American Idol contestant Benjamin Glaze not only auditioned for a singing competition on national television, but that's also where he had his first kiss.
The 19-year-old did not see the "uncomfortable" smooch coming.
It happened on ABC's Idol premiere, when new judge Katy Perry surprise-kissed a nervous Glaze on the lips, when he thought he'd just be kissing her cheek.
Glaze immediately fell to the ground. Perry and the other judges cheered. But Glaze was clearly shaken, needing some water before going on to sing Nick Jonas' Levels in a performance that Perry called "a bit rushed."
It was a no from the judges.
After some backlash aimed at Perry for making a nonconsensual move, Glaze took to Instagram Wednesday to say that, no, "I do not think I was sexually harassed by Katy Perry (and) I was uncomfortable in a sense of how I have never been kissed before and was not expecting it."
Glaze wrote: "I am not complaining about the kiss from Katy Perry at all, doing a few news reports and being interviewed by many different reporters have caused some major questions."
He said he was "honored and thankful" to be a part of the show, and that he'd take the judges' advice (including "Kiss more girls," from Perry) to heart.
The contestant has regrets, though. "I do wish I would have performed better in the moment. I should have picked another song to sing and calmed myself down regardless of the kiss; I should have been able to perform under pressure," he said.
The public backlash came after Glaze spoke to the New York Times about the incident.
"I was a tad bit uncomfortable," Glaze told NYT after the incident aired as part of a two-night season opener for the new Idol, which is now airing on ABC after a 15-year run on Fox. "I wanted to save it for my first relationship. I wanted it to be special."
"Would I have done it if she said, 'Would you kiss me?' No, I would have said no," he said. "I know a lot of guys would be like, 'Heck yeah!' But for me, I was raised in a conservative family and I was uncomfortable immediately. I wanted my first kiss to be special."
Glaze had hoped his big moment would come as he belted out Stadium, a song he wrote himself.
Instead it came moments before his audition. “Have you kissed a girl and liked it?” asked Idol judge Luke Bryan, in reference to Perry’s first hit single, I Kissed A Girl. Glaze said that he had not. "I have never been in a relationship and I can’t kiss a girl without being in a relationship."
At that, Perry stood up. “Come here,” she said to Glaze. “Come here right now.”
Perry motioned for him to come over to the judges’ table and stuck her face toward him. “One on the cheek?” he said and she smiled. He quickly touched his face to her cheek. She asked for another kiss, complaining that he hadn’t even made the “smush sound.”
As he moved toward her cheek again, Perry swung her face toward him and kissed him quickly on the lips. “Katy!” he yelled, as he stumbled backward. “You didn’t!” Perry raised her arms in victory.
The kiss did result in his getting more screen time, which has helped draw attention to his music. "So in that way," he said, "I'm glad she did it because it's a great opportunity to get my music out."
When he returned home, Glaze worked through his feelings about the kiss by talking to his friends. "They agreed with me that it didn’t really count," he said. "It was lip contact versus a romantic situation with someone you care about. That's what a real first kiss is."
He said he does not feel he was sexually harassed and is grateful to Perry for tweeting about him.
💋#BenjaminGlaze #AmericanIdol pic.twitter.com/0XbA18LmRr
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) March 12, 2018
Idol is being judged by a new panel of celebrities — Perry, Lionel Richie and Bryan — and is hosted by Ryan Seacrest, who hosted the program on Fox, and is a creative consultant for the show as well.
USA Today, with New York Times