Jake Thistle reached Idol's Top 14 in 2026, then released a 13-song album

Jake Thistle reached the Top 14 of American Idol's 24th season in 2026, and on September 25 he released A Stranger By Design, a 13-song album. The season ended on May 11, when Hannah Harper won. Here is what Thistle, Harper and nine more of the season's finalists have done in the months since.

• Jake ThistleIdol 24 · Top 14

Jake Thistle sang his own song, “Sleep On Me,” on Idol

Thistle grew up in Paramus, New Jersey. He told Patch that a Super Bowl halftime show in 2008, when he was three, made him want to be a musician, and he played his first open mic, at Mama's Café Baci in Hackettstown, a few weeks before his 10th birthday. He kept playing shows while he studied journalism and communications at Rutgers, and he chose Blind Faith's “Can't Find My Way Home” for his Idol audition. In the 'Ohana Round he sang his own song, “Sleep On Me,” and in the Top 20 he sang “The Power of Love.” He sang “Have A Little Faith In Me” in the Top 14 and was eliminated in the results announced on April 6. At the finale he and Jesse Findling sang with Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms.

• Jake Thistle: career and music

“Sleep on Me”, 'Ohana Round

“The Power of Love”, Top 20, 2026

• Hannah HarperIdol 24 · Winner

Hannah Harper won with two of her own songs

Hannah Harper was raised in Bunker, Missouri, and first sang on stage at nine with her family band, The Harper Family. Her audition song, “String Cheese,” which she wrote about motherhood and the postpartum depression she faced after her youngest child was born, went viral. In the finale on May 11 she sang “No One” and two of her own songs, “Married Into This Town” and “String Cheese,” and she won. Her String Cheese Tour was announced with dates from June to November 14, starting with a June 2 show at the Grand Ole Opry House with Carrie Underwood. In June she announced that Brad Paisley, who mentored her on Idol, would join six dates from August 27. On September 4, 19 Recordings and Atlantic Outpost released “Hold Your Horses,” her follow-up to “Married Into This Town.” “Underneath all the sass, it’s really about choosing to love each other,” she said.

• Hannah Harper: career and music
• Listen to “Hold Your Horses” on Apple Music

“String Cheese”, Top 3 – Finale, 2026

• Jordan McCulloughIdol 24 · Runner-up

Jordan McCullough made his Opry debut and signed with Sugar Hill

Jordan McCullough, a longtime worship leader from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, auditioned with CeCe Winans' “Goodness of God.” Over the season he sang Bill Withers' “Grandma's Hands,” MercyMe's “I Can Only Imagine,” Queen's “Somebody to Love” and Bonnie Raitt's “I Can't Make You Love Me.” In the finale he sang “Goodness of God” again and finished second. The Grand Ole Opry surprised him with an invitation while he filmed his hometown visit for the show, and he made his Opry debut on June 18. “Thank you Opry for allowing this Tennessee-grown boy to step into the circle,” he wrote afterward. On July 17 he released his debut single, “See Me,” a song about his time on the show. By August he had signed with Sugar Hill Records, the Nashville label of Sarah Jarosz, Sam Bush and Lee Ann Womack.

• Jordan McCullough: career and music

“Grandma's Hands”, 'Ohana Round

• Keyla RichardsonIdol 24 · Third place

Keyla Richardson went back to leading worship

Keyla Richardson has led praise and worship at her church in Pensacola, Florida, for years, and her nine-year-old son, Drew, watched her from the Idol audience. She finished third. In the finale she sang “Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)” and “I Love The Lord,” and that day 19 Recordings and Atlantic released “I Love The Lord” and “Glitter in the Air” together. On June 1 she shared a video of herself leading worship at what she called her first church service in a while; “it felt so good to be back,” she wrote. She has said she wants to sing more than gospel, but that gospel will stay at her core: “No matter the genre, no matter what I'm singing, it's just going to come out.”

• Keyla Richardson: career and music

“I Love The Lord”, Top 3 – Finale, 2026

• Chris TungsethIdol 24 · Top 5

Chris Tungseth released “Lonely Road” after a homecoming in Fergus Falls

Chris Tungseth grew up singing in church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. His father was an opera singer and worship leader, and his mother is a pianist. After his father died in 2023, Tungseth studied exercise science at Grand Canyon University, and two months after he graduated in 2025 he sang his own song, “Lonely Road,” at his Idol audition. He went out in the Top 5, the week he sang “Northern Attitude” and, with Bucky Covington, “The Thunder Rolls.” When he came home in May, more than 8,000 people went to a homecoming rally with a motorcycle parade for his father, and Mayor Anthony Hicks proclaimed May 16 Chris Tungseth Day. “Lonely Road” came out on June 5, and it passed 25,000 streams in its first two weeks.

• Chris Tungseth: career and music
• Listen to “Lonely Road” on Apple Music

“What Was I Made For?”, Top 7 – Taylor Swift / California Songs Night, 2026

• Daniel StallworthIdol 24 · Top 7

Daniel Stallworth sang for his hometown and a Hattiesburg church

Daniel Stallworth, from Moss Point, Mississippi, sang “All Night Long” in the Top 20 and went out in the Top 7, after “Fearless” and “Best Part.” In early May he surprised the students of his old school, Moss Point High, and held a free concert at Jerry D. Alexander Stadium. “Put yourself out there, believe in yourself, that's my whole motto,” he told them. “Moss Point raised me, and so I wanted to put on for my city,” he said. On May 31 he was a guest artist at the 27th-anniversary celebration of West Point Baptist Church in Hattiesburg.

• Daniel Stallworth: career and music

Top 20, 2026

• RaeIdol 24 · Top 11
• Jesse FindlingIdol 24 · Top 12

Rae Boyd and Jesse Findling played a homecoming in Maryland

Rae Boyd started out singing in restaurants around Maryland with her sister. On Idol, Lionel Richie saved her in the Top 12 after “Love Will Lead You Back,” and she went out the next week. At the finale she sang with En Vogue. On June 19 she headlined a homecoming show at the first SilverVox Film & Music Festival in Frederick, Maryland, with Jesse Findling. Findling, from Massapequa Park on Long Island, had told the judges in his audition that he grew up with a stutter and that singing let him express himself freely. He went out in the Top 12 after “Wonderwall.” The Town of Oyster Bay honored him, and in the fall he returned to Binghamton University, where he studies biology with a minor in musical theatre.

• Rae: career and music
• Jesse Findling: career and music

“Love Will Lead You Back”, Top 12 – 90s Judges' Song Contest, 2026

• Lucas LeonIdol 24 · Top 9
• Julián KalelIdol 24 · Top 14
• Philmon LeeIdol 24 · Top 11

Lucas Leon, Julián Kalel and Philmon Lee

Lucas Leon went out in the Top 9 after “Life Is a Highway,” and at the finale he sang “I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)” with Brad Paisley. On July 24 he released “Fall In Love Someday” through 19 Recordings. Julián Kalel, a Stanford student from El Paso, took a leave of absence for the show and spoke on it about living with anxiety and depression. He went out in the Top 14 after “Fix You,” released the single “Heartstrings” on finale day, and on July 4 opened El Paso's Independence Day celebration ahead of the Randy Rogers Band. Philmon Lee, from the Top 11, joined Shinedown singer Brent Smith on “Searchlight” at the finale.

• Lucas Leon: career and music
• Julián Kalel: career and music
• Philmon Lee: career and music
• Listen to “Fall In Love Someday” on Apple Music

“The House That Built Me”, 'Ohana Round