Frenchie Davis is ready to leave Idol controversy in the past and be recognized for one thing: The Voice. In last week’s premiere, she belted her way back into the public spotlight when she powered through “I Kissed a Girl” (more on that unconventional song choice below), which was good enough to make Christina Aguilera do a 180. Davis took some time to sound off to EW about naysayers, her coach, the blind auditions, the upcoming battle rounds, and her love for the gays.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you feel when Christina turned around?
FRENCHIE DAVIS: I think you saw it in my reaction. It took everything in me to not stop singing and go like, “OH MY GOD, SHE TURNED AROUND!” [Laughs] I was so excited. I’ve always admired her. As far as pop singers go, she’s one of the few pop singers that’s a real singer, so I have a great deal of respect for her. It meant a lot to have her turn around for me.

It seems like such a perfect pairing. Was she your first choice?
At first – at first – because I’m such a huge Cee-Lo fan, I was hoping that Cee-Lo would turn around. But when I stripped away my fanaticism and solely looked at it as who could offer me the most as a singer, Christina was absolutely the right choice.

What kind of advice have you gotten from Christina?
Two of the best pieces of advice that I’ve heard from Christina: Number one, don’t forget to have fun. It was a very stressful environment filming the first part of the show. We were sequestered in a hotel we weren’t allowed to leave, we weren’t allowed to have visitors, they took our cell phones, they took away our laptops, and I mean, it was stressful. She said don’t allow all the stress surrounding this to take away from the fact that this is an opportunity of a lifetime. Number two: I heard her tell two other singers, “I really want to hear the quality of your voice. I don’t want a lot of extra riffing. Even I myself have been guilty of it, but I don’t want to hear that.” I fell in love with her a hundred times more hearing her say that. I think America is going to be pleasantly surprised to see that she’s a really insightful coach and she’s really invested. She really gives a damn and she really is invested in helping us all grow into better singers and better performers.

Source: EW