Hannah Harper winning American Idol was the headline, but the discussion that circulated was about what was happening backstage between her and runner-up Jordan McCullough almost every day.
After the finale, Hannah opened up about just how much Jordan carried her through the competition.
“I doubted myself so many times,” she said. “God and Jordan praying over me every single week, that was so helpful in having the confidence each week to step on stage.” She went further, joking that Jordan had essentially become her unofficial therapist.
Hannah wins, standing next to Jordan
Their bond went deeper than competition prep. Hannah described the two of them doing Bible study together in the dressing room every single day.
“The entire competition is scary, and there’s a lot of spiritual warfare in LA,” she said. “We both are like sponges when it comes to that. We feel all of it. So it’s been really nice to have somebody like-minded.”
Jordan, a worship director from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, who had been singing in church since he was four years old, brought that same spirit onto the stage every week, too, closing the finale with “Goodness of God” before Hannah was named the winner.
After the result, Jordan said, “I left my heart out on that stage tonight. I just want to live in the moment right now and be present in what’s happening. I don’t want to move so far ahead that I forget to be grateful for what’s happening now.”
Hannah opens up after the finale
For a competition built around one person winning, what Hannah and Jordan built over the course of Season 24 was something different. She won. He finished second. And by all accounts, neither of them needed the other to lose to feel like they’d gotten something real out of it.