A new American Idol was named this week and a past winner resurfaced. Samantha “Just Sam” Diaz, who won the ABC competition series in Season 18, recently opened up about having to return to performing in New York City subways.
“Back in 2021, I was super embarrassed to be going back to the trains. I didn’t want people to know that I legit needed the money & I didn’t want people to know that it wasn’t optional,” Diaz said, according to The Sun.
Diaz has been sharing her performances on Instagram where they can be seen performing songs like Adele’s “Easy on Me,” Beyoncé’s “Listen” and Ariana Grande’s “Almost Is Never Enough.”
“I was disappointed in myself for allowing myself to fall so low after winning Idol, but then I had to take it easy on me and remember that I started my journey with Idol at 20 years old. Not even knowing anything about Hollywood or the music industry,” Diaz added.
Diaz continued, “Since then, I have learned so much and I’ve been able to take my experiences and share them with other artists in hopes that they don’t experience the same things that I did when it comes to making it in this life.”
The American Idol alum won the competition in 2020 during the Covid pandemic which had the contestants performing from home.
“Everyone wants to know what happened and why this or why that & I will answer those questions someday, but in the meantime, I’ll say this, I never expected to win, but I did, I was so grateful and I know that people are feeling like I let them down,” Diaz said, per The Sun.
Diaz expressed that they felt “like I let myself and everyone down too” but was hopeful adding, “I know that everything happens for a reason and I know that this too shall pass no matter what things may look like right now.”
“We didn’t know what to do with the win especially being that we had absolutely no help,” Diaz continued. “There are people who have had more success than me and good for them I’m happy for them, but I am not them. I don’t like my situation, but it won’t be this forever.”
