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Lucas Leon took the stage with a “heartfelt” rendition of a Tim McGraw hit during the latest episode of American Idol on Monday evening (March 23).
Leon, 17, is a singer-songwriter from Gallatin, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. He opted to sing McGraw’s “Just to See You Smile.” The 2026 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee released the single, written by Mark Nesler and Tony Martin, on his fourth studio album, Everywhere, in 1997. It remains one of McGraw’s biggest hits of his decades-spanning career.
“It’s one of my favorite songs ever written,” Brad Paisley said of the song selection. Paisley joined American Idol as a guest mentor this season, along with Keke Palmer. Paisley said Leon’s rendition is “a very heartfelt interpretation of Tim’s thing. It doesn’t sound like Tim, and it shouldn’t. It sounds like you, and that’s hard to do. Differentiating yourself is the name of the game on a show like this.”
Leon said after meeting with Paisley and Palmer, “they say don’t meet your heroes, but I’m really glad I met Brad.”
He went on to deliver a “laid-back” rendition of “Just to See You Smile” for judges Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie during the show. American Idol airs on ABC on Monday nights from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET/PT. It’s available to stream the next day on Hulu. Watch Leon’s performance here:
Bryan is part of the star-studded lineup of the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival. The show also includes Carly Pearce, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Riley Green, Shaboozey, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Chase Matthew and Lauren Alaina. iHeartRadio's Bobby Bones is returning as the event’s host. The show will take place on May 2 at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Tickets to the show are available as of January 23. Fans across the country will be able to catch all the action as the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival will be broadcast live across iHeartCountry stations nationwide and the free iHeartRadio app on Saturday, May 2nd at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT).