‘X Factor’s’ Astro: ‘I Doubt I Was in the Bottom Two’

Whether you feel like punishing Astro over his behavior while he was in the bottom two or you understand where he was coming from, there’s something very refreshing about the teenaged M.C.’s candor on The X Factor.

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The perfectly prepped and packaged answers aren’t a consideration for him. Even after the criticism he received from the judges, the ultimately eliminated Stacy Francis, and the fans, Astro isn’t backing down.

“Still, I wouldn’t change a thing,” the 15-year-old contestant tells The Hollywood Reporter. “If I could have gone back, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

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During the performance of his survival song last week, the singer was visibly annoyed with the fact that he was in the bottom two. But, it sounds as if his anger was directed at the show and not the fans.

“It was kind of aggravating on my part, because basically something that happened behind the scenes,” he says. “I felt like I was being treated unfairly, basically that was X Factor’s way of punishing me. I don’t care to talk about what happened, but I doubt I was in the bottom two.”

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“Not to sound cocky,” he continues. “But I don’t see how you can have the most followers on Twitter of all the contestants, most views on YouTube of all the contestants, and be voted in the bottom two. So, I knew something was fishy… That’s why I spazzed out.”

He says he’s over it now and ready to move on. And days after the results show aired, Astro felt he needed to post an apology to his supporters on his Facebook wall.

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“I just wanted to apologize to all my fans and the people in the streets repping me and telling their friends to watch and they’re watching for the first time to see me tearing up,” he says. “That’s kind of embarrassing to Brooklyn, hip hop, and Team Astro, and all the Astro-nauts around the world. So, I just felt like I had to give a true apology to everyone.”

And as for his mentor, L.A. Reid, who lectured him on his behavior on-camera? THR attended the results show taping and saw Astro and the judge speaking privately afterward.

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“I don’t want to say what he was telling me,” Astro says of the meeting. “Let’s just say me and L.A., we’re close. We’re the closest in the competition. L.A. was just giving me advice and telling me to keep my head up.”

THR contacted show reps for comment on Astro’s allegation that he wasn’t truly in the bottom two, but they didn’t immediately respond to the request.

[Update: An X Factor spokesperson issued the following statement to THR: “After the public vote, Astro was in the bottom two last week. All votes are collected and tallied by an independent vote management firm. The results were certified to be true and accurate.”]

 Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter: @TheRealJethro