‘American Idol’s Hannah Harper Reveals What She’s Still ‘Working On’ After Winning

Hannah Harper may have won American Idol, but she’s the first to admit that she still has things she can improve on. The Season 24 winner said that, during the show, she got a lot of coaching for how to work the stage, and admitted that it’s something she’s still perfecting as her career takes off.

Harper credited her Idol vocal coaches Baraka May and Felicia Barton with helping her with much more than just singing. “Baraka coached me in Hawaii and it was probably the first time I’ve ever had to physically perform,” Harper explained to Parade. “I think she had to coach me more mentally and emotionally than vocally because it was such a challenge for me to overcome moving my body even an inch.”

As Harper gears up to hit the road on her String Cheese tour this summer, she admitted that she’s “still stiff as a board” and “still working on” improving in that area. “[May and Barton] just poured into me the entire time, taught me different techniques, whether it’s breathing or singing from different positions in my head and chest, all the things,” she added.

Harper noted that she knew “how to sing” when she came to Idol, but “didn’t know how to do it properly,” which is where her coaches came in. Now, she wants the women “on the road with me forever” because of how much they helped build her confidence up. “They weren’t just coaches,” Harper explained. “They were training me in a lot of other ways to perform.”

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This summer, Harper will be playing festivals and other shows, and in the fall, she’ll be opening for Lauren Alaina on a few dates of the former Idol runner-up’s tour. Plus, Harper previously told TV Insider that she’s hoping to work on some new music in the coming months, as well.