By India McCarty
AMERICAN IDOL winner Hannah Harper got plenty of encouragement from another singer and mother — Carrie Underwood!
“Carrie was really encouraging, just as a mom,” Harper told TV Insider. “She relates. She was like, ‘Anything you need in the industry, I want to be available, help you with whatever you need.’ That was really nice.”
She also shouted out the other AMERICAN IDOL judges, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.
“Getting to chat with [the judges] after the show and hearing how genuine they are [was great]. They’re real people who just want to encourage us every step of the way,” she said. “It was one of the highlights of the whole competition.”
Related: Hannah Harper Wins AMERICAN IDOL Season 24, Closes Finale at the Cross
Underwood, who won AMERICAN IDOL herself in 2005, spoke to Gold Derby about Harper, saying, “I definitely see myself in her quite a bit. She’s just relatable. I think that’s why people voted for her. They see a mom who’s juggling just like everybody else.”
“Her family’s been out here the whole time. I know she’s coming to rehearsals and going home and making dinner,” she continued. “[I have] a lot of respect [for] her for already figuring that out.”
Harper has been vocal about her commitment to balancing her burgeoning singing career with her family life; she is mom to three sons.
“The only thing that was real and mattered was my kids and my relationship with my husband, which I think is very important,” she told Parade. “I think that’s why so many people admire Dolly [Parton] because she’s such a character. She can put it on and then she can take it off and she can be a separate person, so I’m struggling with that because I take pride in authenticity, of being real on stage and off stage, so just balancing those relationships is going to be hard at first.”
Harper said she thinks her family will “get” that balance but added that Underwood “wanted to make sure that I kept a hold of the grasp of reality once everything settled down and just made sure to still focus on the priorities, which is my kids and my husband.”
Underwood herself has spoken about juggling work and home life, telling Us Weekly, “I go home, and I had to have talks with my family at one point, because I was like, ‘OK, when I’m away, I’m like Cinderella at the ball.’ I’m a princess, and it’s great. And then I come home, and I’m like, covered in dirt. I’m covered in poop. It’s just the polar opposite. I’m like, cleaning up after everybody and barefoot in the kitchen. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
With Underwood’s help, Harper is certain to succeed!
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