American Idol winner Iam Tongi speaks out for the first time after victory, reveals his next steps

Iam Tongi has spoken out for the first time since becoming the first Pacific Islander to win American Idol, revealing how he wanted to honour his late father while appearing on the show.

Tongi, 18, is of Samoan and Tongan descent but born and raised in Oahu, Hawaii.

He told TV Insider of his win, “It’s amazing. I was so happy everyone voted. Thank you to everyone. Now that I’m the ‘Idol’ of the 21st season, it’s crazy.”

It comes after several fans of the show questioned whether the competition was rigged, claiming his win was down to a “sympathy vote”.

One suggested that Tongi had “the best sob story” but claimed the win should have gone to runner-up Colin Stough.

But Tongi’s popularity says otherwise - since he first tried out for the show three months ago, his audition video has garnered over 16 million views and is the top video on the show’s YouTube page.

Governor of Hawaii Josh Green shared his support for Tongi, writing on Twitter, “Congratulations to Hawai’i’s own American Idol, Iam Tongi.”

Another fan wrote, “Congratulations @wtongi! It was a great season of #AmericanIdol, excited to hear more of your music,” while another declared, “American Idol got it right. Congratulations Iam Tongi.”

Tongi told judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan that he had lost his father to stage 4 kidney disease a few months before his audition, and used his dad’s guitar throughout the show until it broke halfway through the season.

This one’s for you, dad. “I’ll Be Seeing You” is out now. It’s been such a special process making this song, and it really took a village to make it happen. Thank you to everyone involved, and everyone who has shown me support. I see you showing love and it means the world to me. pic.twitter.com/hxtzhx5lfv

— Iam Tongi (@wtongi) May 19, 2023

“I always wanted to play my dad’s guitar,” stated Tongi. “But when it broke the first time, that was hard.”

According to the singer, his mother as well as another Idol contestant named Oliver Steele, who made it to the show’s Top 8 and developed a close bond with Tongi, told him that “it wasn’t about the guitar but the voice.”

“I just started to believe my dad was going to be with me no matter what whether I used it or not,” continued Tongi. “The guitar will always remain a treasure.”

After hearing what happened, Hawaii-based artist Sam Mangakahia (Ngāti Huarere), who creates instruments with traditional Māori and Polynesian designs, decided he had to make a guitar for Tongi.

It took him 60 hours to make and includes Polynesian designs honouring Tongi’s Tongan ancestry, as well as an engraving of his dad Rodney’s name.

“It was a point that he wanted, to have his dad’s name on the top, and for me, symbolically, that represents that every time he strums the guitar, every time he sings, he’s with his dad and he is sharing that message with the world,” Mangakahia said.

During the show’s finale, Tongi sang Keith Urban’s Making Memories of Us and then performed Monsters with James Blunt.

Reflecting on his experience on the show, Tongi says it taught him that “it’s not a bad thing to talk about your problems and what you go through.”

So, what’s next for the newly-minted star?

“I don’t want to limit myself to one genre of music because I love all music ... I just want to have fun with it,” he told the outlet.