{"id":24473,"date":"2026-05-14T08:45:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=24473"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:45:28","slug":"from-string-cheese-on-the-couch-to-winning-american-idol-hannah-harper-just-completed-one-of-the-wildest-underdog-runs-the-show-has-seen-in-years-officially-becoming-the-se","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=24473","title":{"rendered":"FROM \u201cSTRING CHEESE\u201d ON THE COUCH\u2026 TO WINNING AMERICAN IDOL Hannah Harper just completed one of the wildest underdog runs the show has seen in years, officially becoming the Season 24 champion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\ud83d\udd25\"\u00a0FROM \u201cSTRING CHEESE\u201d ON THE COUCH\u2026 TO WINNING AMERICAN IDOL<\/p>\n

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Hannah Harper just completed one of the wildest underdog runs the show has seen in years, officially becoming the Season 24 champion.<\/p>\n

The Missouri mom of three went from being underestimated week after week to standing center stage with the crown in her hands \u2014 and fans are already calling the finale moment unforgettable.<\/p>\n

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But it was her emotional reaction after the win that really sent the internet into meltdown.<\/p>\n

\"\ud83d\udc47\"\u00a0The winning moment is everywhere right now<\/p>\n

**************<\/p>\n

Hannah Harper Wins AMERICAN IDOL Season 24, Closes Finale at the Cross<\/h1>\n

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\nBy Movieguide\u00ae Staff<\/p>\n

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Hannah Harper won Season 24 of AMERICAN IDOL on Monday night, closing the three-hour finale in tears with a worship performance of Chris Tomlin\u2019s \u201cAt The Cross (Love Ran Red)\u201d while fellow contestants and judges gathered around her onstage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m beyond thankful for the doors the Lord has opened,\u201d the 26-year-old\u00a0said\u00a0in an Instagram post hours after host Ryan Seacrest called her name. The Willow Springs, Missouri mom of three quoted Jeremiah 29:11 and thanked viewers for carrying the dream further than she ever imagined.<\/p>\n

Movieguide\u00ae has tracked Harper\u2019s faith-forward run all season \u2014 from her viral January audition to her tearful \u201cSongs of Faith\u201d episode back in April. At that performance, she told Seacrest the song was an\u00a0\u201copportunity to give an invitation\u201d\u00a0to Jesus.<\/p>\n

Related: AMERICAN IDOL Favorite Sings About Power of the Cross\u00a0Days Before Easter<\/p>\n

Harper attends First Baptist Church of Birch Tree in rural Missouri, and she has been singing in church since she was 9. She grew up touring the country with her family\u2019s bluegrass gospel band before stepping off the road to raise her three sons.<\/p>\n

She defeated worship leader Jordan McCullough \u2014 who performed \u201cGoodness of God\u201d as his final song \u2014 and singer Keyla Richardson to take the title. On a season where producers built more open faith moments into the show than usual, Harper kept being the artist they could build around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important for people to know you\u2019re never too far gone,\u201d Harper\u00a0said.\u00a0She added that God can meet anyone anywhere, no matter their walk of life.<\/p>\n

Her audition song, \u201cString Cheese,\u201d came out of a real low. Harper has said she wrote it on her couch during a hard week of postpartum depression, with three little boys crying around her \u2014 until one of them climbed into her lap asking her to open his cheese.<\/p>\n

That moment,\u00a0Movieguide\u00ae reported earlier this year, reminded her that motherhood was the biggest ministry God had given her. \u201cString Cheese\u201d has since charted on iTunes and helped push her Instagram following past 400,000.<\/p>\n

Judge Carrie Underwood, a believer herself, broke down during that audition and praised Harper\u2019s authenticity all the way to the finale. Underwood used Monday\u2019s broadcast to publicly affirm Harper as a singer, a songwriter, a daughter, and \u2014 pointedly \u2014 a mom.<\/p>\n

For her final night onstage, Harper revisited \u201cString Cheese,\u201d debuted her latest single \u201cMarried Into This Town,\u201d and teamed with country veteran Lee Ann Womack on \u201cI Hope You Dance.\u201d Picking up a duet with Womack \u2014 one of the genre\u2019s most respected voices \u2014 is the kind of Nashville co-sign that doesn\u2019t go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

Then came the win, and Harper turned the spotlight straight to the cross. The closing performance of \u201cAt The Cross (Love Ran Red)\u201d was the kind of moment Hollywood usually trims for time. AMERICAN IDOL let it breathe.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the through-line of Harper\u2019s whole season. She has called raising her three sons her biggest ministry, and she has refused to treat the stage and the home as competing assignments. For Christian families watching, that posture \u2014 not the trophy \u2014 is the real story.<\/p>\n

Harper now heads to Nashville with a recording contract and a viral catalog. She will soon find out whether the entertainment industry has room for an artist who keeps quoting Scripture in her captions and putting the cross at the center of her biggest songs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0FROM \u201cSTRING CHEESE\u201d ON THE COUCH\u2026 TO WINNING AMERICAN IDOL Hannah Harper just completed one of the wildest underdog runs the show has seen in years, officially… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24475,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473\/revisions\/24475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}