Erika Van Pelt
Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup
Recently eliminated American Idol contestant Erika Van Pelt says she enjoyed her experience on the program, but she has a bone to pick with judge Jennifer Lopez."I didn't agree with [Jennifer's] critique," the newly shorn singer said Friday of the performance that sent her packing. "I was singing 'New York State of Mind.' Anyone who's seen Billy Joel sing this song has seen Billy Joel sit behind a piano the entire time and still sell it."
"I'd love to see you let loose vocally but let loose your body too," Lopez told Pelt on the show. "I wanted to see you unplant your feet and really move around and really feel what you were singing about. That would be my only note, too, because ... the vocal was really beautiful."
When Lopez suggested she move around more, Van Pelt says, "I felt like [Jennifer] wanted a fake performance so people thought I was singing harder than I actually was, which really didn't seem correct to me."
The deejay-turned-singer says overall said Lopez's critique was "a hard pill to swallow."
Adds Van Pelt, "I felt like there were a lot of comments that were contradicted week to week. First I wasn't doing enough, then I was doing too much, then not enough, then I was over-singing. There was never a balance."