Photo: ABC
Hannah Harper, Jordan McCullough and Keyla Richardson kicked off the star-studded American Idol finale with one of Carrie Underwood’s empowering anthems on Monday night (May 11).
Underwood sang along and got on her feet as the trio performed “The Champion” on the Idol stage. Underwood released the song, featuring Ludacris, on her Cry Pretty studio record in 2018: “I’ve been working my whole life/ And now it's do or die/ I am invincible, unbreakable/ Unstoppable, unshakable/ They knock me down, I get up again/ I am the champion, you're gon' know my name/ You can't hurt me now, I can't feel the pain/ I was made for this, yeah, I was born to win/ I am the champion.”
Underwood launched her career when she won American Idol’s fourth season in 2005. She returned to the competition show as a judge in 2025, two decades after host Ryan Seacrest crowned her the winner. The eight-time Grammy winner is a judge alongside Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. Watch the 2026 Top 3 contestants perform “The Champion” here, and scroll below to find out who won American Idol’s season finale (warning: spoilers).
Seacrest revealed Harper won this season of American Idol, making the Missouri-born mother of three the first female country artist to win the competition since Underwood’s victory more than 20 years ago.