Who is Dr Varleton McDonald? 'American Idol' contestant We Ani's dad slams Katy Perry for 'bullying' her

PATERSON, NEW JERSEY: 'American Idol' Season 21 contestant We Ani got eliminated during Disney night as she failed to earn enough votes to advance to the Top 3. Ani had an amazing journey throughout Season 21. The aspiring singer was picked over Dawson Wayne, Elijah McCormick, and Malik Heard to join the 12 contestants who made it to the next round.

However, soon after her elimination, Ani's father Mac McDonald called out Katy Perry for allegedly bullying his daughter. While Mac did not clarify which comments Katy made that had upset his daughter, the pop star was shocked when Ani advanced to the Top 12.

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Who is Dr Varleton 'Mac' McDonald?

Ani's father Dr Varleton 'Mac' McDonald is the CEO of Maverick Youth Services, an educator, author, and motivational speaker. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is known by the short name Mac Mcdonald. McDonald went to The City College of New York, the New York Institute of Technology, St John Fisher University, and The College of New Rochelle. The author kicked off his career as a professor and an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College. McDonald later joined as the principal leadership coach at Teachers College of Columbia University for a year.

McDonald has also worked at the NYC Department of Education as principal, local instruction superintendent, senior educational analyst, network leader, and senior project director. He was also associated with Hempstead Public Schools for four months as deputy superintendent. McDonald is the consulting field director in education at The Center for Educational Innovation. McDonald has been together with Jackie for 30 years and they are married for 23 years.

Dr McDonald slams Katy Perry for criticizing We Ani

Ani's father McDonald has recently slammed Katy's behavior toward the singer. McDonald accused Katy of making 'snarky' comments about his daughter when she was on the show. McDonald shared a lengthy statement in a now-deleted Instagram post. He noted in his statement that Ani idolized Katy for years and accused the pop star of devastating his daughter while critiquing her performance on the show. Mac started his post, "Several years ago, an impressionable teenager was in Chaplin Studios to record an Apple recording for her tenure on the Voice as the youngest minor finalist that year." He continued, "She still had stars in her eyes as she became exhilarated by living a dream with her proximity to people she had only fantasized about. Once done she rushed out of her long recording session, screaming 'Daddy did you see her?' I said who she said that was Katy Perry." Mac went on, "As fate would have it that impressionable teenager met her as a young adult on the American Idol stage."

McDonald further said, "The young girl known as Wé McDonald now known as Wé Ani stood in front of someone who she had once idolized devastated her with an undeserved snarky response as a redirect to critiquing her show performance." McDonald added that "It was a dagger in the heart given by a respected star with concern regarding any of Katy's subsequence responses regarding her American Idol performances." McDonald concluded his post saying, "The star designation descended to a regular bully that attacked Wé Ani as a child. No acknowledgment or apology, just a collar pop and a shoulder brush. Remember this, lesson learned. See you at the Grammys."

'Grow a thicker skin'

'American Idol' Season 21 viewers have chimed in to back Katy in a Reddit thread. A social media user wrote, "LOOOOL and people are complaining the judges don’t seem to critique their performance at all. Imagine giving very vanilla generic compliments to every performance and still get someone this angry lol." Another user commented, "This exactly!!! What do they want Katy to do?? Praise her uncontrollably without any side critique? I swear the contestant these days are so pampered. You wanna be a star you have to deal with this stuff. Even if We won the whole show she’s not even entitle to be successful. The work AFTER the show is what matters the most." Another viewer noted, "Why don't judges critique anyone anymore? Well there u go it’s 2023 and everyone takes things personal." Another follower penned, "Do you think Katy Perry’s DADDY hopped on Instagram every time she was turned down or received harsh criticism? Grow a thicker skin, you’re tarnishing your daughter’s name in doing this. Making you BOTH look foolish." Another person added, "Wé probably already knows this, but her father should be reminded; if you can't take the most generic, softball critique that Idol is giving out these days, you aren't ready for the music industry."

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