“It’s not anything I haven’t dealt with before,” Didi Benami, the tenth contestant eliminated from American Idol 9, remained positive as she spoke with the press following the Wednesday results show. After all, rejection is all part of being in the industry. “You get kicked down and you gotta get back up and start over,” she philosophically explained.

Of her Idol experience, Benami said, “I don’t feel like I lost my way…I feel like [the judges] wanted me to do something specific every week and I kind of went out on a limb for several weeks.” It was a risk that didn’t pay off. After appearing in the group of bottom three vote-getters for the first time on the season, Didi was eliminated on Wednesday. Despite her performance at the end, she was not given the much-coveted judges’ save. “I kind of felt like I was going home,” she admitted of the results show.

Didi is taking her elimination - and the rest of the Idol ride - in stride. “I get to go on tour, I don’t have to work as a waitress anymore, I get to do what I love,” she said in one interview. “It’s a relief to know that I’ll be able to make a living doing what I love to do over the summer.”

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