McPhee remains confident, but not over-confident

Although she's set to face Taylor Hicks in this week's "American Idol" Finals, Katharine McPhee sounds surprisingly relaxed.

"I think at this point I feel so much freer in the sense of like that competition mode, that it's still a competition left, but it's that we both have won," she explains. "We both have record deals now; we both are going to have the same kind of press and stuff like that. I just feel so grateful at this point that anything that happens is just going to, for me, I don't think I'm going to take any steps backward this next week."

That last statement is a reference to a comment made a week ago by acerbic judge Simon Cowell. Following a performance of "Over The Rainbow" that the judges agreed was her best of the season, McPhee sang "I Ain't Got Nothin' Like the Blues" causing Cowell to declare that she'd ended the show with a step backward. Despite frequent criticism from the judges, the 22-year-old from Sherman Oaks, California has faced the perception of over-confidence within the online fan community.

She scoffs at the notion.

"I think that's actually ridiculous to say," she notes calmly. "I don't know, too confident, what people don't realize is that what they see on TV is all they see. I have never, for once, ever gone, 'Oh, I'm going to win this thing.' And I think the fact that I have not ever stated that or ever been too confident is the fact that I'm still here."

Talking to reports on the eve of the "Idol" finale, though, McPhee is called to task for a number of the snap judgments made by the show's extremely vocal viewers. She also responded to any feelings that she was too happy after Elliott Yamin's elimination last week.

"[I]t's an awkward thing," she admits. "I mean, think about it -- you made it through the next round and yet someone is going home. Obviously your excited and you're in the Top Two. So I don't regret being excited about making it through the Top Two. If that hurts me, then so be it. It's a ridiculous notion to me that you can't be excited for the fact that you made it to the Top Two. It is sad that Elliott went home, but I made it through and it was such a close, close margin. And I apologize for looking happy, I guess."

One of McPhee's secrets this season, it seems, has been to avoid listening to what people have been saying about her.

"I think as soon as you start believing your own press is when you get started to get into trouble," says McPhee. "And I think it kind of makes you a little cuckoo too, because you think everyone is talking about you and saying negative things, and I'd just rather be positive, to be quite frank."

The singer, who was living the life of a regularly auditioning, occasionally working aspiring actress before "Idol," finds it easy to be positive about her competition.

"I think Taylor is just really free on stage," she raves. "If I get nervous a lot of times I can kind of clench up and not be as free and spontaneous, and I think that that's something that Taylor is really, really great about doing."

McPhee adds, "But we're both so different, so it's just going to depend on what America wants."

The last "American Idol" performance episode airs Tuesday (May 23) night, with the results coming at the end of Wednesday's two-hour finale.