Quentin Alexander may have been voted off American Idol season 14 in what seemed like shady circumstances, but the inventive New Orleans singer isn't letting it faze him. In a new interview, he's opening up about his mini-battle with judge Harry Connick Jr., his exit from the show and whether or not the producers played the role.
To recap really quickly: on the top seven week of American Idol, Alexander's best friend Joey Cook was in the bottom two alongside Rayvon Owen, causing him to call the elimination process "wack," a comment that Connick took to mean he was ungrateful. Though his words were just taken out of context, the drama didn't settle well with viewers of the Idol producers, who seemed to do little things to kick Alexander off the show for sure, including replaying the incident, giving Owen an instant replay of one of his performances, giving Owen the second performances and glowing comments and showing commercials all week starring the tiff.
In an interview with Billboard, Alexander wasn't sure how much the producers (or the tour on the line) played into his elimination, but he's still keeping positive about the experience.
"It definitely could have played a role, but I don't really know that and I am never going to really know," he said. "But either way, I am still proud of the way that things happened. I wouldn't change that moment with Harry and I for anything because it was a real genuine moment and for me to change it would be for me to change my journey overall."
Alexander is also thinking about his post-Idol life. After relaxing for "two days" after the show, he's going to get right back to work on making entertainment and showing the world what he can do. "I'm going to take the opportunity to show people what I really have. On Idol, I shared the stage with other contestants. Now I get a chance to focus on my personal projects and my music and film and fashion," he said.
But first: the finale, where he will return to the stage and hopefully sing with one of his musical icons (Annie Lennox, Lenny Kravitz, Erykah Badu) and be reunited with his fellow contestants, who have become lifelong friends.
"We've really bonded, far beyond this competition and far beyond music," he said. "I'm really grateful to share this experience with them. After all of this is over, we're going to have each other. I'm excited for the future so we can look back on what we did."
