{"id":7783,"date":"2025-05-19T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T06:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=7783"},"modified":"2025-05-19T06:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T06:00:16","slug":"who-is-jamal-roberts-mississippi-teacher-becomes-first-black-man-to-win-american-idol-in-22-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=7783","title":{"rendered":"Who is Jamal Roberts? Mississippi teacher becomes first Black man to win \u2018American Idol\u2019 in 22 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The American Idol Season 23 winner is a 27-year-old P.E. teacher from Meridian, Mississippi, whose soulful performances and inspiring story won the hearts of viewers across the country.<\/p>\n<p>After 26 million votes, the most ever in a season finale, Roberts was crowned the winner, making him the first Black male to win since Ruben Studdard in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>A devoted father of three daughters\u2014Harmoni, Lyrik and Gianna\u2014Roberts balanced family life and teaching at Crestwood Elementary with his dream of a music career. His journey began in church, singing hymns and Motown covers under the guidance of his musical grandparents.<\/p>\n<p>Though he had auditioned twice before, Roberts didn\u2019t give up, returning this season with greater experience and confidence.<\/p>\n<p>His audition performance of Rick James\u2019 \u201cMary Jane\u201d impressed judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood, earning him a golden ticket. Throughout the season, Roberts delivered powerful vocals and emotional depth, with standout performances including \u201cFirst Time,\u201d \u201cJust My Imagination,\u201d and \u201cHeal.\u201d His duet of \u201cLiar\u201d with Jelly Roll became a season highlight, with Jelly Roll calling it \u201cJamal\u2019s song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roberts\u2019 hometown of Meridian showed overwhelming support, hosting a homecoming parade that drew 20,000 fans. He joins fellow Mississippian Trent Harmon as one of the few from the state to win American Idol.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Idol Season 23 winner is a 27-year-old P.E. teacher from Meridian, Mississippi, whose soulful performances and inspiring story won the hearts of viewers across the country. After 26 million votes, the most ever in a season finale, Roberts was crowned the winner, making him the first Black male to win since Ruben Studdard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}