'American Idol': How the Top 5 Picked Their Songs

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BROOKE WHITE

''Here's the problem with Neil Diamond songs,'' Brooke White tells Byrd and associate musical director Matt Rohde Thursday afternoon. ''Every song is about a woman or alcohol. And I can't sing about either.'' The 24-year-old Mormon is frustrated, hoarse, and still reeling from last week's stop-and-start song debacle. ''No starting over again,'' she says. ''I tortured myself about it. Now I'm done.'' Alas, rehearsing yields more torture. After debating ''Cracklin' Rosie'' and ''Cherry, Cherry,'' she settles on ''I Am...I Said'' and ''I'm a Believer,'' which she won in the hat pick.

But White still isn't completely sold on ''Believer.'' ''I don't want it to turn into a big cheese-ball song,'' she worries, citing the Smash Mouth version from Shrek. ''Should I stay or should I go?'' White sings under her breath, and then, ''I can do it. I can do it,'' though she doesn't sound so sure. A few days later, after meeting with Diamond and rehearsing until midnight, she seems to have her nerves under control. She'll now play piano (instead of guitar, as previously planned) on ''I Am...I Said,'' and guitar on ''I'm a Believer.'' ''That's my plan now,'' she says Monday afternoon. ''When I get on stage everything could change.'' She sticks to the plan; unfortunately Cowell dubs the ''Believer'' performance a ''nightmare.'' But White seems much more comfortable behind the piano on ''I Am...I Said,'' earning high marks from all three judges, and leaving her to hope the split decision is enough to get her through another week. In the end, it wasn't.