Katy Perry swooned over this ‘American Idol’ contestant — and it wasn’t just his voice
American Idol judges are known for speaking their minds; however, the pop star judge Katy Perry's bold reactions always take the show to another level. When a contestant, Nick Merico, walked in for the audition, Luke Bryan was immediately caught off guard by his striking looks and said out loud, "Hunkasaurus Rex." Perry chimed in agreement, "Oh my gosh, you are Hunkasaurus, Rex." Then she told Merico, "Can you please step back?" leading Bryan to comment, "Because Katy is going to launch at you," he joked, erupting laughter from the entire panel as well as Merico.
Before the introduction began, Perry was visibly smitten, locking her eyes with Merico's, and she got stuck at "Hi." As Bryan and Lionel Richie chuckled at Perry's flustered tone, she asked, "What's your name?" "Nick," he promptly replied. The pop singer asked next, "What's your age?" And when Merico replied, 22, Perry, 34, seemed fairly disappointed and exclaimed, "Of course you are." As the introduction proceeded, Merico revealed he had been into music from a fairly young age, but it was not until 18 that he got seriously into music, learning piano and guitar. Merico also revealed that he got his first break on TV in 'Every Which Way' in 2014. When Perry asked him to elaborate on the experience, Merico shared that, "It was amazing, but at the bottom of my heart, I knew that music is always what I want to do." He added, "That's really what my soul likes."
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Merico's looks were not the only thing that impressed the judges that night. As he performed Winehouse's song, 'Back to Black,' hitting every perfect note on the piano, Bryan couldn't hold back. "Good Lord, he exclaimed. However, as the performance ended, instead of giving an opinion on his singing, Perry straightaway asked, "Do you have a girlfriend?" Merico replied, "No." Perry, to be doubly sure, asked again, "Do you have many girlfriends?" "No, come on, I'm focused on my career right now," Merico replied. While Richie said, "I like that." Perry persisted, "Do you do gigs?" When Merico replied, "Yes," Perry said, "Well, I have an open mic at my house." The judges had a good laugh.
Steering the conversation back to the young hopeful, Richie commented, "You have an amazing voice." Perry commented, "Nick, I have seen people sing better than you, but they might not have other pieces of the puzzle. But you want to be here because you are talented, right? And you are an artist, right, so make sure to focus on that." Perry, reminding herself to vote, quipped, "Ok, I'm going to have to vote for him like for anyone else," and ended up giving him a yes, followed by yesses from the other two judges as well.
However, Merico wasn't the pop star's first crush. Perry is also known to have a crush on a former contestant, Trevor Holmes from season 16, as reported by ABC. The 'California Girls' singer was so in love with Holmes that she even confessed to the singer on live TV, "You are so hot!" and called him a "dreamboat" at one point during his audition. Holmes also admitted that growing up, he too had a crush on Perry, the aforementioned outlet reported, and that in an interview with Good Morning America, Holmes shared, "I am singing my heart out, and she is there, flirting with me; you can't put it into words."