Cosima de Vito - Australian Idol

In May 2003 Cosima De Vito successfully auditioned for the first season of TV talent quest series, Australian Idol, with a performance of Celine Dion's "I Surrender". From July to November she appeared on the weekly televised episodes and moved to Sydney that year, she entered as one of the judges' wild card choices. De Vito finished in third position after having to withdraw from the competition due to a diagnosis of throat nodules when she lost her voice singing "River Deep – Mountain High". Idol judge, Ian Dickson, claimed that she would have won. However, following medical advice, she withdrew from the competition and underwent speech therapy allowing fellow contestant Shannon Noll to join Guy Sebastian in the series grand final. According to opera singer and music teacher, Juliette Hughes, in The Age, De Vito and other contestants:

"ften, quite talented young singers fall into bad vocal habits. It's a style thing: they get told to belt and force, to the point of damage. When Cosima famously had to pull out from the first series because she had nodules, no reputable singing teacher in Australia could have been surprised. She had been showing the signs for some time. Her voice was losing its ability to sing softly; there was a brittleness, a threadiness. If she hadn't stopped, she would also have lost the ability to sing beyond a narrow series of barked, hoarse notes". —Juliette Hughes, "Idol Voices", The Age, December 2005.

Timeline of De Vito on the series:

Week #	Song Choice	Original Artist	Theme (if any)	Result
Top 40	"My Heart Will Go On"	Celine Dion	Semi Final Group 2	Declared Wildcard Finalist
Wildcard	"Predictable"	Delta Goodrem	Wildcard	Declared Top 12 Finalist
Top 12	"Hot Stuff"	Donna Summer	The 1970s	Safe
Top 10	"I Wanna Dance with Somebody"	Whitney Houston	Number One Hits	Safe
Top 8	"When the War Is Over"	Cold Chisel	Australian Hits	Safe
Top 6	"What's Love Got to Do with It?"	Tina Turner	The 1980s	Safe
Top 5	"I Believe I Can Fly" "Respect"	R. Kelly Otis Redding	Soul, R&B	Bottom 2
Top 4	"L-O-V-E" "Smile"	Nat King Cole Charlie Chaplin	Big Band	Safe
Top 3	"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" "River Deep – Mountain High"	Dusty Springfield Ike & Tina Turner	The 1960s	Withdrew