By Jamie Ruby

Last week Devin Velez was the contestant voted off of Fox's American Idol. Velez, who hails from Chicago, recently talked to the media about his journey and what's to come.

Velez told the media that he received good advice from the judges and Jimmy Iovine during his time on Idol. "[The best advice was] from all of them, which is stay true to yourself. I think that I've been pretty consistent in doing that on the show. I was the same before the show, I was the same on the show, and I'm going to be the same after the show. Idol hasn't changed me. I have grown as a person, but I haven't changed who I am. I think that America fell in love with me for a reason, and I don't want to change, not just to let them down, but also not to let myself down. I think that you should be proud of who you are and the decisions that you've made as a person, and so I can say that I have no regrets on the show and if I could go back and change anything I wouldn't."

The singer was not surprised to be leaving the show, and is grateful for the experience. "Nothing of course was definite until the moment of, but even the night prior I was getting this feeling and I was like, "All right, now I think I'm going home." And I wasn't sad about it; I'm still not sad about it now, and it's weird because people are expecting me to be all mopey and crying, but my thing is, making top ten was winning for me, everything after that was falling action. It's a great accomplishment. Some of the contestants on the show that are still left, they've auditioned two or three times and this is my first time auditioning and I've made it this far. It's a great accomplishment and I'm so blessed to have made it this far."