'I feel like music is a gateway for me': TJ Zimba's end goal after Australian Idol elimination

While contestant TJ Zimba was eliminated from Australian Idol on Tuesday, March 5 alongside Tyler Hammill, the 24-year-old has a lot more cards left up his sleeve. 

Speaking to Chattr the morning after his elimination, TJ revealed he was orchestrating a completely different game plan during his time on the show.

"That's where I feel like I played this real smart, right?," he said.

"Because I was producing my own tracks for the whole show, I felt like I built myself into all of the tracks.

"So when I do release my own music you're not like 'oh, this sounds nothing like when he was on Idol because no matter what song I got, I made it sound like I wrote it.

"I felt like that was my upper hand. I was never thinking about leaving Idol. I was always thinking about, as an artist, how can I use this platform to launch myself?"

During the episode, Judges Marcia Hines and Amy Shark commended TJ on his own personal style and his ability to create a masterpiece without relying on vocals; however, Kyle Sandilands, even though acknowledging he was "great", said he wasn't "superstar great".

"I'll tell you one thing you need to know. If your dream doesn't offend anybody, you're not dreaming big enough," Zimba said. 

"I feel like I tied everything I learned and turned it into positive energy.

"Any negative energy that comes my way, I can turn that into positive matter and use that as fuel. You're telling me I can't? I want to show you why I can."

After being eliminated from Australian Idol, Zimba admitted that there was more to his "end goal" than just the music.

"My end goal is to build hospitals and build clothing brands and clothe people who can’t afford clothes and help people who can’t afford health care,” he said. “I feel like music is a gateway for me to be able to help people and make people feel something. Make those without voices yell and make those who have been told to be silent to speak up.

“So many times people are told they can’t and I’m standing here today to show people that you can.”