Katy Perry went all out for a Canadian hopeful on the season premiere of American Idol.
Saveria, who released the single “Down to the Roots” after being the chosen artist on an episode of The Launch last year, performed an original song for the panel of celebrity judges.
Lionel Richie said he “just didn’t feel it.” He told Saveria: “You had moments of great vocal stuff and then all of a sudden it kind of drifted back and drifted off again. I wasn’t quite paying attention. Your job is to keep me engaged.”
Luke Bryan agreed. “It’s not making me levitate out of my chair,” he said of her audition.
Perry called Saveria a “great singer” with “so much potential” but admitted: “You need people to steer you and tell you the tough truth. I don’t know if you’re the next American Idol but you deserve a ticket to Hollywood.”
With “no” votes from Richie and Bryan, Saveria failed to get one of those golden tickets, causing Perry to throw a mock-tantrum and call her fellow judges “crazy.”
Despite not going through in the competition, Saveria will no doubt benefit from the exposure to millions of viewers. The video of her audition has already topped 750,000 views (by comparison, the November 2019 video for her song “Pity" has a little more than 1,800 views).
Born Saveria D’Ippolito near Ottawa, she moved to London, Ont. when she was a child. She joined the Original Kids Theatre Company – which counts actress Rachel McAdams among its alumni – and was then cast in Mini Pop Kids.
Watch the audition below:
American Idol airs on CTV, part of the parent company of this website.