Things got tense on American Idol this week when contestant Madai Chakell performed Ariana Grande's "Tattooed Heart." The 22-year-old theatrical performer spoke with host Ryan Seacrest ahead of the performance, acknowledging that judge Luke Bryan had previously thought she wasn't ready to be on the show because she didn't know who she was yet.
"I definitely tapped more into myself since he said I probably didn't really know who I was," Madai said. "I did some more digging and found more of her. I just want to prove to Luke that I am a true performer and artist."
When Madai got on stage and began the song, she stopped partway through, saying, "Hold on. Can we start this over? I wasn't feeling that one. Sorry, y'all."
On her second attempt, she then stopped and said she was going to try the song acapella, sharing it was "not flowing the way we practiced."
Madai Chakell on 'American Idol'
She finished the song acapella and Bryan shared his thoughts.
"So Madai, are you feeling OK?" the country singer asked her.
"Um, I'm handling it," Madai replied.
"Is your voice 100 percent?" he asked.
"Not to where I would like it," she answered.
"I got you. Obviously, I don't know what went on in rehearsals, but a lot of stuff going on up there. It was a little shaky in some spots. But thanks for performing for us. Thank you," Bryan said.
Luke Bryan on 'American Idol'
During her aside interview, Madai accused the accompanying pianist of "flipping the script" on what they had rehearsed.
"Then we tried to also play the card, 'Is your voice OK?' What do you think?" Madai fired back. "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."
Madai was then given a second chance to perform the song with Bryan saying, "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."
Madai then seemingly sarcastically replied, "With that being said, can I have a chair, perhaps? Because I'm getting a little shaky," seemingly referencing Bryan calling her first performance "shaky."
Madai Chakell on 'American Idol'
She sang the song another time, ending with a southern twang on the word "heart."
And while judges Katy Perry and Lionel Richie clapped, Bryan looked stone-faced asking why she chose to sing "heart" that way.
Madai then adopted a British accent saying, "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?"
Bryan was clearly not impressed by the performer's response, saying, "Maybe we'll do American Humble at some point," adding, "Probably not winning the audience for that one."
As for Madai, she stood by her comments, saying in an aside interview, "I am proud of the moment because I just feel like it definitely showed my boss energy. But yeah, it is what it is, y'all know what it is."
After the episode aired, Madai went on Instagram Live with Perez Hilton to discuss her controversial exit from the show.
"My attitude, honestly in my opinion, I feel that it was warranted," she said, claiming that the pianist intentionally sabotaged her performance and that the judges were in on it.
Madai said that for all of Hollywood Week, she had been conducting interviews for the show, leaving her voice weakened.
"People find me to have a bad attitude because they don't know me. So me speaking up for myself and talking to judges who know what's really going on behind the scenes," she said. "What I was saying was not for the viewers to understand. Luke Bryan and the rest of the judges knew exactly what I meant when I said, 'Is your voice OK,' because you know what we're doing. You know what you're doing. You've been talking all week. If you were asked to sing right now, how would you sound? Because you know all the work that we're doing behind the scenes aside of what you guys put on TV."
Madai added that she did not want to continue on the show, due to the restricting contract, saying she was originally "asked" to be on the show.
"That is not my dream," she explained.
She believes her storyline was altered to fit a certain narrative on the show.
"They have Luke Bryan being my antagonist or whatever character.. he wasn't feeling me being on the show," she claimed. "They also wanted to portray that I was a little bit like Nicki Minaj. I didn't mind that because I love her. So I was like, 'Ooo, we're playing a game. You want me to finish a story?' 'Cause that's what they said to me, 'Finish a story!' I'm like, ' A story? I'm gonna give y'all a show then if y'all want a story.' So that's what I did. And I had fun with it."
ET spoke with the Idol judges ahead of Hollywood Week, where they admitted to being "harder" on contestants.
"We were hard out there on the road," Perry told ET. "Our show producers said that we were harder than we've ever been... and that means that the show is better than it's ever been."
American Idol airs Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and later streams on Hulu.
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