'Idol' bootee Bennett says she's not going away

LOS ANGELES -- Whether she was being praised for her preternaturally mature voice or torn down as "screechy," as Simon Cowell put it this week, Paris Bennett pretty much never failed to smile or say "thank you" during her time on "American Idol."

If she seemed that much more levelheaded than your typical 17-year-old, it's because she has an unshakable confidence that when she's performing, she knows she'll do the best she can.

"My whole philosophy is if you can't believe in yourself, you're never going to be able to go on," Bennett says, a day removed from her Wednesday elimination. "It doesn't really matter if people don't believe in you. ... You have to believe in yourself. That's one thing I can say that I do.

"Anytime I'm on that stage, I give myself full credit that I know I can do whatever it is that's put in front of me. That's how I make it through."

Which is why she can say that, despite her time on "Idol" ending a few weeks shy of the finals, she was "very, very happy" with the outcome.

"I'm in the top five. I can't really complain," Bennett says. "Look where I made it to. I'm just so glad to have had the opportunity to share my gift, and just give my all, give 100 percent night after night."

And it's not as if Bennett will be sliding into obscurity anytime soon. She'll have a track on the finalists album and be part of the 39-city "Idol" tour that kicks off in June. And she's also hoping to cut an album of her own in the not-distant future.

"Once the tour is over and the CD is doing well, God willing, I'll be going back on another tour to promote my album," she says. "So I'll be doing a lot of album things, I want to do voiceovers, acting -- I just want to keep entertaining."

When she does record an album, Bennett wants it to reflect the wide range of songs she tackled in her time on the show.

"I've been called 'the unpredictable one,' and if I'm going to do an album it's going to be unpredictable," she says. "It will definitely have jazz in it, definitely R&B. And it will definitely have rock. I've stepped into a new era as of when I did Queen [on the show]. I'm really, really feeling that whole atmosphere. I just want to try to give you guys a little bit of everything."