JB- Speaking of the branding, everybody's talking about Jaydee and his rockabilly/Elvis sort of attitude. Zack told me it's a good party trick. Do you see it as a talent as an individual or as an impersonator? How far do you think that can get him?

FF- I don't consider him an impersonator at all. He's got his influences, but at the end of the day there's nothing like him in the marketplace right now. If he gets to America and somebody sees dollar signs around his blond halo, I think there are people down there that can turn that into a career. I'm not sure how much of a puritan he is in terms of his credibility as a musician and as a singer. He's not the greatest singer on the planet, but when he sings what he understands he does well with it.

I thought his performance the other night was great and I said it, and I was the only one at that point who thought it. So, hey, his performance and his effort . . . It was the most earnest that I had ever seen him. He was really putting forth an effort to be competitive and to be intense in a way - you could say - in that song, throughout the course of that song. He's enough of an anomaly and the reaction we all saw or all gave when we first saw him can't be erased. So no matter what you say now after seeing him week after week, we all had the same reaction to him when we saw him the first time. So if you multiply the four of us and Canada by the rest of North America, he's probably good for a couple of records.

JB- You mentioned that if someone in the states saw dollar signs. Do you think that what he does can work in Canada?

FF- Yeah, I'd think it'd work. Certainly in the context of coming out of Idol it's going to work. The question is is how long it's going to work for and then the real test of time comes through great songwriting, collaborative effort and obviously good marketing and promotion. I mean, the guy…he can endorse a lot of different things, brands in this country that exist throughout the U.S. as well. I think that you'd be hard-pressed to not want to . . . or to deny that that kid's appealing.

JB- Appealing, so that's one word to describe Jaydee. Give me one word to describe Carly Rae.

FF- Just lovable, man.

JB- I can't put my finger on it. What's so damn appealing about her? Is she really that charming or is it a character we see on stage?

FF- I think she's really charming. Vulnerability goes a long, long way. Even with actors in movies. When you think of your favourite movie roles and those people, people like the vulnerable type of person in life who might crack under pressure but doesn't.

I think her eyes …she has these sort of doe-y eyes and being the last girl probably won't hurt either. There's a lot of underpuppy elements there. I use that word specifically, because dog sounds a little too hardcore. She's the underpuppy in that respect because she's that little, vulnerable, almost always on the verge of shedding a tear, but at the same time sparkling. That's appealing and that's lovability. When Disney draws Bambi, that's what they're going for.

JB- So have you seen her personality or stage presence change? Has it changed at all since the first time you met her?

FF- It's weird, because she knows how to perform. Her last performance, there were a couple of flaws vocally. Honestly, her use of the stage - from a physical standpoint and movement and just understanding the geography of the stage - that was really professional. She's moved by emotion as well. I don't think she's a strategist as some of the other people might be, but she's moved by emotion, and what moves her is sensible and relates really comfortably with who she is.

JB- You mentioned some flawed notes. It seems that as the weeks go on it's less about getting the song perfect but the other aspects of the performance.

FF- At this point it's all about entertainment. When it's a hardcore marathon race with 3,000 people in it, you've got to prove yourself through performance ability as well and that goes with vocal quality et cetera, et cetera. But once you've effectively won people over, now people are starting to think ahead and forecast and 'Why do I like this person?' and 'What's good about them?' All these other aspects of their character start to matter, and I think that as those things increase in presence of mind, you become less picky on certain other things. To me right now, I'm looking at them on stage and I'm thinking, 'OK, this person is now in front of 30,000 people at the ACC. What's going to happen?'

I went to see the Police a couple of weeks ago, and Sting still sings like Sting. But at the end of the day it's how he moves and talks to the audience and all the other things that make him a superstar and validate the amount of records he's put out and the amount of people who go to see him at 50 or whatever bucks a pop.

JB- So now that we are at that point of where we have a handle of who these contestants are and who they are as performers, is there one thing that they can do or screw up that can get them voted off?

FF- Song choice.

JB- We hear that every time.

FF- I mean "Walking on Sunshine." Tara Oram. I mean that song did not translate for the reason . . . I think it just didn't. Some songs just don't lend themselves. It's not only the song you choose, but it's the night you choose to sing it relative to what everybody else is doing and the mood of the show. It's pretty scientific if you think about it. That song on another day might have worked for her, but on that particular day it just didn't work.

JB- When she was singing out the show, I think her song should have been "Singing in the Rain." She certainly wasn't Walking on Sunshine after that.

FF- (laughing) Yeah, for sure.