Artist 
Brooke White
With her distinctive, raspy voice and confident piano/guitar chops, Brooke White became one of the standouts of the 2008 season of "American Idol." She made it to the top five before eventual winner David Cook was crowned. Not content to be just a fleeting weekly staple of pop culture, the Arizona-bred performer subsequently released her post-"Idol" debut album “High Hopes & Heartbreak" in 2009, which spawned the single "Hold Up My Heart."
"It was in Portland, Oregon. Between having laryngitis and my keyboard coming unplugged four times throughout the set and my guitar went out of tune because the room was so cold -- it was just hilarious how one thing after another was falling apart. While the audience was quite sweet, they were hard to read. I'm not sure they knew what to think about my whole circus of a set happening. But the truth is sometimes you don't have good shows. I try to keep it in perspective in that you have to have them. It's nights like that where I'll go climb in my bunk on the bus and go, 'What am I doing here?' Every once in a while you'll be in that stage where you feel like a hamster on a hamster wheel and wondering if you're making headway. But I've also had some great shows lately to where I think maybe I've jumped off the wheel."
— Brooke White