Ashley Coulter reflects on being bounced from Canadian Idol

Wed, August 16, 2006

By LONDON FREE PRESS STAFF



Just don’t ask Ashley Coulter to make the call on the next Canadian Idol.

“I’m so glad that it’s not me that has to choose,” the London singer said this afternoon, one day after being voted off the 2006 edition of CTV’s pop vocal contest.

“I can’t pick. I could never pick.”

On Tuesday, the 23-year-old became the fifth finalist to be eliminated after receiving the fewest votes out of a record three million cast following Monday’s episode.

“This year, it’s so unpredictable,” Coulter said of what she called Idol’s “strongest-ever” field.

Three young men and two young women, representing Saskatchewan, Ottawa-Gatineau, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, are still in the Idol hunt.

Coulter is one of 12 siblings and expects to spend some “down time” with her dad’s family in the Windsor area and her mother’s family in Burlington as she returns to London from the Idol cocoon in Toronto.

She has also stayed close to the London rockers who were with her in the band Nemesis a few years ago. Idol interrupted plans for a reunion under another name.

Coulter knows there will be more music in her future, but is waiting to determine its direction and settle her work commitments.

Coulter had taken a hiatus from her job as a cashier to compete for the Idol crown.

“(It) has been the greatest experience of my life so far ... the people are amazing,”she said.

She had no regrets about any of her song choices for Idol telecasts, eight tunes ending with her rendition of Crying this week.

“I’m happy I went out singing Crying. It’s a beautiful song. Thank you, Roy Orbison,” she said in a nod to the late Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who created the classic pop ballad.

Coulter said she doesn’t think she cried after Tuesday’s vote announcement sent her home. “I think Craig (Sharpe, 16, from Upper Island Cove, NL) cried a lot,” Coulter joked.

Sharpe was also in the bottom three in fan voting, but escaped on Tuesday to sing another week.

Kati Durst, of the Goderich-area community of Nile, was the other London-region competitor to make it to the 2006 Idol Top 10. Durst was eliminated earlier.

The best-ever finish by a London-region Idol is third place. Aaron Walpole, of Paynes Mills, near Talbotville, was No. 3 in 2005.

Coulter and Durst are to join other Idol singers for the 2006 season finale.