'American Idol': Katy Perry gives last platinum ticket to a young 'superstar' in the making
"American Idol" is officially out of platinum tickets.
Monday's episode saw judge Katy Perry grant the third and final ticket, part of a new twist for Season 20 that sends an exceptional singer not just to Hollywood, but also past the first round of Hollywood Week.
The first two tickets were snatched up in previous episodes, but the final one went to Jay Copeland after the 23-year-old musician delivered a performance of the Stevie Wonder classic "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" that made Perry's jaw drop within the first five notes.
Before his audition, Copeland opened up about how he was on a fellowship to go to graduate school for acting but had to drop out when the school wouldn't let him audition for "Idol."
"I don't know if I made the right decision or the wrong decision, but I do know that I made the best decision for myself," he said.
According to Perry and fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, Copeland made the right choice.
"Finally a competition!" Perry exclaimed. "You’ve done a lot of studying. You can probably skip a day of school." Perry then revealed that Copeland would be walking away with the third platinum ticket of the season.
"It’s the 20th year of creating superstars, and you’re a superstar," she said. "I think you’re worth all of the platinum."
Saylor cracks with emotion, but Lionel Richie pushes her to power through
One emotional audition came from Saylor, an 18-year-old babysitter from Newalla, Oklahoma. Before her performance, Saylor opened up about her pain from her dad abandoning their family three years ago to marry a woman he met online through Saylor's music fan page.
"I just want to prove that I can do it without him," she said. "That I got it. And I don’t need his approval anymore.”
During her performance of "All I Want" by Kodaline, Saylor was so overcome with feeling that her voice cracked. "I'm so sorry," she quickly said after the apparent flub, but Richie encouraged her to make it through the song.
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After she finished, she confessed: "That song pulls at my heartstrings a lot."
Perry said that crack is where the magic is.
“When we see you crack, we feel that, and we see ourselves," she said, to which Saylor replied, “I’m honestly ready to just live my life and take chances like never before.”
The raw performance earned Saylor a golden ticket to Hollywood.
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Luke Bryan's wife, fake contestant go undercover for epic prank
Auditioning for "American Idol" is serious business.
That's why Perry, Bryan and Richie fumed when a rude member of the production staff munched loudly on potato chips during someone's audition.
The sound made the singer stop and caught the attention of the judges. Perry quipped that she didn't want to see the singer's time "disrespected."
But the crew member didn't care and continued being disruptive, which prompted Perry to march backstage and snatch the chip bag out of the worker's hands.
The crew member wasn't having it and stomped over to the judges' table to grab the snack back from Perry.
The conflict continued to escalate until... Perry ripped off the crew member's black hat, revealing none other than Bryan's wife, Caroline Boyer, whose visage was also concealed by a wig, glasses and COVID-19 face mask.
Yep, one of the most awkward confrontations in "Idol" history was nothing but a prank played on Bryan (and, by extension, Richie, who was also unaware of the plan). Perry, however, was in on it.
"Oh my God," Bryan exclaimed upon the reveal, taking the bag out of her hand and flinging chips at her.
Oh, and that poor contestant whose audition got interrupted? She wasn't really auditioning and was in on the joke too.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'American Idol': Katy Perry gives last platinum ticket to 'superstar'