S2BC's Top 20 Greatest Australian Idol Performances: No. 3

3. Cosima De Vito, "When The War Is Over" (Season 1, Top 8)



Love her or hate her, the bitch had pipes. This was the first ever touchdown, and the fuss remains as easy to comprehend now as then: this was, quite simply, a beautifully constructed, stunningly interpreted vocal masterclass worthy of every plaudit it received.

Where to start? This performance had every ingredient for a memorable Idol moment: inspired re-imagining of a classic; soft, restrained introduction leading to a sea of spectacularly executed power notes; and the surprise attack of a perfect rendition from a technically proficient but vaguely unlikeable competitor (see also No. 4). Listening to the astonishing volume and precision of Cosima's voice through this, it's almost possible to pinpoint the exact moment her nodules began to form.

Cosima underwent one of the most intriguing of all Idol metamorphoses, from monobrow-laden prematurely aging balladeer to surprisingly feminine diva powerhouse. From the pap of her vocally perfect but staggeringly boring semi-final (Celine's "My Heart Will Go On"), through to the promise of her up-tempo Wild Card performance (Delta's "Predictable") and finally to her unexpected sassy rendition of "Hot Stuff", Cosima developed an impressive repertoire. Her latter performances were ultimately taxing (all overwrought balladry and hair extensions), but she remains one of the top 3 female voices to emerge over the 5 years the show has aired. And who knew she would also be a fashion pioneer?



It's difficult to know exactly where things went wrong for Cosima, because watching this makes you believe she could have been a world-beating superstar in the Whitney or Celine vein, and things had started off so well with her extremely successful acoustic version of this song reaching #1 on the ARIA charts in 2004. No doubt it was the astronomically expensive, ill-conceived Diane Warren-penned album of ballads that did the damage, and those cheekbones are rather intimidating: you could cut bread with those babies. And her more recent efforts aren't exactly setting the charts on fire: her latest single, "Keep It Natural", thankfully not a song about eyebrow maintenance, faltered at #112. OOPS. (Shame: the remix is brilliant.)

Poor bitch; it's a mystery, really. Particularly since being ugly never stopped Celine - she's about to release her 16th album:



I KNOW. But that's a whole other post.