“American Idol” Is Playing Ringer Toss Again

In preparation for giving my weeknights over to yet another season of American Idol, I’ve been reading up on the rumored contestants for the coming season, and how many of their names will be vaguely familiar. Rumor has it that we’ll be seeing a Castro (Jason’s brother), an Osmond (Donny & Marie’s nephew), and a former Miss New York crossing our TVs during the early episodes of Season Eight. But one name that probably won’t stick out to a lot of people is Joanna—as in Joanna Pacitti, a singer who was outed by The New York Post as a formerly frustrated Annie who had an ill-fated dalliance with Geffen not even two years ago.

“Let It Slide,” above, was the lone single from This Crazy Life, the album on which Pacitti went by her first name only. It peaked at No. 31 on the Heatseekers chart (the chart reserved for artists who never hit the top 100 on SoundScan’s big board) and had tracks by Diane Warren and Linda Perry, as well as her cover of Dashboard Confessional’s “Screaming Infidelities”:

Sure, I grew to like Carly Smithson last year, even with her major-label past, and I suspect Pacitti’s past will at least result her in having a tougher exterior than at least a few of the other hopefuls. (There has to be at least one guy who makes it through to Hollywood who doesn’t have some sort of culture-industry past, right?) But I really, really hope that none of the powers that be at Idol get inspired to throw Emo Week after finding this particular clip.

HEY, ‘ANNIE,’ GET YOUR FUN [NYP] This Crazy Life [Amazon] Joanna – Let It Slide [YouTube]