Peculiar things have been happening on Canadian Idol lately. First, a competitor gets the boot on her birthday. Then Aaron Walpole's rendition of a favourite tune becomes his swan song. To quote Alanis Morrisette: "Isn't it ironic?"

According to Walpole, he's just thrilled to have made it to the Top 3 and claims it's good to end on a high note.

"I loved this week. This week was fantastic," he says. "I got to sing my favourite song on Canadian Idol, with the Barenaked Ladies too. And I got to sing it twice."

The 26-year-old BNL fan is talking about "Break My Heart", the angst-filled love song he generously peppered with emotion.

However, finding the music's meatiest part had its challenges, says the theatre-school grad.

"It's five minutes long. It took me two hours to get the right cut for the show," explains Walpole, who performed a condensed version due to time constraints.

After all, with each member of Barenaked Ladies in attendance, he just couldn't risk offending his rock gods.

Perhaps, that's also why the singer felt the need to speak up immediately after judge Zack Werner slammed his playful take on his second song, "Enid".

"It's just that it bugs me when people say that I'm impersonating somebody and he also indirectly bashed them as well. I mean you don't do that. That's a respect issue," Walpole explains.

"I mean they're sitting right there in the audience. Thick as Thieves sold like 500 CDs and they sold 10 million. I mean they must've done something right."

He says he picked the song for its sentimental value, despite knowing the repercussions.

"It's the first song I ever learned of the Barenaked Ladies and it's also off of my favourite album, the Gordon album," says Walpole, who displayed its spirit by sporting the colours red, white and blue.

It's unclear whether the zany performance ultimately caused Walpole's elimination. However, he suspects viewers vote for competitors with whom they can identify.

He admits he felt going head-to-head with Calgary's 17-year-old Melissa O'Neil would be tough.

"Mothers and the soccer moms, they've got daughters just like her and the daughters really love her too because she's just an amazing person. They can identify with her," Walpole says.

But what about this jokester teddy bear from St. Thomas, Ont.?

"The crowd that identifies with me the most are guys my age and they're not the guys who'd watch Canadian Idol," he says. "Unless their girlfriends watch."

Eye on Idol