Where Is ‘American Idol’ Winner Lee DeWyze Now? His Life 15 Years After the Show

Alyssa Norwin March 24, 2025, 1:37 pm

American Idol 2010 Winner Lee DeWyze performs on NBC's 'Today' — Jemal Countess/Getty Images

It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been 15 years since Lee DeWyze was named the winner of Season 9 of American Idol against Crystal Bowersox.

Since DeWyze hasn’t had much mainstream success in recent years, many fans of the singing competition have been left wondering about what he’s up to today. TV Insider is doing a deep dive into DeWyze’s life now.

What is Lee DeWyze doing now?

DeWyze is still pursuing his music career with new album releases and tour dates. In fact, he dropped his most recent album, Gone for Days, in August 2024 and toured to support it at the beginning of 2025. He even performed the song “Devil in the Details” on The Kelly Clarkson Show in January 2025.

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Following his run on Idol, DeWyze released one album on RCA Records called Live It Up in November 2010. He was dropped from the label, but signed with Vanguard Records to release Frames in 2013 (in 2012, his pre-Idol label also released songs that he recorded before the show on a record called What Once Was).

DeWyze then became an independent artist, dropping albums in 2016, 2018, and 2021 before his latest release. He has had songs appear in shows including The Walking Dead and Suits.

Is Lee DeWyze married?

DeWyze is still happily married to his wife Jonna Walsh, whom he met shortly after his run on American Idol. The couple met in October 2010 when she starred in his music video for the song “Sweet Serendipity.”

“We were casting and I saw her and said, ‘Let’s go with her.’ I thought she was cute,” DeWyze previously told People. “We hung out and we went to a Lakers game on our first date. She’s a Lakers fan and I’m a Chicago Bulls fan and we just clicked out of the gate.”

Singer Lee DeWyze (R) and actress/wife Jonna Walsh arrive at the premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' 'The Lone Ranger'

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

They were only together for eight months when DeWyze popped the question on a yacht in Disney World in July 2011. “When you know, you know,” he admitted. “We both feel that way. We don’t need to be together 20 years before we figure it out.”

Walsh is an actress who has had roles in films such as Couples Retreat and television series’ including Baby Daddy, Chicago Fire, The Fosters and more.

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DeWyze and Walsh tied the knot in July 2012 in Camarillo, California. In honor of their 10-year anniversary in 2022, DeWyze gushed on Instagram, “I’m so grateful to have found the person that I’m supposed to go through life with. To be celebrating a 10 year Anniversary?? Time really does just fly by. It’s wild. Don’t ever take love for granted. To the last 10 years, and the next 50 together. Happy Anniversary.”