Claudia Conway, daughter of Kellyanne Conway who used to work as senior counselor to former President Donald Trump, auditioned on American Idol and judge Katy Perry immediately wondered if she was okay.
Claudia, 16, was accompanied by her dad and lawyer, George Conway, who worked against Trump. In her intro video, she referred to herself as “15-year-old emancipation girl” who hated living in Washington D.C.
She said, “When your mom’s working for the President of the United States, who you very much disagree with, it’s really hard.”
Meanwhile, Katy asked her about life at home. She asked, “With your mom being the figure that she is, does she still hug you?”
Claudia said yes and explained, “I mean yeah, she loves me, I love her. I just feel like our relationship’s a little iffy. Most of my life my feelings had been suppressed, so then I got social media and I was like, well now my voice is being heard. I believe that age actually has nothing to do with a willingness to learn and educate yourself.”
She shared, “But when life is all going downhill, I have my music. Now I kind of want to get out of the drama, get out of the political whatever and let people know that I’m a singer, and that this is what I wanna do.”
For the audition, Claudia sang “Love on the Brain” by Rihanna but Katy stopped her and asked if she could sing a different song. Claudia then sang “When We Were Young” by Adele.
In the end, Katy advised her to calm the storm around her, explaining, “If you seem you like you want to read the social media comments afterwards, you’re only ever gonna be a TikTok star. We want an American Idol.”
Claudia’s performance garnered different reactions from the judges. Luke Bryan praised her for singing like a 16-year-old but didn’t give her a yes. Meanwhile, Katy reminded her to address the “noise” in her life “because if not, you may not ever rise above your dad, or your mom. It’s your choice.”
Lionel Richie and Katy gave their yeses and Claudia moves to the next step and would be mentored by Bobby Bones.
