'American Idol' Season 24 Winner Reacts to Victory: 'Y'all Changed My Life'

American Idol season 24 winner Hannah Harper is expressing her gratitude after singing her way to victory.

"What a wild, beautiful journey this has been. And somehow we're just getting started," Harper, 25, wrote via Instagram on Monday, May 11, alongside a photo of her posing with the envelope announcing the season 24 winner on the Idol set.

Harper continued, "Thank you to every single person who believed in me, prayed over me, voted, and helped carry this dream farther than I ever could've imagined. Y'all changed my life."

"I'm beyond thankful for the doors the Lord has opened and for the opportunity to walk this path," the singer added. "I'll see y'all on the road soon… tour dates coming your way. 🤍"

Harper concluded her post with a Bible quote, which reads, "‘For I know the plans I have for you' - this is the Lord's declaration - ‘plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'"

Host Ryan Seacrest declared Harper the winner of the latest season of American Idol during Monday's live finale on ABC. Jordan McCullough was named runner-up, while Keyla Richardson came in third place.

During Monday's finale, Harper performed Alicia Keys' "No One" in tribute to the Grammy winner, who served as a mentor for the finalists heading into the final live show.

"Your voice sounds beautiful and tender and like a lullaby," judge Luke Bryan complimented her performance. "Your voice is like walking in the outdoors. It's like walking through a beautiful garden. You're a true artist."

For her second performance of the night, Harper performed an original song, "Married Into This Town," as a tribute to her hometown. The singer is a stay-at-home mom of three from Willow Springs, Missouri.

"Congratulations on songwriting, congratulations about being that authentic person," judge Lionel Richie praised her original song.

Harper first wowed the judges - Bryan, Richie and Carrie Underwood - in her initial audition when she performed an original song called "String Cheese," which she said was about her experiences with postpartum depression.

"I was sitting on my couch wallowing, and you have boys, you know. Everybody wants to touch you, and I didn't want to be touched," she explained the song's inspiration, per People. "And my youngest son, I was just having a pity party, praying that the Lord would calm my spirit, and my son kept coming up to me. He said, ‘Mom, open this. Open my cheese.' I'm like, ‘Leave me alone with the doggone cheese.'"

Harper continued, "And I finally opened his cheese, and when I did, I realized God had put me in that place, and that where I was in my house was the biggest ministry that I could ever have in being a mom. So, I gathered myself, and I got up off the couch, and I quit throwing a pity party, and I realized that was exactly what I wanted."

"And I kind of kicked the postpartum depression in the butt, and I said, ‘I ain't doing it,'" Harper shared.

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This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 12:13 AM.