Remember Mandisa Hundley, American Idol Season 5’s ninth place finisher? The gospel vocalist was infamously teased by then-judge Simon Cowell for her weight during her audition when he said, “Do we have a bigger stage this year?”

Mandisa has since seized the opportunity to change her life and lost more than 100 pounds.

The Grammy-nominated singer discussed her recent weight loss on Good Morning America, noting the pain of Simon’s flippant comment.

“It was just hurtful and mean and the one thing I didn’t want to have happen,” she said. To help her get into shape, Mandisa turned to Zumba and a personal trainer to manage her weight. After some struggle with getting initial results from the effort, it was her fan-base that helped her power through.

“There was a time when I didn’t feel like getting up and going to Zumba one day,” Mandisa confessed. “I had done everything right. I got on scale and I had gained 1.8 pounds, so I tweeted that I was through with it. And when I woke up from my nap I had tons of messages saying, ‘Don’t give up.’ And more than that, they said, ‘I appreciate knowing that you’re real and that you go through difficult times.’”

As for what she’d say to Simon if she had the chance, she’s still full of forgiveness but admits she’d have to slip a “How ya like me now?” jab into the convo.

Source: ABC News

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Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images For The Recording Academy

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