Four years ago, at the peak of COVID-19 lockdown, Samantha Diaz, aka Harlem subway busker Just Sam, won a historic remote season of American Idol. Unlike her fellow Season 18 contestants, who quarantined at home with their families after production was suspended due to coronavirus concerns, Sam stayed in Hollywood alone, far away from her beloved grandmother. So, when she won the show, she received the good news in total isolation, in some sort of nondescript corporate housing, with no relatives or friends standing on the sidelines with glitter-glued cardboard signs to cheer her on or wrap her in congratulatory hugs.
However, Sam still shed happy tears that night as she cradled an iPad in her arms, FaceTiming with her elated grandmother back home, as she declared, "My dreams have come true!"
"You're never going to go back to singing on the subway — unless you want to, like, do it for fun," judge Katy Perry assured Just Sam via Zoom during the locked-down finale broadcast. "Your life has changed."
But sadly, very little changed for Just Sam after her win. She wasn't just robbed of the perks of a regular Idol season, like superstar guest mentors and a bells-and-whistles-and-confetti-filled grand finale. She also never released an original single while signed to Hollywood Records/19 Recordings (her coronation song was a cover of Andra Day's "Rise Up"), let alone a full album. And she soon parted ways with the label over creative differences, later claiming that she went broke buying her way out of her contract so she could go indie.
Eventually reports came out that Sam was working at Starbucks, and last year she posted a viral Instagram video, which is still pinned at the top her page, showing that, despite what Katy had prophesied, she had in fact gone back to singing for change in the New York subway.
Fans blasted Idol's producers for doing Sam dirty — for seemingly exploiting the struggling street musician's sob story for ratings during an emotionally charged season, only to abandon her once the show went back to business as usual. Sam was effectively written out of the Idol narrative, with host Ryan Seacrest and the judges never mentioning the Idol That Shall Not Be Named, and producers never inviting her back to the show. In 2022, when Idol aired a 20th anniversary special and Just Sam did not appear and was not acknowledged in any way, she tweeted at that time, "People are concerned about me not performing on @AmericanIdol ever since my win, but I had my time y'all. I'm GREAT & God is GREATER. I move where the lord takes me & where the Lord will allow me to go️ I DO APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT/CONCERN but we're all good over here lol!"
But everything changed this week, when Just Sam performed on American Idol Season 22's live top 10 show.
Sam may have gotten second billing to the night's other, more successful guest performer, Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery, and she was still singing a cover song, not an original. But she did receive a much-deserved heroine's welcome Sunday, with Ryan introducing "the only, the only, Just Sam!" by saying: "She touched the nation with a soulful sound and was a light each week when so much felt uncertain. If you remember, Sam won American Idol from home, so it's only appropriate that Sam get a moment tonight."
Sam then enjoyed the splashy finale celebration that she never got in May 2020, taking her victory lap as she triumphantly belted Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time" in a sequined Grammy gown, while confetti rained down on the stage and the judges gave her a standing ovation. "The winner of American Idol 2020 is... Just Sam!" Ryan proclaimed (sorry, Arthur Gunn), as Sam laughed, "This is way better than an iPhone from home!" Katy then told Sam, "You 100 percent deserve that confetti. It was long overdue. And it looks so great on you."
To be honest, Idol should have done this for Just Sam in 2021 — when they invited several other Season 18 contestants, including runner-up Arthur Gunn, back to the show — but, better late than never.
Things seem to be looking up in general for Sam. She has new management and a new mentor, Ja Rule, who along with Timbaland and Lil Durk apparently reached out to her after seeing her busking Instagram video. (Hopefully Ja is better at promoting young talent than he was at promoting the Fyre Festival.) Back in January, Ja Rule and Just Sam appeared together on The Tamron Hall Show, and the newly optimistic Sam blamed COVID-19, not American Idol itself, for the tough times that followed her Season 18 win. "That was my rags-to-riches story. I may have gone back to the rags, but that don't mean God can't bring me back to the riches," she told Tamron.
Hopefully this won't be Just Sam's last big moment, and hopefully we'll be hearing some original music from her soon. "I'm so proud of you," judge Lionel Richie told her Sunday. "I know the challenges you've been through, but you have charmed us all. And the fact that you've come back all grown up and solid as a rock, I can only say: God has his hands firmly on you."
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