Carrie Underwood was brought to tears during one particularly moving American Idol audition.
During the Monday, February 2, episode of the reality singing competition, Underwood and her fellow judges, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, listened to season 24 hopeful Hannah Harper perform her original song “String Cheese.”
After explaining that the song was written as a reflection of her experience with postpartum depression, Harper drew an emotional response from Underwood, 42.
“That’s about the most relatable song I think I’ve ever heard,” the American Idol season 4 winner, who shares sons Isaiah, 10, and Jacob, 7, with husband Mike Fisher, said. “You might be my favorite person that’s walked through those doors.”
Underwood continued, “You’re one that I’m going to think about when we leave here. I’m going to be rooting for you. I loved everything about everything you just did.”
The judging trio then approved Harper’s progression to the next round of auditions.
Harper’s song’s lyrics read, “Hot Wheels and little people under my feet / Babies crying, it’s pure chaos, but I don’t miss a beat / Always knew that a nine to five wouldn’t suit me very good / But my hours are extended, that’s just motherhood.”
Of her lyricism, Harper, a mother of three, told Underwood, Richie, 76, and Bryan, 49, that her words flowed after sharing a poignant moment at home with one of her children. “I was sitting on my couch wallowing … and you have boys, you know, everybody wants to touch you,” she explained. “I didn’t want to be touched. I was just having a pity party, praying that the Lord would calm my spirit.”
Harper continued, “My son kept coming up to me, ‘Mom, open this. Mom, open my cheese.’ I’m like, ‘Leave me alone with the dadgum cheese.”
Harper added that once she opened her son’s string cheese, she felt significant maternal responsibility. “I realized that God had put me in that place,” she told the judges. “That where I was in my house was the biggest ministry that I could ever have.”
Underwood said during a 2016 interview with Redbook magazine — when the country music singer was tackling toddler life — that working mothers need to “ask for help.” She told the outlet at the time, “Accepting help is hard for me, but I’m learning. Sometimes I feel guilty that this is my son’s life: We live on a bus and we’re in a hotel room and sometimes we’re in the middle of nowhere and it’s not so great. It’s not all glamorous. We have a nanny who helps out, especially when we’re on the road. But I’d feel guilty asking someone to watch him at home while I run to the grocery store.”
Three years later, Underwood took to Instagram to share further honest insight into her parenting journey, admitting that she can be “hard” on herself. A 2019 gym selfie included the caption, “I go into the gym and I can’t run as fast or as far. I can’t lift as much weight or do as many reps as I could a year ago. I just want to feel like myself again … for my body to feel the way that I know it can.”
After coming to the realization that she needed to go easier on herself, Underwood concluded at the time, “I’m going to take it day by day, smile at the girl in the mirror, and work out because I love this body and all it has done and will continue to do.”
