Luke Bryan Defends Katy Perry Against the 'American Idol' Haters
The one thing that has been clear during all six seasons that American Idol has been on ABC is that its judges—Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie—enjoy working together.
Now Luke proves that that is the case away from the show when he defended Katy against all the hate that she has received this season for certain remarks she made.
"Katy Perry's been dealing with stuff like that her whole career," Luke told Fox News at the CMA Fest in Nashville. “We all get it.… I mean we're judging kids that people at home fall in love with.… We're not gonna bat 1,000 as judges.
This season has been a particularly rough one for Katy to the point where some outlets are reporting that she won’t be returning as a judge next season, but that’s all speculation, especially when her fellow judges have her back, as Luke proved that he does.
It all began with Katy being accused of “mom shaming” Sara Beth Liebe, who shared during her Idol audition that she had given birth to three children before the age of 25, leading Katy to joke that Sara Beth had 'spent too much time on the table.” Even so, Sara Beth was put through to Hollywood Week, where she decided to quit, saying, “This opportunity is really rad, but this is actually going to be my last performance, because my heart’s at home. So, I’m going get home to my babies. They kind of need me.”
Katy did ask Sara Beth to reconsider, but she left, and later posted how “hurtful” it was for Katy to have made those comments.
"Katy gets picked on for going out and trying to have fun making a TV show," Luke continued. "You can't be so safe in the moment that you're so homogenized, you can't ever go for a joke. Or go for a fun moment.”
But Sara Beth wasn’t the only contestant who American Idol viewers felt received too much harsh criticism. Katy was also taken to task for calling out Nutsa for being too “glittery.”
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“Nutsa, every time you take the stage it’s like you glitter bomb the stage,” Katy told her. But what fans misunderstood is that Katy was trying to get Nutsa to sing more from the heart so they could figure out who she was as an artist rather than just criticizing her wardrobe.
“I think we get set up, as judges, you know, we kinda fall on the sword a lot of times,” Luke said in the same interview. “And get set up to where people can get very vocal on socials and stuff.”
Then he added, “It makes me appreciate her even more, just how big of a scale she’s had to deal with that her whole career.”
The announcement of judges for American Idol season 7 on ABC has yet to be made, but should be as soon as auditions begin later this summer.
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