Top 20 contestant John Foster sang an original song on ‘Idol’ for his best friend who died in a car wreck

Only one singer chose to perform an original song for his Top 20 performance on Sunday night’s Easter special three-hour performance of American Idol and that was John Foster.

The theme for the night was “Songs of Faith,” and the 18-year-old college student from Addis, LA, had written a special song that fit the occasion.

He took the stage with “Tell That Angel I Love Her,” which brought the audience to tears with its poignant lyrics. When queried by host Ryan Seacrest as to why that song, John explained that he had written it for his best friend Maggie Dunn, who had died. Maggie and another friend, Caroline Gill, both cheerleaders, had been killed on New Year’s Eve 2022 when an Addis, LA, police officer ran a red light during a high-speed pursuit. Dunn’s brother, who was in the back seat, was seriously injured but survived.

According to the Associated Press, police officer David Cauthron pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter for the deaths and negligent injuring of a third. He was sentenced to 32 years in prison, with 22 years suspended.

In honor of John’s performance, Maggie’s mother Erin Martin was in the audience along with John’s family.

John himself teared up a bit when telling Ryan the story, and Carrie Underwood tried to reassure him saying, “It’s OK. It’s OK.”

Then she went on to give her critique: “There’s something so wonderfully throwback about your voice and your style and I think it’s something lacking in country music today to be honest. We have a lot of outlaw country, we have a lot of new country, I love that you keep it traditional. I feel that’s who you are. I love that in this song, we got to hear a sweet, tender side of your voice that honestly I didn’t know you had. Holding out some of those notes a little longer and hearing your vibrato, it was really nice to hear that from you John.”

Luke Bryan added, “You’ve kind of been a wildcard for me the whole time. But what you just did there removed all doubts in my mind that you deserve to be here. You certainly gained a fan in me tonight.”

And Lionel Richie concluded the comments, saying, “When you open your mouth on this song, you’re country, but you’re also storytelling country, judge Lionel Richie told Foster. “Now whether that’s old, new, happening now, later, whatever the case may be, it was so believable and I heard every word of every part of your story and that’s what great music is about.”  American Idol will return Monday night when the Top 20 will be reduced by six to the Top 14 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Streams next day on Hulu.