American Idol has a new winner! Iam Tongi has been crowned the Season 21 champion, beating out Megan Danielle, who came in second place, and Colin Stough, who came in third.
Prior to his win, Tongi performed his current single, “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which he followed with “Don’t Let Go” after he was declared the winner. He also performed a cover of James Blunt’s “Monsters” with Tongi, reprising the song he performed during his audition.
“I was not worried about whether you were going to make it through the song, I was worried about whether we were going to make it through the song. Your daddy is very proud,” judge Lionel Richie said following his performance with Blunt (via People).
“I cannot handle your heart breaking about your dad because my nephew lost his dad and he came to live with me, and just seeing you missing your dad sucks,” Luke Bryan added. “Gosh man, you’ve got a great voice. You did everything perfectly and I love you and want to see you have fun.”
Tongi also performed “Making Memories Of Us” by Keith Urban, earning high praise from all three judges.
“Every time you come on and you sing, the vibration the comes out of your mouth, it goes through the weeds of people’s hearts, and it just gets to me,” Katy Perry said. “It moves us so much. So when you sing, I am ready to feel, baby.”
“You just have a natural gift from God, to create the emotion, to tell the story,” added Bryan. “I love that song by Keith. Right before, I looked at Katy, and I was like, ‘This is a bad-ass song he’s fixing to sing. What’s crazy about that is, it was one of my favorite performances of the year from you. It was just beautiful. Perfection.”
Tongi just released “I’ll Be Seeing You” as a single. The song, written by Season 18 American Idol alum Francisco Martin, was released by Tongi in tribute to his own father, who passed away mere months before Tongi’s audition.
“It means a lot to me,” Tongi says of the song. “It is about my father, and if you think about it, this song talks about ‘I’ll be seeing you wherever I go’ because when a loved one passes away, you are going to remember them in everyday life. My dad had to go to dialysis, and every time we drive past the place he had to get it done, we always point and say, ‘Oh, look, Dad.’ We never say, ‘Oh look, that’s where he used to get it done.’ We always just say ‘Dad.’”
Urban performed during the American Idol finale, singing his own song, “Wild Hearts.” He also served as a guest mentor for the three finalists. Other performers of the night included Idol alums Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, plus Ellie Goulding, Jazmine Sullivan, Jelly Roll with Lainey Wilson and Oliver Steele, REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin, Kylie Minogue, Lauren Daigle, Pitbull with Lil Jon, and TLC.