PERFORMANCE: NEVEAH DEAN-RAMIREZ
Just a few short months ago, Neveah Dean-Ramirez was planning on being on this show and singing happy, playful bubblegum pop. She was a sweet, upbeat, optimistic person, and wanted her music to reflect that.
My, how quickly things can change.
"The Twin Purges", as they'd started to become known, took a lot of Galador's most prominent personalities away. A lot of people were emotionally devastated. But not too many lost quite as many people as Neveah. The first purge took her father, Noah. The person who'd not only begun her love of music, but who'd taught her to play guitar and paid for her to learn piano. It took her nearly 90% of her family. It even took a couple of her best friends.
But the second purge... that was what finally broke her. The second purge took Penny St. Claire, a young woman that not only came in second place on the show last year, but was also the woman Neveah loved. So, while she did decide to do Idol after all... the music she performed? Was vastly different.
No more happy, no more playful, no more bubblegum pop. No... as the beautiful young woman sat on a stool in the middle of the stage, a deep, heartbreaking loneliness in her eyes, the music she played on her acoustic guitar was haunting... and the voice that accompanied it was both powerful... and devastatingly sad.
"Ramona, come closer Shut softly your watery eyes The pangs of your sadness Will pass as your senses will rise For the flowers of the city Though breathlike, get deathlike sometimes And there's no use in tryin' To deal with the dyin' Though I cannot explain that in lines"
She gazed out into the crowd, but it was clear that she wasn't seeing even one person. She was thinking about her father. How proud he was that she was going to do this. How this was the end result of everything he'd taught her. And how she was now trying to carry on the career Penny never ended up getting to have.
"Your cracked country lips I still wish to kiss As to be under the strength of your skin Your magnetic movements Still capture the minutes I'm in But it grieves my heart, love To see you tryin' to be a part of A world that just don't exist It's all just a dream, babe A vacuum, a scheme, babe That sucks you into feelin' like this"
Neveah had always been such a sunny person. Someone who's perpetually optimistic mindset couldn't be broken by anyone or anything. But that Neveah, in her mind, was taken along with her father and Penny. She'd finally been broken. The light that had always been in her eyes dimming more and more every day.
"I can see that your head Has been twisted and fed With worthless foam from the mouth I can tell you are torn Between stayin' and returnin'
Back to the South You've been fooled into thinking That the finishin' end is at hand Yet there's no one to beat you No one t' defeat you 'Cept the thoughts of yourself feeling bad"
Her slender fingers expertly plucked at the strings of the guitar, her face that of a girl who wanted to cry, but had no more tears to shed. She'd decided to pour any emotion she had left into this show. To go as far as she could, in hopes that maybe, somewhere, Noah or Penny could see her.
"I've heard you say many times That you're better than no one And no one is better than you If you really believe that
You know you have Nothing to win and nothing to lose From fixtures and forces and friends Your sorrow does stem That hype you and type you Making you feel That you gotta be exactly like them"
She saw that some of the people taken in the second purge had managed to return. But not Penny. Of course not. She had no more hope or optimism left in her that anything that wonderful would ever happen to her again.
"I'd forever talk to you But soon my words Would turn into a meaningless ring For deep in my heart I know there is no help I can bring
Everything passes Everything changes Just do what you think you should do And someday maybe Who knows, baby I'll come and be cryin' to you"
As she finished the song, she didn't appeal to the crowd for a reaction, she didn't take a bow... nothing. She merely put her head down, deep in thought as the lights around her dimmed.