Oh Good, the Taylor Swift-Katy Perry Feud Has Made Its American Idol Debut
Hillary Busis
Updated
1 / 28
Oh Good, the Taylor Swift-Katy Perry Feud Has Made Its American Idol Debut
Perry subtly jabbed her longtime rival on the singing competition’s latest episode Sunday night.
Swish swish, we suppose. On Sunday night, Katy Perry threw a subtle bit of shade at her longtime rivalTaylor Swift via the latest episode of the revived American Idol, which has enlisted Perry as one of its judges. (Appropriately enough, Swift was once a guest mentor on The Voice, American Idol’s own arch-nemesis.)
The moment was brief, but pronounced enough to set eyebrows shooting up and tweets flying. It came when judge Luke Bryan asked a contestant—a bearded, bespectacled, jolly-looking guy with a guitar whose name we never caught—which artists he looks up to. The contestant replied by saying, “I’m sorry for this, Katy,” before naming his biggest inspiration: Taylor Swift. (He was definitely not sorry. Bearded Guy, don’t pretend you didn’t know what you were doing! We were born in 1989, not yesterday!)
“Oh, you don’t have to be sorry at all!” a blithe Perry replied, right before the contestant twisted the knife a little to the left: “I love Taylor Swift.” It was then that Perry moved in for the kill: “I love her as a songwriter as well!”
Phew! As E.T.points out, the jab came during a montage that focused on contestants who made awkward first impressions on the judging panel—which means there wasn’t a ton of context for it provided on the show. We also didn’t get to see the guy actually perform, which implies that he didn’t pick a Taylor Swift song after all—because you know ABC wouldn’t have sped past his audition if he’d chosen to sing, say, “Bad Blood” right in Katy Perry’s face.
Still, it’s another marquee moment for the resurrected series, and one that doesn’t carry the weird baggage of the new show’s first headline-grabbing event: when Perry impulsively kissed a young contestant named Benjamin Glaze, who then said that the smooch had made him feel uncomfortable. (Glaze later clarified his comments on Instagram, writing, “I am not complaining about the kiss, I am very honored and thankful to have been a part of American Idol.”)
Of course, the quip does carry another sort of baggage; it serves as further evidence that the Great Perry-Swift Feud will forever continue to gently simmer on the back burner of pop culture, even though Perry ostensibly ended our long national nightmare last summer by publicly apologizing to Swift. (Swift never publicly responded.) Oh, Bearded Guy, look what you made her do!
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