Idol's Jessica Swears: "I'm Likable!"
Poor Jessica Sierra. The precocious 19-year-old Floridian clearly put forth her best effort to win American Idol. She overshadowed much of the competition with her skillful take on "Total Eclipse of the Heart." But this youngster also made a few missteps, like perhaps too-prominently displaying her "girls" — especially whilst performing "The Boys Are Back in Town," which made her appear a bit too PG-13 in some fans' eyes.
"I don't have any regrets at all," Sierra tells TVGuide.com. "I always dressed to the song I was doing. [With] 'The Boys Are Back in Town,' I thought the outfit fit the song. Every outfit, I thought, fit the song. You need to be dressed for the song and have the performance for the song and you need to go out and give your best every single time."
Among Simon Cowell's cruelest cuts was his suggestion that Sierra lacks "likability." Ouch! "I was a little confused when he said I wasn't a likable person," she says. "I disagree with that. I think I'm a very likable person. I'm a very sweet person. We don't have very much time to show America our personalities other than in our performances. I have a lot of respect for all of the judges, so when Simon said that, I was hurting."
After the show, however, Sierra met with the judges one last time, when she was seen hugging Mr. Cowell. So what did the brutal Brit say to her off camera? "He was just telling me not to give up and that he thinks I have a great talent and stuff like that," she reveals. "Simon's a really good guy and I have a lot of respect for him — despite his comments throughout the show."
Like many past Idol rejects with low texting turnouts, Sierra opts to dismiss the importance of Simon, Randy and Paula's comments to the voting viewers. "I think what the judges have to say only [has] a little part in what America votes for," she says. "I think America has in mind who they want their next American Idol to be and that's who they vote for."
