'American Idol' Castoff Elise Testone Will Be Calling Brian May

Testone wants Queen guitarist for her album: 'He's like, 'Call me up. Let's do it.' '
By Kelly Marino

Elise Testone
Photo: MTV News

Elise Testone might have wanted it all, but in Thursday night's "American Idol" elimination round, she was cut from the running after taking on this week's challenge of singing a Queen anthem as well as a song choice of her own.

With the finale less than a month away, it has been embedded in the contestants' heads that it's do or die when it comes to picking the right songs at this stage in the game. And while Testone's rendition of Queen's "I Want It All" on Wednesday night seemed to finally land her right back in her element, it was her personal pick of the less-familiar "Bold as Love" by Jimi Hendrix that might have caused her fall. Regardless, she stands by her decision wholeheartedly.

"I really don't have any regrets about that," the 28-year-old explained. "I feel like I sung it the best, maybe one of the bests I've ever sung it, because I sung it a lot of times with my band, and people are always requesting it, and I feel like it's a popular song. John Mayer just re-released it, and he is of our generation, so it's one of the most epic songs ever written.

"There is definitely a lot of give and take in the music environment," she added. "You have to please people, but you also need to be yourself. So it's always about finding a balance, and as we got closer to the show, I really just wanted to be myself and sing from my heart because if I try to please people then it might come across a little bit — I want to say fake, but not completely fake, but just you wouldn't feel that conviction as much if I did that all the time. So, yesterday, I just chose songs that I love, and I did the best I could. So, I feel successful in those performances and with whatever is going to happen now."

The South Carolina native has had a history — or should we say "a vacation home" — in the bottom three for weeks now, with Jimmy Iovine even declaring she was the underdog of the competition. Elise admitted she didn't take the comment too lightly at first, but she eventually learned to accept the criticism as part of the learning process.

"At first, it was kind of hard to hear those things just because I have worked so hard, I have a degree in music, and I've been in like six different bands," the rocker confessed. "I've done so much with music, so sometimes it was hard for me to take that criticism, but finally I realized that's why I'm here. I signed up for this, and I can take the criticism. Move on."

And moving on she is. Now that the show must go on without her, Elise is already thinking about recording her debut album. So has she had any communication with Stevie Nicks since the legendary vocalist claimed she would hire Testone in an instant if she ever needed a singer?

"No, no, but hopefully there will be," Testone said with a smile. "Brian May, I talked to him a lot off-camera from Queen. Super cool. I mentioned two or three times I would love for him to play on my album, and he's like, 'Call me up. Let's do it.' So, I'm definitely going to get that phone number."

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

Sound off about Elise Testone's elimination in the comments below!

Related Photos

• 'American Idol' Season 11 Performances

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Rubio's Immigration Plan Could Bail Romney out With Hispanics (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Sarah Silverman Slams The Bachelor as Offensive, Degrading

Outspoken comedian Sarah Silverman has harsh words for women to choose to compete on The Bachelor, calling the enterprise "offensive" and degrading.

While being interviewed on the debut episode of Amanda de Cadenet's The Conversation Thursday night, the conversation turned to the ABC reality show.

She is not a fan.

"I'll tell you what's offensive about these shows... that are on ABC during prime time," she said. "Twenty-five women in JCPenney prom dresses, fully grown, going, 'He took us to a castle!' No he didn't. Producers procured a castle."

"And there's 25 of you, that's how special you aren't," she added.

Silverman, who recently sparked controversy with this abortion tweet, says that the real problem with the show is not that adults watch and make fun of it, but that young, impressionable girls think what they're seeing is worth emulating.

"I think, 'Wow, some young girl is watching this, and there should be a warning saying this is not acceptable behavior.' The biggest thing that a woman should realize is that there is not just one slot for a woman in any given thing."

"I think that's something that society, men and women both, have enforced. It's in the ether that one woman's success can only come at another's failure."

In this case, Courtney Robertson WINNING every time another girl fails to secure a rose, taunting them to their faces or in the confessional afterwards.

No word if Sarah feels the circumstances are on the same, degrading level on The Bachelorette, in which 25 dudes pine for the love of one lovely lady.

Speaking of which, check out The Bachelorette spoilers page for all the dish on the new season, starring Emily Maynard and premiering Monday, May 14.

