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Jennifer Lopez Slammed for Saying 'American Idol' Contestant 'Sings Like a Heavy Girl'

By Antoinette Bueno
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American Idol's final season is already starting off with a little controversy.

Fan favorite judge Jennifer Lopez is facing some hot water after her comments about contestant Lindita Halimi during Wednesday's season premiere. Halimi, who lost an incredible 150 pounds before her audition, wowed Lopez and her fellow Idol judges Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban with her rendition of James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World." However, Lopez's comments about Halimi had some viewers a little miffed.

"She sings like a heavy girl," Lopez tells Connick Jr. during the performance, the comment clearly meant to be taken as a compliment.

"That's true. She didn't lose that part," Connick Jr. replies.

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Lopez reiterated her thoughts after the judges unanimously voted to keep Halimi in the competition.

"She sings like a big girl, though," Lopez laughs. "She didn't lose that."

Not surprisingly, some viewers had plenty to say about the exchange on social media.

Before Halimi's audition, the 26-year-old Kosovo native told the story of her dramatic weight loss. "In my hometown when I started singing, a lot of people were like, 'Oh she has a nice voice, but she's really fat,'" she said, "and as a teenager that does touch you emotionally a lot."

Through diet and exercise, Halimi not only shed the weight, but she's now also a personal trainer. She later married her own first personal trainer.

"It came to the point where I was like, 'I can make a change for myself, and I could do better for myself,'" Halimi said about shedding the pounds. "I love to be a part of somebody else's transformation."

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Former Idol contestant Clay Aiken recently made headlines, when he slammed the final season of the show that made him famous.

"Oh good Lord... those boring ass responses from the judges!? Where is Simon when you need him!?" Aiken tweeted on Wednesday, obviously missing former judge Simon Cowell. "That guy need a hook to pull him off stage."

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