MANILA, Philippines - Is the first batch of contestants voted off this season’s “American Idol” a sore bunch?

One of the youngest in the show, Garrett Haley seems to handle the boot—and Simon Cowell’s tough remarks—pretty well.

In an exclusive phone interview arranged by StarWorld with
Inquirer Entertainment, the 17-year-old laughed off criticism from the acerbic judge who told him he looked “as if you’ve been shut up in your bedroom for about a month ... you need some fresh air.”

“You know Simon—maybe he just couldn’t find anything bad about my voice,” said Haley. “When he said I had white skin, there’s really nothing I could get out of that except for, ‘Go tanning,’ which I wouldn’t do, but I thought it was pretty funny.”

Haley recalled how joining the show also brought attention to his long mop of curls, which drew comparisons with British musician Peter Frampton and American singer Leif Garrett.

Pretty happy

“I was hoping they were decent-looking and talented,” he said of the time he Googled the artists. “I was pretty happy ... Where I’m from, not many kids have the same haircut.”

While folks from his hometown are probably upset about his leaving the show, Haley only had this to say: “I’m happy that I’m going home, because I’m going home to my beautiful girlfriend, my friends, my family and school.”

The first female voted off the show, Amy Davis left with a good piece of advice from judge Paula Abdul: “You really need to know who you are as an artist.”

“It didn’t just hit home for me … Anybody who tries out for ‘American Idol’ should take that to heart,” said Davis. “You can’t be out there saying, ‘I don’t know who I am, but I’m trying to be something.’”

The 25-year-old belonged to a loop of musicians in Indiana. Before the show, she had performed in weekend gigs with two guys from the “Survivor” reality series who lived in her hometown.

Davis said her AI experience exposed her to how a huge television show is put together and it is from this that she derives her advice to aspiring “Idol” contestants.

“There are so many people involved and its magical seeing them at work. Pay attention. Take notes. Stay grounded [and] take as much as you can from the [experience].”

TV experience

Joanne Borgella, the 2005 winner of televised beauty pageant “Mo’Nique’s Fat Chance,” is not new to the TV experience.

Asked to compare the shows she had joined so far, the 25-year-old said: “The pageant was a two-hour special, but “American Idol” in general— I don’t think anything you’ve done in your life can prepare you for what you go through.”
Borgella felt the judges were expecting her to sing a certain way.

“People tend to think [women my size] sing neo-soul … but that’s not the kind of performer I am,” she said. “I love doing power ballads, but I also want to do songs you dance to in a club. You don’t usually associate that with a plus-size woman but to someone [concerned with] body image.”

Far from being body-conscious, the plus-size model was under contract with the Wilhelmina modeling agency, which she had to give up to be on “Idol.”

While she may have had a brief exposure on the show, the New Jersey native believed putting her modeling career on hold was worth pursuing her passion for singing.

“Singing of course is No. 1,” said Borgella. “I want to have an album, continue modeling and acting, which I went to school for. I’m a multi-tasker. AI has just opened 80 billion more doors [for me].”

Optimistic

Eighteen-year-old Colton Berry is just as optimistic about his singing career even if Cowell told him to find a “good job” instead.

“Simon’s job is to be Simon Cowell,” Berry said. “But I kept in mind that, when he said that comment, he did pick the Top 24 out of hundreds of thousands of people. Obviously we’re all going to continue on with music careers.

The singer said his two dreams in life were to be on “American Idol” and on Broadway. As he ticks off the first, Berry hopes it will lead to the second one.

He plans to pursue theater by setting up as many auditions as possible but for now he returns to LA to direct his local community theater’s production of “The Wiz,” which opens this week.

In the meantime, he pokes fun at how his looks could get him the attention he seeks.

“One day I looked in the mirror and I was, like, ‘maybe everyone is right, maybe I really look like Ellen Degeneres,’ so I figured I might as well embrace it.” said Berry.

“I know that she called Ryan Seacrest and was laughing with Ryan about the comments that I said [on ‘Idol’]. Hopefully, if she is reading this, Ellen, give me a call.”

Haley, Davis, Borgella and Berry were sent home last week. This week, four more finalists were dropped from the list—Alexandréa Lushington, Alaina Whitaker, Jason Yeager and Robbie Carrico. We will have another exclusive feature on them later this week.

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“American Idol” Season 7 airs live Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 6 p.m., on Star World and QTV, with same-night replays on StarWorld at 8 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.