It was more than just a bad romance that brought things to an end for “American Idol” contestant Colton Dixon this week. It was a bad night overall.

Dixon’s renditions of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” did not garner rave reviews from the judges. Not only did the 20-year-old vocalist land in the bottom three for the first time in the competition, he was also eliminated on the same night.

“Honestly, it all happened so fast, and since I’d never been in the bottom three I didn’t really understand what was going on,” he says. “And even this morning, when I woke up, I was thinking, ‘I need to get ready for the mentors’ session’ and then I was like, ‘Oh no wait, that wasn’t a bad dream list night.’”

“It was weird,” he adds. “It’s weird being on the outside of it all and to be outside of the ‘Idol’ bubble.”

Dixon says he feels he made the wrong decision when he chose the Lady Gaga song.

“I’ve taken pride in knowing who I am, and really taking a stance in my faith, and I think that by choosing ‘Bad Romance’ I turned off a lot of those voters who are my core voters,” he says. 

Dixon is referring to his devout Christian fan base; the Tennessee native made his faith the forefront of his personality on the show, and that translated into his performances and song choices. He believes the Lady Gaga selection may have put him in jeopardy with his main demographic.

“I think (choosing ‘Bad Romance’ by Lady Gaga) was a bad risk to take because I didn’t really think it through,” he says. ‘I think musically and performance-wise and image-wise, I was so happy with the way it turned out…but at the same time the message that was portrayed wasn’t really who I was. And that’s normally the first thing that I think about, and for some reason I overlooked that this week, and I lost sight of what I normally think of first.”

Just before he left the stage after his elimination, he offered an apology to the judges and his fans for his performances.

 “I’m sorry that I got caught up in the musicality and performance this week, instead of what it should have been which is a connection to a song that I normally bring every week,” he said.  

However, Dixon says he’s not letting the elimination keep him down, saying he’s keen to get back to work making music and hopes to release an album soon. 

“I definitely want to do Christian music.  I hope that I get to but right now I want to write as much as I can and see what comes out,” he says. “And whatever the product is, that will be where I’m placed, in terms of that genre of music.”

American Idol airs Wednesdays at 8pm ET on CTV and the results show airs Thursdays at 8pm ET on CTV two.