American Idol contestant who said he received his first kiss from Katy Perry sentenced on child porn charges

An American Idol contestant who said that he received his first kiss from Katy Perry has been jailed for 25 years in Oklahoma.

Benjamin Glaze, 26, was convicted of aggravated possession of child sexual abuse material last week.

The Tulsa Police Department said that they first received reports about Glaze’s activities in April 2024 and later uncovered 700 images and videos depicting child sexual abuse on his device.

The former singer, originally from Oklahoma, was arrested and charged with aggravated possession of child sexual abuse material in October 2024.

He later pleaded guilty to the charges.

He will now serve 15 years in custody, with an additional 10 years suspended. Glaze will also have to register as a sex offender.

The singer gained widespread recognition after appearing on Season 16 of American Idol, where he auditioned in front of judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie.

He was 19 years old at the time and claimed to the judges that he had never kissed a girl before.

Although his rendition of Nick Jonas’ “Level” did not get him through to the next stage of the competition, Katy Perry kissed Glaze in a controversial move.

“Yeah, I got him,” she was heard saying after they kissed.

“I really enjoyed meeting you today. You gave my heart a flutter.

“I think you’re really sweet,” she added.

Glaze later told The New York Times that he wanted his first kiss to be “special.”

Perry became the center of a social media firestorm, with some viewers claiming that kissing Glaze was inappropriate.

At the time, Glaze took to Facebook to say that he was “not complaining about the kiss from Katy Perry at all.”

“I am very honoured and thankful to have been a part of American Idol… 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.

“I do not think I was sexually harassed by Katy Perry and I am thankful for the judges’ comments and critiques. I was uncomfortable in a sense of how I have never been kissed before and was not expecting it,” he wrote.

Since appearing on the show, Glaze joined the Marines in 2019 and served in Japan. According to his LinkedIn page, Glaze was also working as a video editor for business videos.