It’s been a week since Hannah Harper was crowned the winner of American Idol 2026, becoming the first female country artist to win the title since the show moved to ABC, and actually, since Carrie Underwood won in 2004, and life couldn’t be sweeter.

“I’m debuting at the [Grand Ole] Opry,” she told Parade in this exclusive interview. “I found that out just a few days ago. There’s several tour opportunities. The books are full for the year, so now we’re looking at next year and we’re recording. Just so many things have changed in the last few months from being off the show and I continue to be surprised.”

What was especially surprising to Hannah was hearing host Ryan Seacrest announce her name as the winner, but she says, it’s a moment she definitely remembers.

“It felt surreal but more than anything I think in those moments you kind of black out a little bit just from all the emotions, but either way I was going to celebrate because I was ready to celebrate with [runner-up] Jordan [McCullough],” she says. “I was absolutely ready for that and then when they said my name, which normally my name is called last for every single round, it was just an incredible feeling of gratitude more than anything because I know that it wasn’t my doing. The people who watched every single week and voted every single week made that happen, so that was an emotional roller coaster for sure.”

With all the craziness that happens when the winner is announced, Carrie did find a moment to take Hannah aside and speak with her. Not surprising, because Carrie has been a big supporter of the mom of three since she auditioned with her original song “String Cheese” about postpartum depression, and Carrie told her then during her audition, “You might be my favorite person that’s walked through those doors.”

Last Monday night, Hannah shares that Carrie wanted her to make sure that Hannah knew that winning American Idol wasn’t “real.”

“The only thing that was real and mattered was my kids and my relationship with my husband, which I think is very important,” Hannah says. “I think that’s why so many people admire Dolly [Parton] because she’s such a character. She can put it on and then she can take it off and she can be a separate person, so I’m struggling with that because I take pride in authenticity, of being real on stage and off stage, so just balancing those relationships is going to be hard at first. I think we’ll get it, but like I said, Carrie just wanted to make sure that I kept a hold of the grasp of reality once everything settled down and just made sure to still focus on the priorities, which is my kids and my husband.”

As to what’s next for Hannah, after a few weeks relaxing back home in Willow Springs, Missouri, with husband Devon Mendenhall and her children, Hannah wants to get back to work and release more of the solo songs that she’s written.

“Originals are definitely where my heart is,” she shares. “I think we’re going to rerelease ‘Married into This Town,’ the full version, because we had to shorten it so much for the show. I think it was like a minute and 10 seconds, so we’re going to do a full version of it probably pretty soon. Then I have several that I’ve been writing for the last couple months in my back pocket that I’m ready to let the world hear.”