Before the top 12 competition on American Idol gets underway Tuesday, the four contestants to get the boot last week -- Todrick Hall, Lilly Scott, Katelyn Epperly, and Alex Lambert -- chatted with reporters about song choices, missing voters, show campaigning and fruits. … - Cynthia Wang
TODRICK HALL The 24-year-old Hall will tell anyone who hears him that he has his mind set on just one thing: "I am making it my personal job now to be my own campaign manager to get myself a role on Glee," Hall says. "I think I would be perfect for that show so anytime anyone asks me what I am doing now, I tell them that I would love, love, love to be a cast member on Glee. I didn't even think about campaigning for that until Simon said the other night, 'You look like you are doing American Idol: The Musical,' and then Randy chimed in and said, 'Glee!' " If Hall got in the Top 12, "I was going to sing, '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'," he says, "and I was going to dance for the first time. They kept yelling at me for dancing but then Ellen said last week, 'You should dance.' I was going to be the first contestant to actually do a dance break, like Crystal Bowersox plays her harmonica and have beatboxed, but no one has ever danced."
LILLY SCOTT The 20-year-old from Littleton, Colo., excited the judges with her quirky, contemporary sound, but seemed to confuse the voting public with the Patsy Cline classic "I Fall to Pieces." "I wanted to kind of break the mold and be that offbeat contestant that did exactly what I wanted to do and just kind of explain myself as an artist with my song choice," Scott says. "I definitely have no regrets in that department, but kind of watching certain make it into the top 12 that had kind of not done so well over the past three weeks and then basing judges comments on my three songs over the past three weeks, I was kind of frustrated with feeling like my fan-base really wasn't there even though the judges seemed to love me … That's why I kind of said, 'I don't know what America wants to listen to.' Then again, my voting demographic is probably more of the underground scene who probably doesn't even own a TV and if they do are probably out riding their bike or doing something more productive than watching TV, let alone American Idol!"
KATELYN EPPERLY After a moody, quiet turn on the white piano with Coldplay's "The Scientist," Epperly, 19, thought singing Carole King's upbeat "I Feel The Earth Move" would be a good change. Alas, the judges didn't quite agree. "I definitely was trying to find a song that would portray me as an artist," she says, "which is difficult to do for singer-songwriters in this competition because first of all, I don't listen to mainstream music and second of all, I don't typically perform covers … But I definitely don't regret doing it because I love the song." Epperly's highlight of her time on Idol would be her Coldplay performance. "I am definitely in my element when I am just sitting behind the keys without a band," she says. Moving forward, "since I am flat broke," Epperly adds with a laugh, "I'm going to go back to Des Moines and start working and continue to pursue recording and writing music with all sorts of different artists."
ALEX LAMBERT At first, the 19-year-old from North Richland Hills, Texas, was Ellen DeGeneres's favorite unripe banana. Then he ripened; then he got mushy. What does Lambert make of the fruity analysis? "I know it's all for entertainment and stuff," he says, "but it does make sense. I guess I probably won't be able to look at a banana the same!" As for his nerves, Lambert says, "When I said I wanted to break out of my shell and show America what I can do, like, man, honestly, whenever I got up there, I couldn't even sing my best because I was so nervous." Lambert adds, "I don't regret anything. I've never really been on a stage before, so I think I did great ... for not having any experience. I feel like I just needed a few more weeks … I felt right, but I didn't know how to look at the camera and I didn't know how to react to the audience because I've never done that before."
Tell us: Who would you have saved out of these four contestants?
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