‘The Voice’ Winner Aiden Ross Teases Original Music & Reveals If He’ll Finish School

Aiden Ross can officially add himself to the list of singers who have won The Voice. After being crowned the champion of Season 28 during the December 16 finale, the college student is now looking forward to taking his music career to the next level.

“I have a song that’s fully produced and mixed that I will be releasing within the next month that I will be dropping videos about over the next few days that I’m super excited about,” Aiden told TV Insider. “I think the song perfectly encapsulates my artistry and the person I want to be.”

The 20-year-old added that he thinks there’s a “hole in the industry” for male singers like Lizzy McAlpine or Olivia Dean, and he wants to fill that void. “I think this song, there’s something really honest about it,” he shared. “It has a live sound to it that Lizzy and Olivia Dean have that I think people are going to love.”

In addition to the upcoming song, Aiden also has “a lot of songs” in the pipeline that are “literally a week-session in the studio away from being produced and ready to put out.”

We also caught up with the Texas A&M student about competing on the show while in school, celebrating his win with Niall Horan, and more. Scroll down for the full chat!

You had such a unique situation because you’re still in school – how did that work?

Aiden Ross: I wasn’t a full-time student. I was part-time. I was just taking an online class, which was super, super manageable. I think next semester, I plan to continue to do school, as long as I am able to give absolutely everything I need to give to continuing doing music. If I can do that doing one online class, two online classes, if I need to drop out, I will drop out. It’s whatever I need. But I think next semester, I’ll try to do one or two online classes still. It’s less about having a plan B, it’s more about what an opportunity it is to go and get an education and stimulate my brain, this engineering brain that I have that can’t shut up and turn off. It would be great to stimulate it using something that isn’t music. Also, education’s just a great thing, so I think that would be the right decision.

This season you didn’t have any live shows until the Finals where the viewers were making the decisions. You didn’t know going into the finale where you stood with the viewers. How did that affect your mindset?

It was a little daunting because it wasn’t quite proven yet on paper, but I knew I had a wonderful Aggie community behind me. I knew I had people who were loving and supporting me. For me, it was less about whether I thought I could win the show and more about what I wanted to do. I knew that if I left it all out there, if I gave everything I could to the performance and felt like I left everything on the table, win or lose, I would’ve been happy with myself.

Who was in the audience supporting you that night and how did you celebrate afterwards?

I had my family and my girlfriend. We hung out with Niall after. We went out with Niall, Gina [Miles], and Niall’s crew, a couple people, and we just had a good time. We kind of just talked about stuff outside the show, too, just hung out and had a good time and enjoyed the night. It was really fun. It was really great to have my family there, the sacrifice they made in taking off work to come see me because they believed in me, and [that] they believed I could do it meant the world.

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Do you remember what Niall said to you afterwards, and what advice will you take moving forward?

Before the finale, one thing he told me that really grounded me, he was like, “Man, it’s great you’re in the finale, this is a big deal, but you can’t let it be that. You have to treat it like every other performance. Don’t let it get to your head.” The thing that he helped anchor me to was, “Your best performance is the one you’re having the most fun in and the one you’re loving what you’re doing in.” That’s really what I tried to harness in the finale, just loving music for what it is and letting the song speak for itself with “Golden Hour” [by JVKE] and “Winner Takes It All” [by ABBA]. I think that’s what won me the show, ultimately, is looking like I loved what I was doing and that I was made for it and just living in the moment.

Did you have input on the song choices?

I had input. I picked “The Winner Takes It All.” I brought it to them, I made the arrangement. I had it produced by a guy in Nashville who’s really great with strings. “Golden Hour” was mixed input. I was super grateful to Niall and the band members and music director who believed in my vision for “Winner Takes It All.” I did the song differently. It wasn’t the original version. It was a true ballad. I had an orchestra on stage with me and there’s no orchestra in the original. There’s no drums in my version. I’m wearing a white suit. I said, “White suit, orchestra version, people on stage with me playing orchestra.” And they accepted it with open arms and believed in me and trusted me and it ended up winning me the show. I’m forever indebted to them for believing in me.

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Are you planning on staying in Texas?

That’s a little bit more of a long-term decision. For now, I can just come out to L.A. I have friends I can stay with. I’m 100% open to moving to L.A. or Nashville or New York, wherever I need to be. I’m ready to go all in on it. But still in Texas for the holidays.

You had an impressive social following compared to the other finalists – have you always had a bit of a presence or did that really just come from the show?

It immediately grew from the show. The show took it off for me, which was really cool to see. That helped me with a little bit of confidence regarding the voting thing. But at the end of the day, I don’t know who votes on this thing, whether it’s the moms on Facebook, the kids on Instagram, people on TikTok. I’m sure it’s all of them. But Ralph [Edwards] had less followers than some other people on Instagram, and he came in second. The people on Facebook love him. It’s just all types of different demographics. The following’s been great. The fans are incredible. I don’t even like calling them fans, it’s weird. Welcome to the family, we’re one big happy family.

The Voice, Season 29 Premiere, Monday, February 23, 2026, 9/8c, NBC