An American Idol performance by a school shooting survivor left judge Katy Perry in tears.
The 21-year-old contestant, Trey Louis, survived the school shooting at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018 — which left eight students and two teachers dead.
Thirteen others were wounded by the killer.
Louis began the audience by discussing his job as a mattress salesman and bantering with Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.
The singer belted out the song "Stone" by Whiskey Myers, earning himself a standing ovation from the famous judges.
When asked by Bryan why he wanted to be on the show, Louis explained that American Idol "is kind of where people that I enjoy make it" in the music industry.
There was another reason, too, Louis explained.
"As I said before, I'm from Santa Fe, Texas. In May 2018, a gunman walked into my school. I was in art room one, and he shot up art room two before he made his way to art room one," Louis said. "Lost a lot of friends. Eight students were killed. Two teachers were killed. And uh, it's just really been negative, man. Santa Fe's had a bad rap here since 2018."
Perry put her head in her hands as she began to cry before asserting, "our country has f-cking failed us!"
"Facts," the singer replied.
"This is not okay," Perry emotionally continued. "You should be singing here because you love music, not because you had to go through that [expletive]. You didn't have to lose eight friends. I hope that you remind people that we have to change because, you know what? I'm scared, too."
The judges began to comfort Perry before Richie added that as a country, "we have tolerated this for so long — for too long. It's become a norm."
Louis will continue his American Idol journey as all judges voted in favor of him going to Hollywood.
Bryan, who was very clearly emotionally effected while hearing the singer's story on the show, tweeted about Louis after the episode aired. Trey, man you have the perfect voice. You sing from the heart and we are really blessed you came to us. No child should have to live through what you did. Thank you for sharing your positivity with us and the world. #AmericanIdol
— Luke Bryan (@lukebryan) February 27, 2023
"Trey, man, you have the perfect voice. You sing from the heart and we are really blessed you came to us. No child should have to live through what you did. Thank you for sharing your positivity with us and the world," the country star wrote.
