Baby, you’re a firework. Unless you are an American Idol contestant it seems.
Katy Perry was booed for the first time as an Idol judge on Monday night’s episode for her critique of a Top 26 contestant. Nutsa Buzaladze took to the stage in a sparkly dress and boots to sing Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ “Paris (Ooh La La).”
Commenting on her look, Perry told Buzaladze, “Nutsa, every time you take the stage, it’s like you glitter bomb the stage. Listen, I think that one thing I personally would like to see from you is not one piece of glitter the next time. I know that’s gonna be hard.”
This earned a chorus of boos from the audience at the Disney Aulani property in Hawaii. Buzaladze tried to seek an exception for Perry, asking, “Liner? Maybe eyeliner?”
Eric McCandless/Getty Katy Perry looking sparkly on ‘American Idol’
Fellow judge Luke Bryan was thrilled to see Perry getting some pushback from the audience, considering this marked the first time she’s ever been booed in her tenure as a judge on the show. “Yes! Katy got booed!”
Added fellow judge Lionel Richie: “Whoa, hostility!”
Perry took the boos in stride, however, and did not relent to Buzaladze’s request for eyeliner. “Okay, first time in six seasons,” she said of the booing. “Whoo-hoo! But what I’m saying is that I’d like you to flip the script. I think we want to be, like, pulled in by our hearts, too. I’d love to see that, and I think America might, too.”
The point is a good one, though a bit funny coming from Perry who often seems to have cornered the market on glitter in her performances and in her own CoverGirl makeup collection, which included actual pots of glitter.
ABC Katy Perry hugging Nutsa Buzaladze on ‘American Idol’
The contestant had another notable moment with Perry earlier this season. The judge hugged a visibly upset Buzaladze after she apologized for a less-than-stellar performance in the duet rounds. “I wanted to tell my side of the story and I felt so bad I was frozen. I didn’t want to bring negative energy so that’s why I didn’t say nothing,” Buzaladze said. “I didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to cry on stage. But after I left the stage I was just destroyed. So I wanted to apologize for that.”
Perry also addressed her remarks to Buzaladze about needing to have “more grace.” She said, “That’s so wonderful, and Nutsa, what I meant about grace is that it’s okay to be determined and ambitious and edgy and strong but also with grace. I really relate to you because I know what it means to be a strong woman, to want to be strong and to never break and to never feel like anything can ever get to me, but that’s not real. I think that they’re seeing that you’re a real person with a big heart and a big talent.”
Apparently part of being real includes cutting back on the glitter.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
Source: News