Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Season 21 champ Iam Tongi returned to perform on American Idol’s Season 22 Top 24 show Sunday night. (ABC Photo)

Season 21 champ Iam Tongi made a triumphant return to American Idol Sunday night.

After all, the Top 24 were performing in Hawaii. And since Iam’s the first-ever Idol champ from Hawaii … well, it was a natural fit.

Iam performed “Why Kiki,” the first original song he released after his Idol run.

Iam was enjoying success with the song even before the performance.

Entering Sunday, “Why Kiki” had been streamed more than 2.3 million times on Spotify.

The only Iam songs with more streams are his acclaimed cover of “Monsters” (4.5 million) and his official Idol single “I’ll Be Seeing You” (5.3 million).

“It’s very important to me to represent where I’m from. That is what this song does,” Iam told TV Insider in an interview last week.

“I wanted to represent where I was born and pay homage to my home. It’s a fun little song. It’s so catchy. Just an upbeat song.”

Iam’s also been touring constantly since Idol. You can check out all of his upcoming show dates on his website.

American Idol Season 21 champ Iam Tongi waves to the crowd during his guest appearance on the show Sunday night. (ABC Photo)