Luke Bryan is showing the American Idol contestants how itâs done. The country superstar took the stage during the April 27 episode of the show, performing his latest single, âCountry and She Knows It,â from the Idol stage.
Bryanâs fellow judgesâLionel Richie, Carrie Underwood, and guest Nikki Glaserâwere clearly impressed by his time on stage. They swayed and danced along as he performed on stage.
The country singer has been an Idol judge since 2018. Even so, heâs still consistently impressed by the talent the show produces.
âWhat Iâm really proud about is the ability to reload with talent, and weâre able to reload year after year,â Bryan recently told Billboard. âIâm home watching the college football national championship game, and bam, thereâs [season 23 winner] Jamal Roberts doing the national anthem. I texted [executive producer] Megan Michaels and said, âLook at our boy.ââ
âA year ago, Jamal didnât know that he would be a Grammy-nominated artist or singing the anthem in front of 20 million people at the college football national championship,â he continued. âAnd to be a part of that, and to know that somebody in this season could potentially grow to that, thatâs whatâs so special about this show.â
Bryan added, âWeâre in the trenches with this thing, and weâre still getting touched. You know the people at home are really feeling those emotions too, and thatâs the beauty of this show.â
What to Know About Season 24 of American Idol
While the Idol hopefuls surely enjoyed Bryanâs performance, they had lots of other things to focus on.
This week, the Top 7 contestantsâBraden Rumfelt, Brooks, Chris Tungseth, Daniel Stallworth, Hannah Harper, Jordan McCullough, and Keyla Richardsonâwere tasked with performing songs from Taylor Swiftâs catalogue.
Additionally, they will perform tracks from Californiaâs biggest artists.
The performances are all in an effort to make the Top 5. The lucky five will move on to the Class of 2006: Reunion episode. In that installment, Idol favorites from season 5 will return to the show.
Taylor Hicks won the season, while Katharine McPhee was the runner-up. Other notable contestants included Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, and Elliott Yamin.
American Idol airs Mondays on ABC.
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Does Entertainment / UGA