*Caution: Spoilers ahead!*
After weeks of heated competition, themed musical nights, emotional backstories, and surprising departures, “American Idol” has crowned a new winner!
Sunday’s Season 20 finale — which was Bruce Springsteen-themed — all came down to the season’s top three — Leah Marlene, HunterGirl and Noah Thompson.
The first round of the night kicked off with Marlene singing a rendition of “Cover Me”, followed by HunterGirl’s performance of “Dancing in the Dark”. Finally, Thompson closed out the first round with a gravelly cover of “I’m on Fire” that was a hit with the judges.
The second round of the night featured all the finalists performing their own debut original singles. Circling back around, Marlene kicked things off with her tune, “Flowers”, which brought judge Katy Perry to tears.
Thompson follows that up with a performance of his single, “One Day Tonight”, and HunterGirl closed out the second round with a performance of her song “Red Bird”.
After some performances with the judges from Marlene and HunterGirl — and an encore performances of Rihanna’s “Stay” by Thompson, who previously performed the song during the season’s showstopper round — it was time to vote.
After all the votes were cast, the new “American Idol” champion is…
… Noah Thompson!
ET’s Denny Directo spoke with Thompson after the show, and the new “Idol” winner was still in shock, joking, “I don’t know what to do right now.”
The 19-year-old singer — who is himself the father of a young son, Walker — told ET that the best part of all of this was doing something he could show his kid when he got older.
“That, for me, that’s the biggest thing out of all this. Because, you know, I wanted to do this for him,” Thompson shared. “I ended up looking up to my dad that way, so maybe I think that’s the best part of all of this whole process. I think that’s what’s cool about it.”
Meanwhile, HunterGirl finished the season as the honorary runner-up.
For more on this season of “American Idol”, check out the video below.
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