Season 14 of American Idol continues on Wednesday (April 8th) with just eight contestants. Over the weeks, the hopefuls have been getting some sound advice from judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, Harry Connick, Jr. and this season’s show mentor, Nashville music mogul, Scott Borchetta.

As the president of Big Machine Label Group, Borchetta has helped shape the careers of superstars like Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw and Florida Georgia Line. Remaining Idol contestants Nick Fradiani, Qaasim Middleton, Quentin Alexander, Rayvon Owen, Tyanna Jones, Clark Beckham, Jax, and Joey Cook are getting the benefit of Borchetta’s wisdom. Each says their mentorship sessions with him are instrumental in advancing them week after week:

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Nick Fradiani (Gulford, CT) – “I’ve actually worked with Scott quite a lot. He’s been incredible, to say the least. It seems like a little bit he’s worked with us cause on camera he hasn’t been on that much. That’s not why he’s here. Like, it’s not fake. He’s behind the scenes working with us every single day almost. He’s pretty much moved to L.A. when he’s out of Nashville and he’s taking this very seriously. I think whoever wins is gonna have one of the most amazing opportunities of any Idol contestant yet. I really believe that because he’s gonna get the best songs for you, he’s gonna get the best promotion for you, and he knows what he wants, and you can tell he sees certain things in each of us and he’s trying to get that out of us and he’s been unbelievable. He’s helped me maybe the most out of anybody so far.” SOUNDCUE (:42 OC: . . . anybody so far.)

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Qaasim Middleton (Brooklyn, NY) – “It’s been phenomenal! I really appreciate everything he’s brought to us, and he’s in the best interest of each artist, and he allows for us to have our own form of expression, even though he might have like an idea for us he doesn’t make that the final say cause he knows that each person’s way of thinking is different from his, and so he takes that into huge consideration and allows for us to be who we are as artists and as humans, cause those are two different things. I like him a lot. He’s really dope, and he’s given great advice when it comes down to stage presence and honing in, making sure that you look at the cameras all around . . . all of this stuff. Him and the whole team of American Idol have really focused on making us better.” SOUNDCUE (:45 OC: . . . making us better.)

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Quentin Alexander (New Orleans, LA) – “I definitely feel like Scott is putting forth a ton of effort to make sure that I’m always at my best and really kind of learning who I am as an artist, what I would want to produce as an artist, you know, what I would stage-wise, and so far he’s been doing a really great job at helping figure it out because there are some times when I don’t know certain things because he’s on the more professional and the more business standpoint of it whereas I’m just super amateur, so we definitely kind of balance each other out. Like he trusts me enough as an artist with the music portion of it, with the arrangements or it, and he chimes in every now and then but he just has that trust in me that we can balance each other out and kind of make something great.” SOUNDCUE (:44 OC: . . . make something great.)

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Rayvon Owen (Richmond, VA) – “Working with Scott Borchetta has been really cool. We’ve recently started to see more eye-to-eye and I think I’m understanding more of what he wants from me and he’s understanding more of who I am as an artist and kind of my goals and where I want to focus my music. He has so much insight to the music industry and to what sells, but also to what is natural and what comes from me, so we’re learning a lot about each other, and that’s making our mentorship sessions go so smoothly.” SOUNDCUE (:30 OC: . . . go so smoothly.)

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Tyanna Jones (Jacksonville, FL) – “I feel like Scott is doing a really good job working with me. It’s a big process working with him. He wants to make sure that you know not only do like everybody that you perform to know what you are as an artist, but he wants to make sure that you know who you are as an artist. Like he wants you to be 100 percent positive that you want to go into this form of music or that genre or, you know, things like that, so it’s really cool.” SOUNDCUE (:24 OC: . . . it’s really cool.)

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Clark Beckham (White House, TN) – “Everybody who pays attention knows who he is, especially in music, especially in Nashville, and what’s great about Scott is in this process you meet a lot of big time people, and he is a big time person, but with him specifically, he has a gift of just piercing through the walls of intimidation and just coming straight on your level and talking to you like he’s your best friend, and he really cares. I think that’s the factor is that he really cares, truly. On and off camera he cares about each one of us and our music and he’s very involved and he’s very wise and he has a lot of great ideas, of course, and it’s been a real honor to work with him.” SOUNDCUE (:41 OC: . . . work with him.)

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Jax (East Brunswick, NJ) – “Scott Borchetta is a rockstar! He is the coolest guy ever. He makes me feel like you’re his friend when he walks into a room so he immediately makes you feel comfortable with expressing yourself as an artist. He really, really, really wants to pull the creativity and the art out of you, which is such a beautiful thing. He walked in the room (and) treated me like I was an artist on Big Machine already. He treats all of us like we’re artists past the show, you know? It didn’t feel like we’re ever on camera with him, and I think the greatest part about Scott is that my whole life I’ve been told to pull back and he pushes me to push the envelope further, and it’s really super cool.” SOUNDCUE (:42 OC: . . . really super cool.)

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Joey Cook (Woodbridge, VA) – “He has the best advice and he’s growing to know all of us, and I know that I’m not somebody you can easily figure out. It’s complicated, and he’s giving me perfect advice, so he’s helping me find this beautiful middle ground of not changing who I am and staying true to myself but also being able to appeal to the mainstream.” SOUNDCUE (:23 OC: . . . to the mainstream.)

Tune in to American Idol on FOX at 8 p.m. ET to watch the top seven contestants perform live.