American Idol has now come to the end of its 19th season and has added the latest contestant to its winners' circle, alongside Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and last year's champion Just Sam. In the three-hour finale on ABC, Willie Spence, Grace Kinstler and Chayce Beckham fought it out after each performing four songs. Read on to find out who won.
Who won American Idol 2021?
Spence, Kinstler and Beckham each had to perform a song chosen for them by the judges, a song from their hometown and a reprise of a song they had formerly performed on Idol. Spence also performed with Leona Lewis, Kinstler with Alessia Cara, and Beckham with Luke Combs.
Throughout the competition, fans voted on who would win as various outlets kept predicting that either Spence or Kinstler would triumph. Beckham, however, took a late lead on the show. A TVLine final poll on the weekend of the final had Beckham with 49 percent of the vote.
His winner's single also became the most listened-to on Spotify. The day after the singles were released, Beckham's single "23" had 28,000 hits to Kinstler's 14,000 and Spence's 9,000. In the days since, his lead on streaming became even more convincing—at time of writing, Kinstler's "Love Someone" has 62,000 hits, Spence's "Never Be Alone" has 39,000 hits, while "23" has 294,000 listens.
By the time of the finale, the song was already number two on the iTunes charts and number two on the Country iTunes charts.
On the night of the final, three became two as Grace Kinstler was announced as the third-place contestant for this year. Later in the show, it was announced that this year's winner was Chayce Beckham.
Prior to winning the show's $100,000 record deal, Beckham tweeted, "Tomorrow my American idol journey comes to an end, but yours could just be getting started. If y'all are thinking about doing the virtual auditions do it! It changed my life!"
Tomorrow my American idol journey comes to an end, but yours could just be getting started🙃 If y’all are thinking about doing the virtual auditions do it! It changed my life! 🙌🏼
— Chayce Beckham (@ChayceBeckham) May 23, 2021
Writing on Instagram, he added, "Tonight this years American idol will be crowned! What a fun ride this has been, I'm so happy I get to finish up the finale with these two beautiful people."
Beckham is now heading to Nashville, Tennessee, to record his debut album, expected later in the year.
His win comes after an emotional year for the singer, who got sober just weeks before the Idol auditions after being in a drunken car crash.
Prior to winning, the singer told Los Angeles Daily News, "They set me up to release the first song that I ever released in my life. I feel like they've set me up so well to where I can put music out, and now people are going to hear it.
"I think it's super important to take the momentum that you have and keep going with it, and not say, 'Oh man, this crazy show's over with, I'm going to relax for a month or two.' I think it's important for me to get out of this and hit the ground running."
Uncommon Knowledge
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