Here are highlights from last night’s post X Factor show interviews. Eliminated contestants, Lyric Da Queen and Jennel Garcia are grateful for the experiences they had on the show: Via Zap2it Zap2it.
“I’m not bummed out,” says Lyric Da Queen, who entered the competition as a solo act before partnering in a group with brothers Julien and Jemelle Joseph. “I do wish we could’ve showed the world what we really could do, and do what we originally planned: original lyrics in hip-hop. But I don’t believe in coincidences, I think everything happens for a reason. Now the door is open.”
Garcia agrees that it’s best to view the elimination as a new beginning. “It’s time for me to show the world who I am,” Garcia says. “Coming into this competition I lost myself. But I was looking for a place to grow and someone to guide me. And I feel like Demi guided me.”
Hm
“I think she feels the same way I do,” Garcia says of Lovato. “It’s a little bit frustrating when you know what goes on behind the scenes, and I know she’s really upset over it. I’m just glad that she believed in me so much.”
Oh to be a fly on the wall.
And both acts were persuaded into performing songs they weren’t entirely comfortable with on the top 12 performance show. Garcia preferred the idea of Alanis Morissette’s iconic rocker “You Oughta Know” instead of Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” and Lyric 145 wanted to transform Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” into a hip-hop anthem instead of performing the mashup of Katy Perry’s “E.T.” and Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”
If both acts had been allowed to be who they are, they would not have been eliminated.
“I’m so sick of hearing the same music on the radio,” Garcia says of her goal to bring rock music back to pop radio.
Erm. Good luck with that, Jennel
Lyric 145 are sticking together now. And Jennel wants her old look back.
But now that they’re no longer in the “X Factor” competition, they want to stay true to themselves and try to make it in the music business. All three members of Lyric 145 are planning to move to Los Angeles and record original material as a trio. While Garcia is eager to re-establish her rock look by dying her hair black again and ditching the “girly” look the show gave her in favor of something more authentically rock.
Simon Cowell enjoyed pulling Demo Lovato’s chain, even if the viewers at home did not:
“I knew I was gonna keep Paige which meant [Demi] wasn’t going to have to make a decision,” Cowell explains after the show with his trademark wicked grin. “I thought, bearing in mind they’re both your artists, I want to see which one you’re going to… destroy their career.”
“It was fun to see [Demi] squirm in that moment because she thought she was going to get out of it and I thought ‘No, you’re not.'”
But, Demi insists she would have saved Jennel in any case. I wonder how that makes Paige feel?
Lovato wasn’t amused. For the first time since the live shows began, her post-show interview time was limited to a brisk two minutes, and she only had this to say about what Cowell pulled: “I was gonna choose whoever I was gonna choose. It was interesting [Simon] wanted to do it that way but whatever.”
Lovato insists her vote to eliminate Thomas wasn’t a strategic way to avoid sending Garcia home herself, she was voting with her heart. “I genuinely think Jennel was more talented,” Lovato says. “Paige has more star quality which is gonna help her, but I think Jennel definitely didn’t deserve to go home and I couldn’t let her.”
