Her performance of "Ain't No Sunshine" in the Top 7 round was acclaimed by judge Simon Cowell, who compared her to the band Sade and admitted having a small crush on her.
[14] On August 7, 2002, the day after her Top 6 performance of "The Glory of Love", Cewe suffered a collapse backstage as she was preparing for the results show and was hospitalized.
[3][4] The collapse was reported as being due to stress by American Idol co-executive producer Nigel Lythgoe,[3] though Cewe denied this in a subsequent interview, stating she had just had a bad headache and felt weak.
[3][16] Journalist Richard Rushfield, in his book American Idol: The Untold Story, called her exit the series' "very first flurry of conspiracy talk".
"[22] A 2005 article in The Miami Herald noted Cewe as hoping to produce an album of songs that she had written, but that she was also aiming to finish her sociology degree and go to law school, and that she had appeared on an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.