Jessica Sanchez might have come in second in the musical battle for the title of “American Idol,” but the 16-year-old Californian was nothing but gracious about Phillip Phillips taking the prize.
“I like freaked out because I was so happy for him,” Jessica told AccessHollywood.com’s Laura Saltman following Wednesday’s finale.
“I told him and I whispered to him, I was like, ‘You’re going to win this whole competition,’ and he was like, ‘No, I’m not.’ And I was like, ‘Phillip, just stop it, you know you’re going to win. Stop!’” she recalled. “I don’t think he realized it and he was even crying up there… this means a lot to both of us, but I think he really, really deserved it.”
Adding, “Everybody in the whole competition was amazing, but Phillip has really been fighting hard and I respect him so much and I think he deserved to win… I’m still happy for him… I love you and you deserve this.”
Jessica may not have won, but she brought the house down, performing “And I’m Telling You, “ with Jennifer Holiday during the finale, a performance where she got the chance to perform with one of her own “Idols.”
“It was so much fun because I haven’t sung with somebody like that in a long, long time. Somebody that I can feed off of and have that same kind of energy,” she said of Jennifer Holiday. “She’s my idol and I look up to her and I kind of learned some of the skills from her, listening to her music and it was awesome just to like feed off each other. It was awesome.”
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