"I thought I was going to get slammed," he recalls. "But they were really nice to me!"

Indeed the 17-year-old from Sydney seemed to be the favourite in the competition from day one. But the favourite status also came with a whole lot of pressure.

"I think I felt a big pressure just to be really, really good," he admits. "You want to do a good job and if you can't keep to that standard every week you think you're letting the team down and it's pretty full on."

"It hasn't really been a character building experience, but it's sort of been a character revealing experience," he says. "It's a real show of character if you can pull through this and be solid after."

His next hurdle, of course, comes this Sunday at the Grand Final. But no matter what happens Idol has been a chance for Matt to clarify why he loves performing and what he will continue to do.

"To be someone that makes music that people respect, that people can listen to and go, 'oh man, that's a great story'," he says. "Because music can get people through that day; that's the biggest thing you can do with your life to be able to affect another person like that, it's pretty cool."

Check out Matt's latest profile.