Awkward! Katy Perry kept her cool when Taylor Swift was brought up during a recent American Idol audition — even though viewers were likely cringing at home.
During a quick montage, a contestant was asked what artist he most looks up to. Cautious before answering, he admitted: “I’m sorry for this Katy … Taylor Swift.”
Perry, who is a judge along with Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, quickly replied: “Oh, you don’t have to be sorry!”
When the aspiring singer added that he loves Swift, Perry quipped: “I love her, as a songwriter as well.”
Perry and Swift, of course, have had their ups and downs. The former friends had a falling out years ago over a conflict with their backup dancers. “She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me,” Swift claimed in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, though she did not specify who she was referring to at the time.
Three years later, Perry would tell James Corden that Swift “started” the feud and it was time to “finish it.”
“I tried to talk to her about it and she wouldn’t speak to me,” Perry alleged in May 2017. “I do the right thing any time that it feels like a fumble. It was a full shutdown and then she writes a song about me, and I’m like, ‘OK, cool, cool, cool. That’s how you want to deal with it? Karma!”