'American Idol' Castoff Shannon Magrane Doesn't Regret Tackling Mariah Carey

Although Shannon Magrane was sent packing on last week's episode of "American Idol," the 16-year-old Tampa, Florida, native has no hard feelings about her early elimination.

On Monday (March 19), Magrane stopped by the MTV Newsroom and reflected on her fun, if brief time on the "Idol" stage.

"It's hard, you never know what America is thinking," Magrane admitted. "It's crazy, but I loved it. It was a great learning experience for me. I loved every minute of it."

During her final performance, Magrane took on Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's "One Sweet Day," which received relatively positive remarks from the judges. But in the end, that wasn't enough to save her from elimination. And while "Idol" judges usually advise contestants to stay away from Carey's power ballads, Magrane has no regrets about her song choice.

"I was happy I sang that song," Magrane said. "What not a lot of people know about that was that I chose that song because it was a song that me and my Papa sang together," she added of the tribute to her grandfather. "And [I] sang it because before he passed away, that was our favorite song that he would always sing to me. I just felt emotionally connected to that song."

Magrane wasn't the only contestant eliminated on "American Idol" last week. Jermaine Jones made a surprising exit after producers claimed he misled them about his history of arrests. The news was a shock to viewers but also to the contestants.

"That was definitely one of the biggest shockers on 'Idol' that I've ever seen so far, and I've been watching it since I was a little girl. That was a big shocker," Magrane said. "We all found out when America ! found ou t, we were all so shocked ... we were so sad because he was one of the people that were the funniest people in our group. He was always making people feel happy and laugh all the time."

Magrane's 11th-place elimination means she'll miss out on the singing show's summer tour but she told us she plans to attend. For now, the teen just has her sights set on making her mark in the music industry and finishing high school.

"I still have to go to school; I still have school work to do. But on top of that, I'm still going to be working on my dream," Magrane said. "I really want to be a triple threat. I want to be like Beyonc and Christina [Aguilera], where they can act and they can dance and they can sing, and I think that people who are triple threats are unstoppable. I aspire to be like that, I aspire to be a person like that."

Do you agree with America's decision to send Shannon Magrane home? Let us know in the comments!

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