New American Nobody: Jon Peter Lewis Interviews Diana DeGarmo

Aww, mj you “couldn’t stand her” back then? LOL

It must be tough to be 16 and have all your flaws picked apart on national tv and in the national media, especially for her weight at the time. She certainly got a lesson in how cruel people could be. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her perform live several times since AI and she’s always very gracious. What you see on American Nobody is pretty much who she is: funny, likeable, and down to earth.

I didn’t pick her apart for her weight. She came across to me as an emotion-free pageant bot. Just thought she was way to young for the competition.

Pretty funny. That one guy wants to punch Kris in the face. I suggest the left hook to the jaw and maybe Kris will sing straight after that.

I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t pick her apart for her weight. She came across to me as an emotion-free pageant bot. Just thought she was way to young for the competition.

Oh I wasn’t saying you ever criticized her weight. Sorry if that’s how it came across.

I never felt she was too young for the show in terms of singing but I did worry about the impact of so much pressure and scrutiny at that young age. Five years later she seems to be none the worse for wear, which is a relief.

MJ why couldn’t you stand her on the show?! She was soo good for her age! She certainly had some growing up to do, but she was only 16! she was awesome.

Ah, Diana! She just announced in a Comcast interview thingy yesterday that she is going to be in a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” with Anthony Fedorov in Oklahoma City this summer. Anthony will play Joseph. I guess Diana will be the narrator? I didn’t watch much of season 3, but I thought she had a really good voice.

http://community.comcast.net/comcastportal/blog/article?blog.id=ameridol&message.id=73972#M73972

Diana seems to have turned out ok. I like her much more now than I did on the show. Take heed Archie, it is amazing what cutting the apron strings and going out on your own will do for your maturity and emotional growth.

JPL gives her an opportunity to stick up for her mom, rumored to be the stage mother from hell.

OMG! I haven’t ever heard that!

And I actually met “Mama D” and I thought she was the sweetest lady EVER! Seriously. I asked her to adopt me! XD

She talked to us about how Diana wasn’t feeling that well before the show and was running a temperature and that she told Diana they could cancel and Diana insisted that she wanted to do the show anyway. And before they left, Mama D actually hugged me and then e-mailed me a few days later, just as she had promised at the show.

It really bothers me to think that some people could ever view Miss Brenda in such a way.

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I totally disagree with Sky on everything

Well, I’m glad you have a different opinion of her now, MJ. The truth is, she was a giggly teenager, but I think there was more people weren’t seeing. Diana’s truthfully a really down to earth, talented, nice girl that’s a grown up a heck of a lot in the last 5 years, and managed to do some interesting and varied things in her career thus far. Her mother might have been a bit of a stage mom, but I’ll give credit where credit is due…she’s a single mother, so there was no “other parent” to balance things out for most of Diana’s life…and Diana seems to have grown up very well, so she must have done something right.

Here’s a neat video of Diana singing a new songs of hers for the first time the other night at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville…she’s grown leaps and bounds in her singing abilities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnVyHYSPgmY

Who is that Sky person? He seems like a giant asshat.

I really like JPL, although I didn’t watch that season. He seems like a cool, very musical guy, and his interview with Diana was great.

Didn’t love Diana during Idol, I found her annoying.

She’s all grown up now and actually seems old for her years.

LOVED THE SONG, wish her well.

Someone need to sucker-punch Sky. First rate jerk.
JPL must have found this guy in the gutter.

Diana remains one of my favorites from all 8 seasons of the show. Her voice, especially live, is incredible and she is humble and gracious to boot.

I think Diana had it rough because she was on a year where there were 2 16 year olds (her and Jasmine Trias) who went far into the competition. Since they were the first ones their age was marked as hindrance. This of course had much to do with the fact TPTB were definitely looking for a Fantasia win.

Since we’ve had a 16 year old win the show and another one come in 2nd who’s had huge success- I wonder if Diana would have had an easier time of it had she been in a later season.

I love Diana DeGarmo! I wanted her to win American idol so bad!!!! She should have won!

Diana seems to have turned out ok. I like her much more now than I did on the show. Take heed Archie, it is amazing what cutting the apron strings and going out on your own will do for your maturity and emotional growth.

Dadchuleta’s got nothing on Mamma D. I’ve heard horror stories. And my sources are good.

It really bothers me to think that some people could ever view Miss Brenda in such a way.

Miss Brenda isn’t stupid. She smart enough to be nice to the fans.

“Miss Brenda” is probably a very overprotective, pushy mother. Doesn’t mean on the flip side that she’s not a nice, polite woman to most people. Sometimes I think the reason there is so much dislike or ambivalence from Idol towards Diana is because of her mother. I think people confuse the two or think with Diana, comes her mother and that was only true many years ago when she was under 18. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a person out there Idol-related that doesn’t like Diana as a person. Diana has put her mother in the “mother” box and wants her to be that first and foremost instead of a manager. She’s a very smart girl.

Dadchuletaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s got nothing on Mamma D. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve heard horror stories. And my sources are good.

Egads! In that case I am even MORE impressed with Diana and how she’s evolved and moved beyond any childhood baggage. Go Diana!

I got the distinct impression listening to her interview that Diana knows darn well what people think about her mom and why. At the same time that’s her mom and she loves her.

I loved Diana on AI3 and voted for her to win. Most of my vote was pro Diana, and part of my vote was against Fantasia only because AI shoved her down our throats week after week.

I have 2 theories as to why Diana’s first (and so far only LP) did not fare better than it did. #1 AI and 19 wanted Fantasia’s album to be huge, and part of it had to do with race. Before everyone jumps on me, hear me out. At the time, there were major rumblings in the media about the demographics of Idol and the voters, and while ultimately, it is those who vote who are responsible for the results week to week, Idol was still under a microscope. Factor that in with the fact that while Fantasia was a very good performer, her voice is “ok”. They had to promote her, and remember, back then, despite Clay outselling Ruben, Idol still needed for the winner to be the big seller. Thus, Diana was destined for less promotion. Too much promotion and it would have raised eyebrows. Both debut albums had some solid songs, and some clunkers, but production value and even the artwork was faaaaar greated for Fantasia.

However, IMO a bigger factor was management. From my understanding, she used her mother as her management, and let’s call it like it is, her connections are limited at best. Then you add Diana’s age, and her mother needed to approve of everything. That had failure written all over it.

I thought Diana’s voice was far superior to Fantasia’s in range and power, even at 16. There were times when she sounded like a young girl on her album, but then again, that is what she was. Her live performances were very good vocally, and seeing her live in Hairspray just confirmed it for me.

How AI has treated Diana since season 3, to me has been awful. It’s as if she never appeared on the show.

Miss Brenda isnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t stupid. She smart enough to be nice to the fans.

No disrespect meant, MJ…but I’m not stupid either. I’ve met horrible stage parents in my life, being that I do a lot of theatre. I didn’t get that impression from Brenda DeGarmo at all.

I guess no one truly knows unless they’ve actually been backstage/at home with the DeGarmos and seen it first hand. But all I can say is that from my experience with meeting the lady and seeing the way she interacted with Diana before and after the show and how she interacted with us during and after the show, I didn’t get an obsessive stage mother vibe from her.