Catching Up With Ramiele

AMERICAN IDOL NEWS UPDATE
August 2, 2008 - Posted by Miles
Once Ramiele Malubay was chosen as one of the top 24 contestants in season 7 of American Idol, life for her has been anything but dull. After competing for five weeks knowing that she would be on tour during the summer, Ramiele stayed in L.A. This worked out well for her, as rehearsals for the finale and the tour began in earnest before the season even ended.

Life in the Idol world is always fast paced. As soon as the finale ended, rehearsals really kicked up and then the top 10 Idols were on the road, touring America from coast to coast. Lucikly for us, Ramiele took some time out of her busy schedule while she was in Newark to share some thoughts about the past year.

Ramiele has had a great experience on the road and she notes that "every city is different. We try to get off the bus, put our stuff inside and go and sign autographs before we have hair and makeup done and do press and whatnot." Later, she followed up, "I really didn't come into this with any expectations. I just love getting off the bus in other cities. I love waking up in different cities."

While it sounds glamorous and exciting, being on the road can be somewhat exhausting. Ramiele, though, exclaims, "It's less exhausitng then the show." Without having to stoiclly receive feedback from the judges after every performance, she confirms there's just less stress. This is how Ramiele describes a typical day on the road for her:

"Usually, after a show, if we have a show the next day, we'll travel to the next city and it will be, like, a four or five hour drive. We get out of the bus, take all of our stuff out, go and sleep for a couple hours, get ready, get all of our stuff back, get our hair and makeup done, meet the sponsors, perform, meet people after the show and, then, we go sign autographs outside and, then, we go and do the same thing all over again." Whew.

"All of us have gotten it down to a routine schedule. We're working on getting things done quicker. You know, like hair and makeup because there are five girsl and four of the girls are in the first set, so it's hard to get everybody done, but we're doing really well."

Being on tour is also quite different from being on the show in that she is now regularly performing in front of thousand and thousands of people. Laughing, Ramiele told us what kind of effect this has had on her:

"Backstage I freak out a little bit when I look into the audience. I go second, so when Chikezie is out there, I peek through the little cracks and see how many people are out there. I kinda freak out a little because there are so many people. Then, you go out there and you do the same songs every night. You don't have to learn new words or impress anybody -- you're just being yourself. Putting yourself out there for the people who have been watching you and supporting you."

Being away from family and friends for so long can be challenging, but she speaks to them often. When we spoke to her, Ramiele was missing her dog very much, but, fortunately, her boyfriend was coming into town with her dog for a visit. After the tour, Ramiele hopes to meet with some major studios and will be retuning to the Philippines in December to do a few concerts.