It may be offensively bad TV, and Sarah Silverman makes good points, but if you know that going in, you can still watch - and ridicule - it all summer long.

[Photo: WENN.com]

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Last-Minute Booking App HotelTonight Goes International With Toronto And Vancouver

HotelTonight, the smartphone app that lets you book same-day hotel rooms, is moving into international markets for the first time. It now supports bookings in Toronto and Vancouver, and it plans to add other Canadian and international cities this year. The app is built for this moments when you suddenly realize that it would be nice to have a hotel ? say if you're visiting San Francisco from somewhere else in the Bay Area, and you decide to stay in the city for the night rather than head home. Instead of popping into a random hotel and possibly getting ripped off or finding it full, you can open the HotelTonight app, which will offer three curated hotel deals in the neighborhood ? one that's "Hip", one that's "Luxe", and one that's "Solid". (The deals first become available at noon local time, and can be purchased until 2am.)

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In Ticketing increases options for venues and promoters, as long as they're using iOS

Converting a cellphone into a credit card reader is nothing new, but transforming one into a box office for live events could shake things up a bit -- or, at least provide a bit of friendly competition for NFC-based alternatives. In Ticketing has just launched InHand Box Office software for use at live events. The company claims to be one of the greener ticketing outfits out there, and plans to turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a device capable of wirelessly processing payments (and printing out paper receipts, unlike Square or PayPal Here) at independently run concerts or festivals. Potentially reducing time spent in line and preventing congestion at the entrance translates into more people inside the venue, and using your phone instead of a difficult-to-establish credit card merchant account should reduce the friction in throwing such an event. As long as you tend to carry the appropriate iDevice with In Ticketing's new app installed, you can marry it to that iAPS Sled you see above to create your own personal CC processing machine. The only issues? Convincing Gotye to play your house party instead of Coachella next year, and that awkward lack of support for Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

Continue reading In Ticketing increases options for venues and promoters, as long as they're using iOS

In Ticketing increases options for venues and promoters, as long as they're using iOS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Great things, like the Android OS, change with the times

Suddenly today, the Internet is all a buzz with the prototype version of Android devices from the mid-2000s. Maybe it has something to do the millionaires at Oracle and Google fighting each other in court today over the money in our pockets. Or maybe it's because Android is so awesome that every little thing about it makes for a great headline. Probably a little of both. In any case, we figured we'd have a look ourselves at how things that are great go through changes. Back in '06, Android looked a lot like the ChaCha BlackBerry. Pretty much all good smartphones did. That prototype phone was called the Sooner, and there are still a few of them floating around today. I wish I had one myself. That's a picture of one above, courtesy Mike and Maaike. At the time, that's what smartphone users wanted -- an easy way to see content, and communicate quickly via text. Hence the QWERTY. I've never used one, but I imagine for things like e-mail and texting they were awesome. My old BlackBerry was, and sometimes I miss it. But again, things change. 

Then, in late 2006 LG introduced the LG KE850, also known as the LG Prada. It was a 3-inch capacitive touch screen phone that put multimedia content into a smartphone. After winning multiple awards for design, and selling over a million units (which was an amazing feat back then), things had to change. On the heels of the debut of the KE850, a little company called Apple decided to try their hand at a touchscreen based smartphone. That changed everything, for just about everybody -- including Google. The anticipated 2007 release of the Sooner didn't happen, and instead we had to wait for Google and T-Mobile to have a love fest and deliver us the T-Mobile G1, which incorporated the QWERTY with a touch screen. Other companies didn't rest on their heels either, phones like the HTC Touch Diamond and BlackBerry Storm showed up with varying degrees of success. It was obvious that capacitive touch screens could add multimedia to the user experience, and the modern smartphone was born.

Change is good. As long as it's done right, most of us can get on board. Heck, even old dinosaurs like myself now use touch screen phones with no keyboard, and secretly we enjoy it. It's significant because products that don't change to reflect what users want will slowly wither on the vine, and great engineers and designers keep a finger on the pulse of the users and deliver. Android, and all modern smartphone operating systems owe much to the pioneers of media-centric smartphones, and we hope things never stop changing for the better.

More: The Verge

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