American Idol: Jordan Jones wows the judges with Cure cover and then asks girlfriend to marry him

Jordan Jones wowed the American Idol judges Sunday with his cover of Lovesong by The Cure, then asked if he could bring his girlfriend into the room.

‘She’s probably the greatest person that has ever been made,’ the 26-year-old lounge pianist from Scottsdale, Arizona, told Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.

When Leaiara Gavern entered the room, Katy announced, ‘We want you both to celebrate together,’ and all three of the judges told Jordan, ‘You’re going to Hollywood!’

Jordan also had another trick up his sleeve, getting down on one knee in front of Leaira, and asking her to marry him.

‘No. No way. Oh. Are you kidding me?’ Lionel said, before Leaira said yes.

‘Wait, what?’ blurted Katy, who then proclaimed the ring ‘the hugest ring I’ve ever seen!’

‘Oh my God,’ she repeated, lamely handing Jordan his golden ticket. ‘I mean, here’s this.’

When the happy couple left, Katy declared, ‘This room is blessed! This is a union! This room is love. I’m gonna be pretty lovey-dovey for the next couple days.’

She looked at the camera and smirked. ‘Yeah, right. Back to reality. Let’s go.’

In a good mood, Katy had also given a ticket to the day’s first contestant, Amelia, a 23-year-old musician from Phoenix, Arizona, who’d done a pretty rendition of The Beatles’ Yesterday.

‘You’re giddy today, Katy,’ Luke told her when Amelia finished.

‘Me? I’m not giddy,’ Katy said. ‘I mean, I’m happy. This is like, sweet memories here in this room.’

She then went on to tease high school student Erin Kirby, 16, from Jasper, Georgia, who earned her Hollywood spot with Jessie J.’s Who You Are.

‘I don’t like it,’ she said frowning, before she burst out laughing. ‘I love it!’

The third round of auditions opened in Savannah, Georgia, where the judges saw Kimmy Gabriella, 17, from Lakeland, Florida.

The high school student hoped to become a working musician like her father, who had made music videos and toured as a performer in his youth.

The judges loved her fluid, moving cover of OneRepublic’s Let’s Hurt Tonight, and were even more bowled over when she sang for them in Spanish.

‘Top 10,’ Katy predicted, and Luke agreed: ‘Yeah, she doesn’t really miss notes… I mean her first note, I was like, ‘Ye-e-e-e-p.’

Katy threw the golden ticket at her as all the judges urged the girl to ‘just take it.’

Once they were back in Savannah, love was in the air again, as singer Lauren Mascitti, 27, brought her fiancé Shawn Camp, a noted country songwriter, along for her audition.

‘Whoo!’ Katy yelled, holding up her ring finger. ‘I got one, too! We fancy and French.’

‘I know, I heard,’ Lauren said. ‘Congratulations, by the way.’

‘Thank you,’ Katy replied. ‘Now we just have to make it down the aisle.’ 

Ryan Harmon, 24, from ‘Lamar, by golly, Arkansas,’ brought swagger and humor to the stage, saying he was ‘just tickled to be here.’

The PBS employee, who hosted his own country music podcast called Country Fried, was a fan of Shawn Camp’s and also played an original song, called I Knew This Would Happen.

The judges loved him, and Luke encouraged Ryan to consider moving to Nashville.

‘You can circle the pond,’ Lionel agreed. ‘One day, you gotta jump in the water.’

Although he didn’t go through, they all gave him an ‘optimistic no,’ and he took it cheerily, calling it ‘the best ”no” I’ve ever heard.’

Courtney Timmons, a 22-year-old security guard from Harris Neck, Georgia, missed the audition deadline, but show host Ryan Seacrest, 45, saw her outside the venue and brought her in without a pre-interview.

She surprised everyone with her soulful cover of Andra Day’s Rise Up, which had Katy and Ryan crying and calling her ‘the best singer we’ve seen today’ as she went through to Hollywood.

The next auditions were held in Sunriver, Oregon, where last week a gas leak threatened the whole production, and saw Katy dramatically collapse.

Lauren Spencer Smith, 16, a high-school student from Vancouver Island, Canada, called herself ‘a very little girl with a huge dream.’

After hearing her deeply felt cover of Pink’s What About Us, Lionel called her ‘wise and gifted beyond [her] age,’ adding that it was so powerful it made him close his eyes to listen.

‘You may be 16, but that voice is 1,000 years old,’ Katy said, comparing her to Leona Lewis, 34.

DeWayne Crocker, Jr., a 23-year-old worship leader from Pensacola, Florida, brought his feisty great-grandmother, 78, to the audition.

She sported sparkly heels and said she just wanted to touch Lionel ‘like when we’re teenagers.’

DeWayne’s lovely version of Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry Be Happy got plenty of attention, winning him a golden ticket from the judges, who were initially puzzled by the song choice.

But his great-grandma stole the show, telling Lionel she danced with her husband to his song, Lady, and got married to it, adding, ‘If it hadn’t been for you, they wouldn’t have been here.’

Luke jumped behind the piano and played it again as Lionel sang to her and they slow-danced.

Dillon James, a 26-year-old construction worker from Bakersfield, California, had better luck, earning a golden ticket from the judges for his take on Bob Dylan’s To Make You Feel My Love.

He explained to the judges that he’d had his ‘trials and tribulations with drugs and alcohol,’ and in a video shared that ‘six or seven years ago,’ things had gotten so bad he slept at the edge of a high parking structure, not caring whether or not he fell off.

‘I was so fed up with life,’ he remembered, growing tearful as he added that he’d finally confessed all to his family and tried to return to the fold.

Two years sober, he’d been meditating to get by, which had Katy call him ‘a spiritual cowboy.’

Katy Perry superfan Geena Fontanella, 27, was excited to play her original song, Don’t Want You Back, in front of her idol.

It got even better when the judges sang with her on the hook, then sent her through.

When the auditions hit Los Angeles, Jared Lettow, 26, an engineer from Santa Barbara, California, joked with the judges about his name, which echoed that of actor Jared Leto, 48.

His unique talent, which saw him yodeling on an original song, had Katy yelling ‘Stop!’ though she allowed him to teach her how to yodel before giving him a ‘No-del.’

A subsequent run of bad contestants had Katie and Luke heading to the roof of the building to announce via megaphone that ‘We need talent! It’s an emergency!’

Musician Shannon Gibbons, 20, said she had been watching Idol with her family since she was a kid—a happy memory during a childhood beset by mental-illness issues.

‘I remember being four years old before going to kindergarten, and literally having suicidal thoughts every morning,’ she said, explaining that music helped lessen the depression.

The Bellport, New York, college student then belted out Etta James’ I’d Rather Go Blind.

‘This is why I keep coming back to this show, Shannon,’ Katy intoned, giving her a ticket and adding that she wasn’t going to let anyone else through unless they were as good as she was. 

Last up was Genavieve Linkowski, a 20-year-old social media influencer from Goodrich, Michigan, who had previously made it all the way to Hollywood Week, but failed to advance.

Genavieve’s 18-year-old sister Corinn died in a car accident since her last appearance on the show, and she was in her thoughts as she played piano and sang Michael Bolton’s How Am I Supposed To Live Without You.

Lionel told Genavieve that the tragedy she had been through had made her stronger, ‘to the point that I just couldn’t stop watching you.’

He and the rest of the judges gave her what he called ‘the greatest yes of the day.’

American Idol will return next week on ABC.