The American Idol crown has a new owner, and his name is Iam Tongi—a soulful 18-year-old from Hawaii’s fringes who turned the season 21 finale into a raw tribute to his late father, Rodney. On Sunday night, with the victory still sinking in, Tongi didn’t just claim a title. He called up his dad’s memory, weaving it into a stunning duet with James Blunt, the British singer whose voice carries the weight of weathered stone.
It all traces back to Tongi’s audition, where he walked in with Blunt’s 2019 track, “Monsters,” a song that wasn’t just a performance but a bridge to his father. Rodney, who’d sparked Tongi’s love for music as a kid, had passed away just months before, and every note was a thread to him. Flash forward to the finale, and there stood Blunt, 49, a man who’d penned “Monsters” for his own father, Charles, during a brutal fight with stage four kidney disease—a fight Charles won with a transplant in 2020. Together, Tongi and Blunt made the song a shared heartbeat.
Tongi’s voice trembled like a wave about to break, while Blunt’s steadied the air beside him. As they sang, Blunt rested a hand on Tongi’s shoulder, a quiet tether through the storm. By the end, tears carved paths down Tongi’s face, and the two locked in a hug that spoke louder than the applause. The judges crumbled—Katy Perry’s eyes welled up, and Jelly Roll, the rough-edged country star, looked like he’d taken an emotional punch. Way back at the audition, Lionel Richie had said, “I wasn’t worried about you finishing the song—I was worried about us. Your dad’s proud.” Perry had added, “That pick? You’ve got grown men crying.”
Tongi wasn’t done that night. After edging out Megan Danielle and Colin Stough for the win, he returned with his new single, “I’ll Be Seeing You,” another arrow aimed at Rodney. The crowd felt it, the air turned heavy with memory, and Tongi stood as a young man who’d spun loss into something golden.
Blunt and Tongi, voices from opposite worlds, met in a moment that transcended the competition. It wasn’t just a win—it was a reckoning. The American Idol stage became less a battleground and more a sanctuary, ringing with the echoes of fathers and the hum of what’s to come.
