Idol Chatter & Voice Views

American Idol’s Top 10, including (front row, from left) Breanna Nix, Thunderstorm Artis, Mattie Pruitt, Jamal Roberts; (back row, from left) Canaan James Hill, slater Nalley, Kolbi Jordan, Gabby Samone, John Foster, John King. (ABC Photo)

Wondering what the American Idol standouts from Season 23 have been up to?

If so, here’s a quick rundown.

The great news, 11 of the 14 have already released post-Idol music, including every one of the Top 5 finishers.

Jamal Roberts: He just sang the national anthem for the college football championship game and has a new single on the way called “Head Up;” you can pre-save that now. He turnd 28 in November while on tour with Monica and Brandy. He sang on a live recording of “Still” with Jonathan McReynolds that’s been nominated for a Grammy. He’s released two of his own singles since Idol, “Mississippi” (which has nearly 600,000 streams on Spotify) and “Nothing Compares.” Meanwhile, his Idol single “Heal” is approaching 2 million on the same site.

John Foster: He released his first post-Idol song, an upbeat honky tonk tune called “Little Goes a Long Way” in October. It already has more than 160,000 streams on Spotify. More music is on the way 2026, John says.

Breanna Nix: She released her first post-Idol Christian single, “Another Mile,” in November and says she has lots of fun things in store for 2026. And she’s featured singing “Daddy’s DNA” with Brandon Lake on the album he released over the summer.

Slater Nalley: He moved to Nashville. In October, he announced that he signed a record deal with Warner Nashville. And in conjunction with that announcement, he released “Foolish Pride,” one of the originals he performed on Idol. He’s promising lots of music in 2026. “Foolish Pride” has 265,000 streams on Spotify.

Thunderstorm Artis: He turned 30 in December and has announced his first-ever tour of Australia, set for March. And he’s continued to release music, including a song about his love for his wife called “Saved My Life” that just came out on Jan. 9. Since Idol, he’s also released “The Night We Met” and “Useless” (more than 235,000 streams on Spotify.

Gabby Samone: Gabby just released her first post-Idol single, a song called “Complicated” about a “very vulnerable time in her life.” The gal from Balitmore also performed the national anthem for the Baltimore Ravens last home game of the season, a Sunday Night Football game against the New England Patriots.

Mattie Pruitt: She’s been posting covers like crazy on Facebook and judging from one post, might have a song coming out relatively soon. Meanwhile, on Nov. 2, she celebrated the one year anniversary of her Idol audition, calling it “the start of a wild, beautiful journey that taught me so much about who I am and where I’m headed.”

Josh King: He calls 2025 an “interesting year,” probably because between American Idol and releasing his first single, he had a serious health scare, waking up unable to move while attending a song-writing retreat in Virginia. He’s back to music now and released a holiday song called “Gingerbread Man” in November. He even created coloring pages available for free on his website to accompany the song.

James Canaan Hill: He’s been keeping a busy schedule of performances, including at the recent Black Music and the Civil Rights Movement in Dallas to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. He received a doctorate of humanities from the Sacramento Theological Seminary and Bible College in November. His first post-Idol release came in December with a cover of “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

Kolbi Jordan: She released her post-Idol debut single, “Waiting,” in November. She says it’s a song she wrote in 2019 wanting to “tur my pain turned strength into a song.” Kolbi adds: “Just wait til you hear what else I have.” Kolbi was also just named Entertainer of the Year at the Woman of Color Expo at Langston University in Tulsa.

Filo: He released his first post-Idol single in early November. It’s a song called “Promises.” Says Filo: “This is easily my favorite song I’ve ever written — because it honors the most special person in my life: my mom. She is my rock and my strength.”

Che Chesterman: He hasn’t released music yet. But he recently turned 29 and celebrated his accomplishments in 2025 and — most of all, his family — in a touching end-of-year social media post.

Amanda Barise: She just released a cover of “Memory” from “Cats” with Third Reprise. And in 2025, she released an EP called “Cute and Deadly,” a single called “Fall for You (Part II)”, a collaboration with Max Spinelli came “ComeTakeMyHeart,” and “Christmas Time is Here” with Cole Davis.

Desmond Roberts: He hasn’t released music, but he just posted a cover of Jon Batiste’s “Raindance.” It was the song he performed in the arena round on Idol, but that performance didn’t air. He’s promising lots more to come.