Toscano had 'premonitions' of 'Idol' cut

How did Howard Beach native Pia Toscano feel the day after she was cut from "American Idol" in one of the biggest upsets in the show's 10 seasons?

No regrets. No anger. No blame.

Or so she said in a Friday conference call more notable for reporters' disappointment than her own.

Sounding happy and upbeat, Toscano, 22, said she had even mentally prepared for an early exit: "It's funny because the night before [Wednesday], I had a weird feeling in my stomach," she said. "I felt strange the night before and it happens to me a lot, these premonitions, and usually when I feel it, it happens."

While reporters were eager to cast blame, Toscano was not. If she has been criticized for much of anything this season, it has been for a somewhat static stage presence, but this past Wednesday, at the judge's urging, she changed her style, singing Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High." "It was nobody's fault," she said of Thursday's result. "The judges were absolutely right. I needed to change it up [and] I was really excited about this performance and had no regrets going into it. It wasn't really that much out of my comfort zone."

On Thursday's show, Toscano broke into sobs and was helped offstage by a medic after the decision was announced.

"It was a tough moment for me. While I was singing, it was very, very hard for me to get through that song. I was trying to take deep breaths but it wasn't working out so well. I was getting lightheaded and it was a bit much, a little overwhelming. So I did have the medic walk me offstage. But I'm fine now."

As for the future? "I'm gonna go back to New York for a little while," she said. "But I want to be close to my management out here [Los Angeles]. . . . I'll travel back and forth. I'm very very close to my family, but I really love it out here as well."