Melinda speaks...

Many people were stunned by the elimination of Melinda Doolittle on Wednesday’s show, but if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you shouldn’t have been, because I warned you it could happen…

A lot of people out there think that Ryan accidentally gave away the result just before the half-hour break when he said, “Next, Melinda goes home.” He, of course, meant we were going to see her homecoming video, but many people in the studio audience gasped forcing him to explain himself a little more…

I was correct that the bouquet she was carrying during her final song was Blake’s, which he had been given as a finalist. Melinda, as you recall, gave it to one of the backup singers. After the show, Jordin gave Melinda her bouquet and she gave it to the other two backup singers. Wonder what Jordin thought of that?...

After Wednesday’s show, Simon Cowell told her “I want to see you succeed”…

Remember how I said Melinda seemed relieved at being voted off? Apparently, I was right. She told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show, “Knowing that I had made it this far and knowing that I was going to be able to sing from here on out without being judged and voted? It was just like this sigh of relief. Now I’m getting ready to sing just because I love it.”

She also told Ryan that the show’s schedule was tough and that’s what led to her looks of shock after the judges’ comments each week. “I felt like I was working so hard and when [the judges] would say good things I was so excited to hear it, it would just put this look of shock on my face”…

When asked by reporters during her post-elimination conference call why she got sent home, Melinda said that she was getting “a little bit of the older vote.” “I had a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘I voted for you five times last night, it was so good.’ Sometimes they may not spend a full two hours voting, and that’s OK. But I really feel like, personally, that I’ve won as far as where I ended up in this competition”…

About the top two, Melinda said that Jordin is her “baby girl.” She said that she was “so proud” of Blake for making the songs his own….

Melinda said she’d like to make an album of “soul music. Anything from the heart. I love a groove, I love anything where I can tell a story. For me, I just call that soul music”…