Just Sam Crowned as the American Idol First Virtual Winner

Samantha Diaz, popularly known as Just Sam, became the winner of the American Idol staged “at home.”

She was connected to a call with her grandmother, who brought her up when the show host, Ryan Seacrest, who was broadcasting from his garage, told her she had won the public vote, which makes her the winner.

The show named American Idol was created by Simon Fuller and currently aired by ABC. It is an American singing competition television series. However, the show went virtual first time in 18 years, making the host and contestants perform from their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 21 years old lady from Harlem, New York, took part in the finale in Los Angeles. She overcame other finalists, Julia Gargano, Arthur Gunn, Dillon James, Louis Knight, Francisco Martin, and Jonny West, in the public vote to become the first virtual winner of American Idol.

“Can I thank America now?” asked Just Sam. “My dreams have come true.”

Moreover, Samantha Diaz had a tough time growing up; she was adopted by her Liberian grandmother, Elizabeth, at the age of six while her mother was in Jail.

“She made sure we were fed, she made sure we had a roof over our head, she made sure we had clothes on our backs,” Sam told American Idol.

Samantha Diaz came up with her stage name “Just Sam” at high school after being bullied over her appearance.

“In high school, they didn’t know which category to put me in,” she said in one episode of the show. “I wasn’t a girl, nor a boy, but both. And I’m like, ‘Just Sam – it sounds perfect. I think I’m going to use that as my stage name forever.”

During her audition, Just Sam stunned the judges with a stirring performance of Andra Day’s Rise Up in Washington DC last year.

After she had relocated from New York to LA for the live stages of the singing contest, she faced a tough decision to return to Harlem or remain in lockdown in LA when the show started filming virtually, but Just Sam later chose to stay in LA for her grandmother’s safety.

“I get to stay in California so that my grandmother could be OK, and so I don’t risk getting her sick,” she said on the show. “I don’t have much, just my two suitcases that I had packed about two months ago.”

Moreover, Sam’s powerful rendition of Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) and an emotional reprise of Day’s Rise Up earned her the public vote, which made her the winner of the virtual show.

“My grandmother has been saying that she doesn’t believe that people like us can have their dreams come true,” she said, during the show. “This is proof to her!”

The show was brought to an end with a performance of the 1985 charity anthem “We Are The World,” led by co-writer Lionel Richie and his fellow judges. Just Sam also joined the chorus, alongside an all-star group of Idol alumni.