American Idol contestant Kris Allen has claimed that his lack of air time on the show hasn’t bothered him or hurt his progress at all.

The 23-year-old singer rarely appeared in any of the shows audition episodes but surprisingly secured a place in the final twelve on last weeks live show.

“I think [the lack of screen time] went through my head a little bit, but I was just trying to stay grounded and hopefully that doesn’t matter,” Allen told Zap2it. “I have to go out there and do my thing on live TV. I think that I showed myself this past week and I think people liked it.”

He added: “I love being the guy who is kind of in the background. I wasn’t looking for the cameras and trying to put my face in there, I didn’t have any problems with it.”

Asked how he felt about making it to the final stages, Allen replied: “I was really shocked. I felt like anybody had a shot, and I felt so lucky to actually make it through.”