Hannah Harper has been named the winner of American Idol 2026 after a strong and emotional season. The 25-year-old singer from Missouri, also a mother of three, was announced as the Season 24 champion at the grand finale. Her journey on the show gained attention from the start, especially after her original song String Cheese about motherhood, moved one of the judges to tears.
Week after week, her performances stood out and often received more praise than other contestants. During the final episode, she also joined fellow contestants for a short performance of Chris Tomlin’s At the Cross (Love Ran Red) she had previously sung during the season. Now, fans are eager to know more about her story and her rise to the top.
Hannah Harper’s love for singing started at church, where she performed bluegrass gospel songs on weekends between the ages of 9 and 16. She was also part of a family music group called the Harper Family, which travelled to different places for performances.
“When we were doing it [as a family band,] it definitely wasn’t for the money. We would charge love offerings. So we would go to church, and we would take whatever they would offer. I think that that ingrained in me a lot of just gratitude and relying on the Lord and living out, walking out by faith,” she explained to Music Mayhem Magazine.
Growing up in a very conservative household, Hannah Harper had limited exposure to mainstream music. Even so, she said she always felt connected to country music legend Dolly Parton from the little she had heard about her over the years.
“I was a big Shania Twain fan, like early ‘90s Shania. That was the one tape that we had on, on the regular, that my mom let me listen to,” she adds.
When Hannah Harper auditioned for American Idol Season 24, she decided not to sing a famous song by one of her inspirations. Instead, she performed an original track she had written herself called String Cheese. The emotional song spoke about her experience dealing with postpartum depression while raising her three young sons.
Harper added that if she wants to write a new song about her life right now, it’ll focus on being thankful and appreciating small moments. She explained that this feeling is also closely connected to the message behind her song String Cheese.
The American Idol winner also shared that many compared her singing style to country singer Lee Ann Womack, even though she only started listening to her music in recent years. She explained that she had never closely studied Womack’s voice or style. Harper said artists like Shania Twain and Jo Dee Messina had a much bigger influence on her music.
Hannah Harper has been married to Devon Mendenhall since April 2018 and the couple share three sons together. They welcomed their first child in April 2019. When Hannah auditioned for American Idol in late 2025, her youngest son was just one year old.
