(andPOP) - One of the most memorable moments from the second season of American Idol was when the lively red-haired Vanessa Olivarez shot back at the infamous Simon Cowell when he told her she needed to lose a few pounds.
A few months removed from the show, Olivarez says she has no hard feelings for the Brit.
"If I ever run into him on the street, I'll stop and say hey," she told andPOP on a recent trip to Toronto. "I think he says what everybody else thinks. He just says it in a very harsh, blunt kind of way."
Olivarez, who has a 2-song CD out in Canada (available through HMV or Amazon.ca), does have some negative feelings towards the Idol organizers. The Idol finalists released an album, and after Ruben Studdard was crowned the winner, they toured North America. Originally, Olivarez says she was told all 12 finalists would be on the tour, but organizers later changed it to the final 10. Being the first person voted off, Olivarez was therefore left off the tour.
"If you're going to decide on the top 12, then why wouldn?t you include the top 12 on the CD and the tour? It would have made sense."
There has been a lot of speculation about why Olivarez was snubbed, and months later, she still does not know the reason.
"I wish I had all the answers but they are very blas? about it and don?t really give me straight forward answers."
Not being included on the Idol CD and tour might have been a blessing in disguise, she says, for if she did not have the free time in the summer to work on her Canadian release (The One/I'm In Love With My Best Friend's Ex), she would not have had a top 10 song in Canada.
"I'm not really angry about it because look where I am now. I don?t know if I would have had [the CD] if I was on tour."
But why is an American Idol finalist releasing an album north of the border?
She was approached by James Collins, a Canadian songwriter, about working together in Canada. "My dad talked to him a couple times and made sure he wasn?t a serial killer."
He wasn't. The CD was released through Outta The Box Records, a label started by Olivarez, Collins, and his songwriting partner, Dave Pickell.
She hopes that by releasing material not associated with the show, she might one day be known as "Vanessa Olivarez" rather than "Vanessa from American Idol."
"It's nice to have the teeny tiny notoriety that I do have that pushed me a little. But I am hoping to get away from that. I'm trying to get away from that as much as I can."
She is also working on a U.S. release in her home city of Atlanta, but is unsure if she will release it independently or sign with a major label.
"If I could pull an Ani DiFranco and create my own label and own my own company and do it intelligently, then cool. I don?t really have the business mindset to it."
