Jorge Nuñez won the "American Idol" judges over with his emotional personality and singing, but he kept it too cool with his performance of the Jackson' 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye." The Puerto Rican singer didn't make the cut Wednesday, along with Jasmine Murray.

We caught up with the Cidra, Puerto Rico, 21-year-old to talk about Simon Cowell's "Bad" quip, the upcoming country week and more.

Q: What were you thinking when Simon snapped back at you when you said you weren't singing "Bad" by Michael Jackson?

A: Simon is the kind of person that if you say something, he's really fast. You can't play with Simon. He's really fast, he's smart, he's witty, and he's going to get to you. ... At the moment, it was funny, but it was like, "You know what, Simon? Come on." But he's a great guy, and that is the first time he's told me something like that throughout the whole competition. And I am really happy with his comments toward me, and I know that he liked me in some way.

Q: What do you think of the judges' new "save" option?

A: I think it's a really good thing, because there's been people like Chris Daughtry ... like Jennifer Hudson that didn't win, and they've done great. ... There's people that should have gone further in the competition.

Q: How did you feel when the judges chose not to save you?

A: I was not hurt by that, because I believe that a person should not have any excuses, and when something happens, it's because it's meant to be so. And when it happened, I just took the hit like a man, and you know what? Things are gonna be great for me, because this is just the start of something much bigger.

Q: Before you were eliminated, were you nervous about next week's country theme?

A: With country week, that was kind of intimidating for me, because I'm Puerto Rican. [Laughs.] If I ever got to sing country on "American Idol," I bet that I was going to be not only the first Puerto Rican in the top 13, but the first Puerto Rican singing country ever in the history of Puerto Ricans.

Q: How did you choose your song for Michael Jackson week?

A: I just wanted to do something different, because I didn't want to stay in the same kind of vibe when singing. I didn't want to sing ballads throughout the whole competition. And since it was the first time on the big stage, I wanted something I could play with, move around, and I had a lot of fun.

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