After finishing American Idolâs ninth season as a top-ten finalist, singer/songwriter Didi Benami stepped out of the spotlight and spent several years refining her craft and pushing into deeper emotional territory in her music. A near-lifelong singer who started songwriting as a teenager, the Tennessee-bred 27-year-old devoted those years to dreaming up songs that gracefully fuse folk, soul, and rock with an intimate emotionalism inspired by the likes of Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks. Infused with a powerful melancholyâand shaped by such struggles as Benamiâs troubled childhood and the tragic loss of her best friendâthe resulting debut album Reverie merges ethereal alt-rock with pop-perfect melodies, hypnotic guitars, heady beats, and Benamiâs stunning vocal work.
âThroughout my life Iâve always turned to music to help me get from moment to moment, and so I try to write songs that will inspire or empower others that way,â says Benami, whose gripping delivery of âTerrifiedâ was ranked by E! Online as one of the top five Hollywood Week performances in American Idol history. Released independently and made in collaboration with Billy Mohler (a Grammy-nominated producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist whoâs previously worked with artists like AWOLNATION, Kelly Clarkson, and Liz Phair), Reverie achieves that stirring spirit thanks both to Benamiâs poetic and boldly personal lyrics and a masterful voice thatâs at turns sweet and soulfully dusky.
Born in New York City but raised in Knoxville, Benami first began honing her vocal chops by singing at school events and in church choirs. At age 14, pained by the ongoing and damaging tension between her Israeli father and German-American mother, Benami moved in with her uncle and took on a minimum-wage day job to save up for college. Despite the upheaval, Benami persevered with her singing and took up guitar, eventually making her way to Belmont University (a renowned music school in Nashville).
At Belmont, Benami quickly developed a close friendship with a burgeoning songwriter named Rebecca Joy Lear. âIâd been writing poems a long time, but Rebecca motivated me to start writing songs as well,â says Benami. The two soon became roommates and collaborators, but Learâs life ended in a car accident later that year. âWhen Rebecca passed away, it devastated me to the point where I felt like I couldnât move forward with my life,â says Benami. âIt took me a long time to get myself back together and figure out what to do next.â
Eventually, Benami put college on hold and decamped to Los Angeles, where she threw herself back into making music and began teaming up with a host of songwriters and producers. In 2009, she auditioned for the ninth season of American Idol, and ultimately emerged as the tenth-place finalist. After making the rounds on the talk-show circuitâand appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman,The Today Show, and The Ellen DeGeneres ShowâBenami disconnected from the media frenzy and took time out to cultivate her songcraft.
âWhen I first started writing, I was writing the songs that people expected of me because Iâm a blonde country girl from Tennessee,â she recalls. But after dedicating herself to discovering her songwriting voiceâand exploring a scope of influences that includes The Beatles, Motown legends like Jimmy Ruffin and Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Mazzy Star, and modern-day singer/songwriters such as Sara Bareilles and Ingrid MichaelsonâBenami found herself with a greater sense of purpose and a sharper vision for her music.
To help execute that vision, Benami joined forces with Billy Mohler and set to work on her debut album in 2013. Collaborating with fellow songwriters like Jamie Drake, Billy Mohler, Annaliese Schiersch and Jason Gaviati, Benami breathed Reverie to life by bravely confronting matters like Learâs death, her fractured relationship with her father, post-Idol disillusionment, and the painful dissolution of several friendships and romances in recent years. But while Reverie never shies away from plumbing the depths of loss and longing, Benamiâs songs endlessly radiate an infectious sense of hope. âMy dream for this album is to somehow communicate the battle of both darkness and the light that exists inside, as well as outside ourselves,â she notes.
Opening with the quietly haunting âTrouble,â Reverie instantly sweeps up listeners in its lush and breezy yet undeniably intense take on guitar-driven alt-pop. Although the album offers its share of love songs (such as the sweetly playful âHeartstringsâ and the swaying and sultry âTill I Find Youâ), at its core are tracks like âLost at Seaâ (a piano ballad whose stark arrangement showcases Benamiâs powerful voice and aching lyrics) and âRelease Meâ (a midtempo number whose moody guitar work and uneasy harmonies capture the darkly charged drama of her childhood). Also featuring such tracks as the self-empowerment anthem âShineâ and the post-breakup kissoff âRecover,â Reverie closes out with âHummingbird,â a lilting and lovely piece that embodies the heart of the album for Benami. ââHummingbirdâ is about feeling lost and not knowing whatâs going to happen next, but finding strength and deciding to give it a shot anyway,â she explains, pointing out that the songâs initial inspiration was an actual hummingbird she saw struggling to fly.
With the release of Reverieâwhich she financed both out-of-pocket and with funding from a highly successful PledgeMusic campaignâBenami hopes to recognize and reflect on the darker moments of her past while moving forward into a brighter future. âOne of my missions with my music in general is to keep Rebeccaâs spirit alive, to honor what she wanted to do and inspired me to do,â she says. âAt the same time I want my songs to help people deal with whatever they might be going through, and then take them to a new place where thereâs nothing holding them back from following their dreams.â