Musician Steven James has destroyed Katy Perry’s new track “OK.”

“OK” dropped on Dec. 25 in the 1432 album, a deluxe version of Perry’s LP 143 with four new tracks.

An American Idol alum, James posted a now-viral TikTok in which he grimaces through Perry’s song, giving the camera serious side-eye throughout. He commented over the video, “This can’t be the same person who eliminated me on American Idol  five years ago.”

James competed on season 17 of American Idol in 2017 and was the recipient of what many fans deemed “rude” coaching methods from Perry.

In February, Perry announced her departure from American Idol after seven years, implying to fans that she was taking a step back from the show in order to focus on her own music. She started on the show in 2018 for season 16.  Perry’s replacement is season four’s winner Carrie Underwood.

At the time, Perry explained to Jimmy Kimmel, “I love Idol so much. It’s connected me with the heart of America. But I need to feel that pulse of my own beat.”

143 dropped in September and was largely dismissed. In tandem with critics’ poor reviews, the album’s anthemic lead single “Woman’s World” has been the recipient of much backlash due to its producer and co-writer Dr. Luke (real name Lukasz Gottwald). In 2014, the singer Kesha accused Gottwald of drugging and assaulting her for a decade, and the two became locked in a years-long legal battle.

In contrast to Perry, other female singers exceedingly supported Kesha as Gottwald denied allegations, with Taylor Swift wiring $250,000 towards her legal expenses and Lady Gaga defending Kesha in a court deposition in 2017.

Pitchfork deemed Perry’s supposed feminist anthem a “monumental catastrophe,” as its mission to empower women fell flat due to Gottwald’s involvement, and The Guardian emphasized the obvious “disconnect between working with a producer who comes with such baggage to make a song about the strength of women.”

In an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Perry responded to the backlash: “I understand that it started a lot of conversations, and he was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But, the reality is it comes from me. The truth is I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that, one of the writers, one of the producers.”

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Article by Baila Eve Zisman

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