John Foster and Jamal Roberts, seconds before Ryan Seacrest’s Season 23 winner announcement.
It seems wrong to call Jamal Roberts’s victory on the American Idol Season 23 finale a “surprise,” since he is without question one of the greatest male vocalists to ever compete on the show. But many Idol pundits, myself included, thought that teen country crooner John Foster, who ultimately placed second, might prevail instead.
“We had no idea what was going to happen coming into it, even until the last moment,” judge Carrie Underwood admitted backstage after Sunday’s grand finale. Judge Lionel Richie gave runner-up Foster his props, declaring, “As far as I’m concerned, we ended up tonight with two No. 1 people,” and longtime executive producer/showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick said Season 23’s result “felt like an old-school Idol finale; it felt like Ruben-versus-Clay in that way.” But it was not lost on Richie that Roberts became the first Black man to win Idol since Ruben Studdard did so 22 years ago, and he had much to say about this landmark victory.
“Everybody thinks that we are never going to get back to something, or we’re never going to be able to do that again. And the answer is, we are,” declared Richie. “I think what I loved the most was America needed to see the two of them standing together. Together. That’s what I pray for America, because we’re a melting pot. We’re not just one particular tribe. And so, to see them together was just the picture I was hoping for.
“And now that Jamal won, I don’t have to call anybody in Atlanta, Ga., and [explain] why he didn’t win! You know what I’m sayin’?” Richie continued, chuckling, before adding more seriously: “And by the way, that’s 26 million votes. So, I’m going to tell you right now, if you think it’s all Black folks, if you think it’s all Latinos, I’m telling you that America voted.”
The stunned judges react to Jamal’s win.
Wolflick enthused, “I feel great about it!” when asked about Roberts’s win, calling it “an amazing icing on top of the American Idol cake.” Reflecting on the 27-year-old Mississippi soul stylist’s wide-ranging appeal, she mused, “Jamal had something that fired up something in people. I follow X [Twitter], the whole show, and I’m on there looking at everything… and multiple people were saying, ‘I have not voted on this show since Fantasia.’ And I was like, whoa. And the wild part was, I wanted Fantasia to come back last year as a mentor — it was her 20-year anniversary — and this year she finally agreed, and it was written in the stars to have her mentor Jamal. I was literally that morning driving, and I was like, ‘I am living for this moment of Jamal and Fantasia meeting!’ Because people were calling him ‘Mantasia.’ … So, he was firing up something in people.”
“Jamal was undeniable,” added Richie. “I remember what my grandmother used to say: ‘When you’re Black and you win, it’s not because you’re good — you’re the best that ever was.”
“When you look at a kid like him from Meridian, Miss., that’s never had an ounce of training and all that, and you look at how complex and wonderful his voice is, he kind of really tugged on my heartstrings, on every facet of his journey, to win,” said judge Luke Bryan. Bryan was always impressed by Roberts, but said he started to see Roberts as the potential winner once Season 23’s performance episodes began.
“You started hearing him with a mic, and then he started dressing the part, looking the part, and then he starts really working on these songs. I think the original ‘Heal’ moment, when he did ‘Heal’ a couple of episodes ago, I was like, ‘This kid is on a whole ‘nother level of creative brain,’” Bryan marveled. “I mean, when you talk about his creativeness and all of the stuff that he did on the ‘Heal’ recording that just went out [as Roberts’s debut single], he ad-libbed that in the studio. So, he’s a special person. … It’s instinct, straight from the heavens or whatever religion you believe. It is right out of the heavens that he is that gifted of a natural singer. … They’re techniques that cannot be taught. He just has them.”
As for the sort of music that Roberts, who tackled all genres during his Idol run, will or should release after “Heal,” Richie asserted, “If tomorrow he wanted the sing country, he’s going to sing the hell out of country. Because now, if you understand how the music business works… it’s just music now. There’s no more ‘country.’ There’s no more ‘R&B.’ It’s called ‘Jamal is a popular artist.’” Richie also joked (or perhaps he wasn’t joking), “I’m going to try to write as many songs as I can for him. Are you kidding me? I won’t let that brother get too far.”
As for this season’s other judge, Underwood, she had a unique perspective when it comes to Roberts’s future. When she won Idol Season 4, two decades ago, the entire industry was different — millions of fans bought physical CDs and watched terrestrial network television, and the series was so new and buzzy that winning pretty much guaranteed some success, at least in the short-term. But Underwood said if Roberts continues to grind as hard as he did throughout this season, he can enjoy long-term success.
“I feel like at the end of the day, we all have our paths. I mean, this happens in so many different instances, just in the entertainment industry. Somebody will have a great movie, and then you never hear from them again. Somebody will have a great first album, and then you never hear from them again. It’s all an opportunity,” said Underwood. “It’s all a launching pad, and then you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to hustle. And you’ve got to kind of hope that the good Lord’s guiding your steps. But this is an incredible opportunity, that I know he can make the most of.”
