American Idol‘s favorite country singer, John Foster, performed a powerful cover song in honor of his mom.

Sunday night’s episode of American Idol was one of two Disney-themed nights, and John Foster had a chance to honor his mom on Mother’s Day.

The first hour of the episode was jam-packed with Disney covers as actor and Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda mentored the hopefuls. The Top 7 chose songs they connected with on some level, making for some fun and emotional performances.

The second hour of the episode was dedicated to moms. Each of the remaining singers spoke about their moms and/or stepmoms before singing a song in their honor. It was clear at the beginning of the hour that it was going to be emotional. Carrie Underwood admitted that she would likely cry through the second half of the performances.

John Foster brought viewers to tears with his cover of  Brooks & Dunn’s powerful ballad, “Believe.” The song, written by Ronnie Dunn, was released 20 years ago and is widely considered one of the saddest country songs of all time.

 

Ahead of his performance, John revealed why he chose the song as his Mother’s Day song.

“It’s a song that’s very reared in faith, which is how I see my mom. She’s my faith. My prime faith is Christianity, and my mom has built that over so many years. I am so eternally grateful,” Foster said.

John’s mom brought him to tears when he shared with the audience how proud she is of him. “I was born to be a mom, and I’m so glad that he’s mine.”

John Foster’s performance of “Believe” wasn’t the first time he made the audience cry.

During the Top 20 round, Foster sang an original song in honor of two friends who were tragically killed in a car accident. John wrote “Tell That Angel I Love Her” after Maggie Dunn and Caroline Gill lost their lives on New Year’s Eve 2022. He ended the emotional Idol performance by saying, “I love you, Maggie.”

Maggie and Caroline’s mothers were in the audience the night of John’s American Idol performance in their honor. Maggie’s mom, Erin Martin, said that the applause drowned out John’s final statement during the live show, but it meant a lot to hear him say it when she watched the show again after returning home.

“I didn’t hear him say, ‘I love you, Maggie,’ when I was there live,” Martin told UWK. “I could see him get emotional on stage. I didn’t hear the ‘I love you, Maggie’ until I was at home because of all the clapping and whatnot. But it just meant a lot to hear him say that.”

Watch John Foster’s emotional performance of “Tell That Angel I Love Her” below.