{"id":2413171,"date":"2026-05-12T12:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2413171"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:09:17","slug":"american-idol-season-24-winner-revealed-during-star-studded-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/american-idol-season-24-winner-revealed-during-star-studded-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;American Idol&#8217; Season 24 winner revealed during star-studded finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Hannah Harper was announced as the winner of \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d Season 24.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old stay-at-home mom beat Jordan McCullough and Keyla Richardson, who finished as runner-up and in third place, respectively, during Monday\u2019s live three-hour finale. <\/p>\n<p>Harper became the first female country artist to win since <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/03\/03\/entertainment\/carrie-underwood-claps-back-after-being-booed-on-american-idol\/\">now-judge Carrie Underwood<\/a>, who won Season 4 of the music competition show in 2005.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hannah Harper was announced as the winner of \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d Season 24. <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">She won against Jordan McCullough, who was a finalist. <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">She became a fan-favorite when she auditioned with an original song about post-partum. <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>After winning the competition, Harper <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/tv\/2026\/05\/11\/american-idol-2026-winner\/90022992007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told USA Today<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m a puddle right now. All the sacrifices have been made [by my family] to make this happen. Had it not been for my husband \u2026 that poor man has sacrificed his entire life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery part of normalcy he had \u2013 to uproot life and bring our whole family here and live out of a hotel for two months \u2013 just so I could do this meant everything to me. I don\u2019t know how I\u2019ll ever repay him for that,\u201d she continued about her husband, Devon Mendenhall, who stepped away from his career in law enforcement to support her journey. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not the only one; my parents also. I just feel like my village is growing now.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Keyla Richardson (right) finished in third place. <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Underwood revealed her preference for Harper throughout the season. <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The night was filled with <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/05\/05\/celebrity-news\/kellie-pickler-returns-to-american-idol-stage-3-years-after-husbands-shocking-death\/\">star-studded performances<\/a>, including by last night\u2019s guest mentor, Alicia Keys, as well as the judges: Luke Bryan, Underwood and Lionel Richie, who sang a trio rendition of the latter\u2019s \u201cDeep River Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce also joined Underwood for a two-song performance of \u201cHome Sweet Home\u201d and \u201cKickstart My Heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brad Paisley, Cameron Whitcomb, Clay Aiken \u2014 who was the runner-up in Season 2 \u2014 En Vogue, Jason Mraz, Lee Ann Womack, Nelly, Shinedown and Tori Kelly \u2014 who was a contestant during Season 9 \u2014 also took to the stage throughout the night. Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms also performed.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Disney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Harper became a fan-favorite from the moment she stepped onto the \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d stage and sang an original song about postpartum depression, \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FMO3HvT7IKY?si=sQaak_24R4opi8Go\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">String Cheese<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/04\/16\/entertainment\/carrie-underwood-surprises-american-idol-contestant-with-tiffany-jewelry\/\">became a favorite of Underwood\u2019s<\/a>, who initially told her, \u201cYou might be my favorite person that\u2019s walked through those doors in the past three days. You\u2019re gorgeous. You look famous already.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cBefore He Cheats\u201d singer also compared herself to Harper, telling her during episode 8, \u201cYou remind me of myself when I was on the show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerican Idol\u201d Season 24 is now available to stream on Hulu.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hannah Harper was announced as the winner of \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d Season 24. The 25-year-old stay-at-home mom beat Jordan McCullough and Keyla Richardson, who finished as runner-up and in third place, respectively, during Monday\u2019s live three-hour finale. Harper became the first female country artist to win since now-judge Carrie Underwood, who won Season 4 of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2413172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[27820,24003,21741,21800,22149,21913],"class_list":["post-2413171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-american-idol","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-musicians","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/American-Idol-Season-24-winner-revealed-during-star-studded-finale.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2413173,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413171\/revisions\/2413173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2413172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2413171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2413171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}