Last Monday night, there was a huge twist on American Idol.
The singers competed for the top 9, and when it came to an end, the bottom two fan vote-getters were on the stage, ready to head home.
That is when Ryan Seacrest stopped them and said there was a tie for who won the Judges Song Contest competition. Katy Perry and Luke Bryan tied, and they had a new task.
They could save one person.
The bottom two were rocker Tristen Gressett and the big-voiced Lady K.
The two talked about it, and then they chose Lady K, sending Tristen home.
Katy Perry on why she chose Lady K over Tristen
In the battle for the top 10, Lady K sang Traitor by Olivia Rodrigo, which Lionel Richie chose in the Judges Song Contest. Lionel said he wanted her to do something different and out of the box.
Lionel also chose Tristen’s song, The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Tristen said it was his mom’s favorite song, and he dedicated it to her before working the entire stage and performing like no other.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Katy said she felt Lady K deserved the top 10 over Tristen, explaining her vote. She said this is because she has grown so much over the competition.
In the end, Katy and Luke chose Lady K.
Lady K has a big story, going from a low-income family struggling to survive to the top 10 on American Idol.
“I didn’t think that Lady K had her best night tonight. But I do think that Tristen is a wild card.” Katy said.
“It was challenging because it wasn’t super-duper obvious because of the performance,” she continued. “Based on performances tonight, but I think Lady K is giving us the glow-up all the time. I love it.”
Katy Perry said Tristen has a lot of promise
When it comes to Tristen, Katy said the problem was that rock stars have a lot of obstacles to overcome.
“He’s a rock and roller,” Katy said. “And it’s really challenging for that genre sometimes to get really far because it’s not about who’s the best singer — you have to check a little bit of a lot of boxes. But I think that he definitely poured a lot of sauce on his performance tonight, and you got to strike a balance. I wish him the best. I’m gonna be seeing him on stage. I’m gonna go to his concerts for sure.”
American Idol airs on Sunday and Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.