last. We’ll get to more of what he said in a minute.

First, I want to jump ahead to the sixth rule. It says that contestants need to become a full package. Why am I mentioning this now? I’ll quote from Kathy: “She has affected a little-girl persona that is off-putting to all but her staunchest supporters. Frequently, she has come across as whiny and desperate.” Kathy hit it right on the nose. The package that is Ramiele is not really one that encourages people to vote for her. The cutesy bit only works for so long, and it ran out of steam long ago.

This was important enough to jump ahead because it will make some of my other coming comments make more sense. For example, the second rule discusses the importance of song choice. The on-site judges and other commentators (including those here at Foxes On Idol) have mentioned her poor choices sometimes. This was another example. One major problem was that even Dolly Parton thought Ramiele chose a cute song this time around. Ugh. That was really the last thing Ramiele needed!

What she did need was to show an ability to sing well on a consistent basis, according to the third rule. Unfortunately, as I hinted at earlier, she didn’t. To once again quote from Kathy (who must have been sharing space in my brain this week), “with each week, her performances have disappointed me more and more.” Also, as Joseph noted, “you have never been a frontrunner; you’ve had chance after chance to become one but instead you’ve turned in mediocre performance after mediocre performance.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The fourth rule talks about the need for a contestant to be unique. Ramiele did follow that one, but not necessarily in good ways. I already talked about the cutesy factor, and Ramiele also made herself stand out through some of her outfits. Unfortunately, that was because some of them were really bad. This week was a perfect example, as recapper Betsy described her ensemble as “a hideous high-waisted skirt with attached suspenders.” Simon may have criticized Carly’s wardrobe, but Ramiele’s needed at least as much attention.

But even the bad fashion statement couldn’t help Ramiele follow the fifth rule, which speaks of the need to be memorable. Simon specifically said that her last time on stage was not memorable. I quoted Tyler earlier speaking about how the performance stuck with him for less time than the flavor of cheap gum. And I found it forgettable. None of these descriptions is good for encouraging viewers to dial in their votes.

Since we already hit the sixth rule earlier, we’ll move to the seventh. It says not to argue with the judges. I don’t see that this had any role here, so we’ll quickly skip past that one as well.

That brings us to the eighth rule, which discusses the creation of a fan base. Due to her heritage, Ramiele seemed to have a fan base similar to that of Jasmine Trias – a fan base that carried Jasmine much further than many people believe she deserved, and one that therefore many of us felt would do likewise for Ramiele. Indeed, I didn’t pick her to leave for that very reason.

But either I overestimated that fan base’s strength, or they just got tired of Ramiele too. I suspect it was a combination of both, plus the fact that Dolly Parton night was not exactly going to be a strong one for Ramiele.

It is likely that her fan base pulled her along a bit longer than she perhaps deserved. But they eventually gave out. Ramiele gave us week after week of mediocre performances, culminating in her final one, which was dull and a bit awkward. As I mentioned earlier, Ramiele showed great promise, but she never lived up to it. It’s not like Ramiele was ever really horrible, but many times on Idol, mediocre and forgettable is even worse than being really really bad. Put enough of those performances together, and the viewers will just forget about you. That is why Ramiele lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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