Katy Perry goes wild for the cover of the finalist's song

Alyssa Raghu, a 17-year-old American Idol candidate. (Photo: Eric McCandless, ABC)

Alyssa Raghu brought "singing for your life" to a whole new level at Monday's "American Idol".

After Sunday's first live broadcast, the 17-year-old Orlando native did not receive enough votes to rank in the top 10. But she still had the opportunity to fleeing by singing one more song for the judges and swinging by choosing Katy Perry's own 2010 hit "The One That Got Away".

Raghu's pioneered a path through the bursting ballad – enough to impress Perry, who chose to save her in the final moments of the episode.

"First of all, how dare you?" Perry joked after hearing the tearful and hoarse version of the teenager. "How dare you come and sing this song 100 times better than me? Alyssa, it was so beautiful and you just became a gorgeous girl."

Perry then gave some vaguely useful advice to Raghu, who had already been eliminated from the singing competition last season after climbing into the Top 24.

"I think this has been a very important master class, it's like the second half," said Perry. "I think you have learned a lot and you have a lot of time, and I just think it will happen if you continue to apply the same way you continue."

With Raghu, the judges chose two other candidates with a small number of votes to continue in the Top 10. Lionel Richie saved Uche after his thrilling "Diamonds" Rihanna and Luke Bryan saved Dimitrius Graham, whose emotional cover Billie Eilish's "When the Party's Over" was one of the highlights of the episode.

The 14 finalists, Evelyn Cormier, Riley Thompson and Ashley Hess, were eliminated from "Idol" on Monday. The show continues next Sunday (ABC, 8 EDT / PDT) with another live show that will help determine the Top 8.