Cowell to Vino Alan: I don't think you would have won

WENN

"X Factor" judge Simon Cowell had interesting comments for eliminated contestant Vino Alan, assuring him he would be successful in the industry yet would never have won the competition. The 40-year-old was left stunned on last Thursday's results show as he was axed from the contest, despite having ranked in third place on the voting leaderboard for the past few weeks.

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In an interview with Yahoo! Music, Alan admits he was surprised that after the sing-off Cowell had chosen 13-year-old Diamond White over him, especially since Alan thought he had a fan in the British music mogul. He asked Cowell about his decision after the show, and Alan explained, "I even asked him, like, 'Dude, I just want to make sure I didn't do something to upset you.' I wanted to know if I was being let go for a different reason. He said, 'No, and you're gonna be a star either way.' But he did say, 'If it helps anything, I don't think you would have won anyway.'"

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And while Cowell was right about his hunch that Alan wouldn't win the $5 million recording contract, the Missouri native is still staying positive about the experience and is thankful for the exposure. He adds, "I'm being hit up by people I can't even tell you about yet. It's been the craziest past 12 hours. I would love for (mentor) L.A. (Reid) to see that other people want to snatch me up, and then we can go to work together. There's a ton of things poppin', so I'm grateful I'm not under a thumb now. It's the best of both worlds - let's put it that way."

"The X Factor" airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.