An American Idol contestant is receiving backlash after mocking judge Luke Bryan during her Hollywood Week performance of Ariana Grande‘s “Tattooed Heart.”
Madai Chakell’s performance went awry right away when she stopped her song and requested to start over, according to Entertainment Tonight.
“I wasn’t feeling that one. Sorry, y’all,” she said, apologizing.
Chakell then stopped her second attempt at the performance because it wasn’t “flowing the way we practiced” and sang it a capella instead.
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“Obviously, I don’t know what went on in rehearsals, but a lot of stuff’s going on up there. It was a little shaky in some spots. But thanks for performing for us,” Bryan said when she finished singing.
“Then we tried to also play the card, ‘Is your voice OK?’ What do you think? I was shaky because look at what y’all just did! Is your voice OK, Luke? I haven’t heard you sing! Obviously, I can sing,” she replied angrily, claiming that the pianist “flipped the script” on her.
“It’s great to have you back and we understand all the dynamics of it now and we’re glad that you get another opportunity. Like I said, in this moment, your moment, we want you in the most comfortable situation possible,” Bryan said after offering the singer a second chance.
“With that being said, can I have a chair, perhaps? Because I’m getting a little shaky,” Chakell quipped.
She then sang a line of the song with a Southern accent, which Bryan did not react to aside from asking her why she chose to sing it that way.
Chakell then used a British accent when she responded.
“You know, you said something before, like, I don’t really know who I am quite yet, so I wanted to show you that I can be everyone and everything. Isn’t that what an American Idol is?” she said.
Bryan then fired back, “Maybe we’ll do American Humble at some point.”
Despite Chakell standing by her attitude in a subsequent interview, where she called it her “boss energy,” the internet was not impressed with her antics.
“Madai ChaKell getting a second chance is total bulls–t … This has to be a joke right?” one viewer tweeted.
“Love that #AmericanIdol gave a second opportunity for Madai ChaKell to show what an a–hole she is,” another person said on Twitter/X.
“She ended with a little craziness. This girl is tew much. Very much a character but becoming very unlikeable,” someone else wrote in a tweet.
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