Samantha Diaz, a 21-year-old who performed on New York City subway platforms as Just Sam, was crowned the winner of Season 18 of American Idol on Sunday night.
“I would never have ever, ever, ever expected this,” she said after host Ryan Seacrest announced her name. Just Sam was up against Nepal-born Arthur Gunn (aka Dibesh Pokharel) in the last moments of the season finale.
The Harlem resident celebrated alone in an apartment she has been staying in during the COVID-19 lockdown to protect her adoptive grandmother Elizabeth.
Just Sam auditioned last October in Washington, D.C. and performed songs like Fantasia Barrino’s “I Believe” and the late Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands” during the competition. Her cover of Andra Day’s “Rise Up” will be released digitally overnight.
Earlier in the season, Just Sam explained she chose her stage name in high school. "They didn’t know which category to put me in. I wasn’t a girl, not a boy, but both. And I’m like, ‘Just Sam’... It sounds perfect.”
She becomes the fifth black contestant to win Idol and the first black woman to win since Candice Glover on Season 12 in 2013.
Sunday's American Idol finale included performances of new singles by judges Katy Perry ("Daisies") and Luke Bryan ("One Margarita") as well as a reboot of the 1985 charity anthem "We Are The World" – co-penned by judge Lionel Richie and the late Michael Jackson – featuring Season 18 finalists and other former Idol contestants.