American Idol Top 16 Voted Off Exit Interviews
This week American Idol cut four more contestants to come up with the Season 7 Top 12. Those that didn’t make the cut were Danny Noriega, Kady Malloy, Asia’h Epperson and Luke Menard. MTV caught up with the four recently cut to ask them their impression on Idol and other interesting questions.
From MTV Exit Interviews:
Danny Noriega the flamboyant California teen whose pre Top 12 expletive ridden Youtube Christmas video caused a mini controversy and scandal that may have lead to his out sting on American Idol. Excerpts from his exit interview below:
Q: Were you surprised by the reaction to your YouTube clip making the rounds online?
A: That’s something that is so, like, forever ago that I used to do. It’s almost like another person ago. That’s when I was younger. It was more like an acting thing I used to do, personalities and stuff like that. I’m actually kind of shocked that they used that one. There’s more interesting ones. [He laughs.]
Q: Do you think your unique personality helped you get this far in the competition?
A: You always want to stay true to yourself. I think the other contestants were all different, but I definitely was, like, really, really different. [He laughs.] But I wasn’t trying to be different or anything, it just came naturally.
More after the Jump!
Asia’h Epperson was the 19 year old contestant from Joplin Missouri whose father had passed away just before her American Idol Audition. She was cut in the Top 16 round on 3-6-08. Here is an outtake of her Idol Exit interview:
Q: Were you ever worried that tackling a Whitney Houston song might bring on the inevitable
comparisons to a virtually untouchable singer?
A: Of course it came to my head, but I consider myself enough of a unique artist as far as my voice and my stage performance. I didn’t think I would really be compared to [her]. It went through my head, but I didn’t second-guess myself. I went ahead and did my Whitney song, and [Simon] did compare me to Whitney: He said I was a second-rate Whitney, and I will take that any day!
Q: Were you surprised to be eliminated?
A: I was, but I wasn’t. I definitely think I deserved to be in the top 12. But at the same time, when they told me that I was [performing] first, I actually called my mom at that moment and was like, “Um, I think this is going to be my last time performing on this stage.” [She laughs.] She’s like, “No! Why?” I just said, “You know, I just feel that the order that I’m in is really going to affect the results.” I feel that because I had such an upbeat song that it wasn’t proper for me to be the very first person. I had to kind of look at it as if I was in the audience and I had just sat down, if I would want someone right up in my face right there in the beginning, saying, “I wanna dance with somebody!” I’d kind of be like, “Whoa, whoa, hold on! I just got here. Let me get warmed up first!” So that’s probably why: the lineup.
Luke Menard, we hardly knew you. Luke Menard was never show cased in the American Idol auditions. We barely saw him in the Idol Hollywood round. We know nothing about him except he made it to the top 16. And yet we still know nothing.
Q: Simon leveled some pretty harsh criticism at you. How did you handle that?
A: Simon never gave me one compliment on camera, so I learned to really tune out his criticism. He really didn’t give me much constructive criticism, it was pretty much just degrading stuff, so I just took that with a grain of salt, and I just kind of tuned him out.
Q: Who did you get closest to during the show?
A: [Michael Johns] and I are the two oldest in the competition — we’re both 29 — and then Dave Cook and Jason Yeager, who actually got eliminated last week. … Ever since day one in Hollywood, the four of us really clicked and hung out just about every day, and we called ourselves the Four Horsemen, just kind of a fun little club name that we came up with. [He laughs.] We were super-exited when all four of us made it to the top 24.
Kady Malloy the 18 year old bomb shell from Houston, Texas whose good looks and dead on celebrity
impressions of Britney Spears and others was cut from Idol on 3-6-08. Simon Cowell called her Robotic and a “Stepford Wives” candidate after her last performance on American Idol.
Q: What other impressions do you do that your friends always ask for?
A: They always want me to do Christina Aguilera and Shakira and [Rascal Flatts frontman] Gary LeVox and Cher. The most fun one for me is Britney, just because I love Britney. I’m a big fan of hers, so it’s kinda cool that I can sing like her. I entertain myself all the time with it.
Q: What did you learn from being on “American Idol”?
A: I learned to be true to yourself, and no matter what anybody says, keep your head up and keep going. Definitely I learned more about the music industry. I saw the good, the bad and the ugly.
Q: Do you have any advice for future “Idol” contestants?
A: Block the judges out while you’re performing. Don’t even think about them. In the end, they’re just three opinions.
Good Advice Kady. We hope to see more of you in the future and with your True personality I am sure we will.
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