![\"Who](\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/john-foster-american-idol-1-1014x570.jpg\")
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Carrie Underwood\u00a0is gushing over\u00a0American Idol\u2019<\/em>s\u00a0John Foster!<\/p>\n Speaking with PEOPLE in a roundtable interview after the live show on Monday, April 28, the \u201cBefore He Cheats\u201d singer revealed why she has a soft spot for the contestant.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s so sweet and fresh faced and he\u2019s one of those people that I feel like\u2026 don\u2019t even really know how good you are kind of thing,\u201d Underwood, 42, says.<\/p>\n \u201cWeek to week, we have watched him progress so much,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe were talking after his performance, me,\u00a0Luke [Bryan]\u00a0and\u00a0[Lionel Richie]\u00a0and we were just saying he\u2019s probably the one that has grown the most since he\u2019s been here.\u201d<\/p>\n Carrie Underwood and John Foster.<\/span>Disney\/Eric McCandless (2)<\/p>\n Underwood believes that the\u00a0Idol<\/em>\u00a0audience \u201cloves him\u201d \u2014 and there\u2019s \u201cso many reasons to want to root for him.\u201d But for the \u201cJesus Take the Wheel\u201d singer, there\u2019s a personal connection.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like he kind of reminds me of my oldest son,\u201d says Underwood, who shares two boys,\u00a0Isaiah, 10, and Jacob, 6, with husband\u00a0Mike Fisher. \u201cWhen he\u2019s over there singing to me, I kind of feel like a proud mom. He\u2019s very good.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday night, Foster, 18, sang\u00a0Randy Travis\u2019 1987 hit \u201cI Told You So,\u201d which Underwood covered for her 2007 album\u00a0Carnival Ride<\/em>. Toward the end of his performance, Foster approached the judges table and sang to Underwood directly.<\/p>\n Lionel Richie, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan.<\/span>Eric McCandless\/Disney via Getty<\/p>\n Reflecting on that moment, Foster says she\u2019s \u201cthe reason\u201d he chose the song \u2014 and he knew he needed to sing it to her.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that she was sitting there on the panel\u2026 the pressure was on. She has such a great version of the song but I knew that I had to sing to her and I knew that I had to let America know my passion for the song and music by connecting with her,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In addition to Foster, Josh King, Jamal Roberts, Mattie Pruitt, Thunderstorm Artis,\u00a0Slater Nalley, Gabby Samone, Canaan James Hill, Kolbi Jordan and\u00a0Breanna Nix\u00a0are in the Top 10.<\/p>\n On April 20, Foster moved\u00a0Idol<\/em>\u00a0viewers when he sang an original song, \u201cTell That Angel I Love Her,\u201d which he wrote about a friend who died suddenly in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve kind of been a wildcard for me the whole time, but what you just did there removed all doubts in my mind that you deserve to be here,\u201d said the \u201cKick the Dust Up\u201d singer.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you open your mouth on this song, you\u2019re country, but you\u2019re also storytelling country,\u201d Richie\u00a0added. \u201cNow whether that\u2019s old, new, happening now, later, whatever the case may be, it was so believable and I heard every word of every part of your story and that\u2019s what great music is about.\u201d<\/p>\n American Idol<\/em>\u00a0airs Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Foster made the Top 10 after performing Randy Travis\u2019 1987 hit \u201cI Told You So\u201d Carrie Underwood\u00a0is gushing over\u00a0American Idol\u2019s\u00a0John Foster! Speaking with PEOPLE in a roundtable… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2882","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\/2882","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=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2884,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions\/2884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"CARRIE](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/CXINbcmM9pxBC_u5UTKy5otdplE=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(775x355:777x357):format(webp)\/carrie-underwood-john-foster-042925-d64173826185434e812c25a10e49c9b2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"LIONEL](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/1kXUmsvIzGrX6gO37nh5p51FOOw=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)\/lionel-richie-carrie-underwood-luke-bryan-040725-169d96c9c9c54976978088ed246c7ff1.jpg\")
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