"American Idol" was whittled down to the Final 16 on Thursday night when ALEXANDRÉA LUSHINGTON, JASON YEAGER, ALAINA WHITAKER and ROBBIE CARRICO were given their walking papers.

Learning she was one of the two women with the lowest number of votes was a very poignant moment for Alaina, who at first told RYAN SEACREST that she couldn't sing her song -- but then, with the support of the remaining "Idol" women, managed to do just that.

"Last night I had so many emotions and thoughts," she explains. "Now the next day, I can look at it and say, 'I can take so much away from this.' How many singers can say they were in the Top 10 girls in America? Last night, I was emotional, because it was so surprising."

Also not expecting to be eliminated, but philosophical about it is Alexandréa, who says, "A lot of people were surprised. I could hear a lot of 'What? What?' It is what it is. I enjoyed every minute of it. I don't regret anything ... Just being able to perform in front of 30 million people is good enough for me."

Robbie took this opportunity to defend his authenticity, an issue that judge SIMON COWELL brought up several times, saying he wasn't sure that Robbie was really a rocker.

"I have spent the last six years working my tail off in grungy bars, pulling our own trailer with our equipment, loading it in and out and living in a van sometimes," he stands up for himself. "Because of what I did before with pop music -- that was a job to me. If you ever turned on my CD player when I was on the road, you would have heard rock all the time. This is me. You get what you see."

Robbie also told reporters that there is no way he was wearing a wig during his "American Idol" performances. "I have been growing this hair for a very long time, and I think it is ridiculous that they come up with something like that."

As for his "Idol" experience, Jason says it taught him to toughen up: "It is a big emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. I don't think I was prepared to deal with the stress of it all, especially being on national TV. I am Top 20 out of 100,000 people who auditioned. I tried to deal with criticism. If I am going to get a record deal, I am going to have to learn to deal with people's opinions and not let it get to me."

"American Idol"'s Final 16 will perform next week: the Top 8 guys on Tuesday; the Top 8 gals on Wednesday -- both nights at 8 p.m. on FOX.