‘American Idol’ Winner Candice Glover Hospitalized After Car Flips in Florida Crash

Heavy/Getty "American Idol" winner Candice Glover was hospitalized after a scary crash.

After a terrifying crash in Daytona Beach, Florida, former “American Idol” winner Candice Glover says she and her friends are lucky to be alive. On November 20, 2023, the R&B singer, who won season 12 of the talent show, revealed via Facebook that she’d been hospitalized four days earlier after the car she was driving “flipped several times and landed in a marshy area upside down.”

“The paramedics showed up and said they were CERTAIN that by the looks of it, they would’ve been pulling at least one body out of the car and the others would’ve been fighting to stay alive,” she revealed, sharing photos of the totaled car with its windows blown out.

Glover’s accident is one of multiple devastating crashes “American Idol” alums have been in over the years, including some that have been fatal.

Here’s what you need to know:

Candice Glover Says Car Started to Fill With Water After Flipping

While on an annual road trip with several girlfriends and her “little puppy,” Prynce, Glover shared in her Facebook post that it started to rain. When she hit the brakes to avoid colliding with traffic ahead, she said her car started to hydroplane, and slid “out of control.”

“I screamed, but after seeing there was nothing I could do, a calmness came over me and I braced myself for whatever was coming,” she wrote. “From the middle of three lanes, we slid and spun across to the left and once we hit the grass we flipped several times and landed in a marshy area upside down. All I could do was sit there. Hands still on the wheel as the car started to fill with water.”

“A man (who came out of nowhere and disappeared after) reached his hand into the car and told me we had to get out bc it was smoking,” Glover continued, adding that she and her friends were somehow able to then climb out of the car, including Prynce, whom she said was “soaking wet.”

Stating how shocked the paramedics were to find they’d all survived, Glover wrote, “ALL OF US CRAWLED OUT OF THAT CAR ALIVE!!!! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US!!!!! It wasn’t time for ANY of us to go. We all have a bigger purpose here on earth. All I could do was scream and cry.”

Glover said she and her friends, as well as her dog, spent the night in the hospital and thanked the Halifax Health care team for being so “attentive.” Though they were all “sore and bruised,” she wrote, none of them suffered major injuries.

She wrote, “We survived this!!!! This is something I still can’t believe, and I’m not going to forget for the rest of my life. God had his hands on that car that night. We lost a lot in that car and we’re all sore and bruised, but we walked away with our lives.”

Glover turned 34 on November 22 and wrote that “the best gift I could get was being alive and well.”

In the decade since her “Idol” win, Glover has continued to perform across the U.S. The South Carolina native told Local Life that she spends much of her time in Georgia, where she’s the music coordinator for Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), alternating between its Atlanta and Savannah campuses. While working there, she also earned her B.F.A in dramatic writing in 2022.

In February 2023, she returned to South Carolina to sing the national anthem at a political rally in which former Governor Nikki Haley announced her run for U.S. President, according to the Greenville News. 

Multiple ‘American Idol’ Alums Have Been Involved in Fatal Car Accidents

ABC/YouTubeWillie Spence on “American Idol” in 2021

Several well-known “American Idol” contestants have been in serious car crashes over the years, including multiple alumni who lost their lives behind the wheel.

Most recently, season 19 runner-up Willie Spence was killed at age 23 while driving in Tennessee on October 11, 2022. According to police reports obtained by Heavy, Spence’s 2019 Jeep Cherokee veered off the roadway and crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer that was stopped in the shoulder of the road.

In January 2018, season 3 contestant Leah Labelle was killed at age 31 alongside her husband, former NBA player Rasual Butler in a Los Angeles car crash, according to Us Weekly. Labelle came in 12th place on her season and was signed afterwards to a record deal with Epic Records.

In May 2016, season 2 finalist Rickey Smith was killed at age 36 in a head-on collision in Oklahoma City, according to KOCO. The 3 a.m. crash occurred when a pickup truck driving the wrong direction hit Smith’s Honda Accord.

According to People, his friend and season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken tweeted at the time, “Suffice it to say my heart is truly breaking today. Heaven’s choir has a new beautiful voice. I love you and will miss you, Rickey.”

Meanwhile, season 11 contestant Haley Smith, who was cut from the competition before the end of Hollywood Week, died in 2019 in a motorcycle accident in Maine, according to USA Today. She was 26 at the time of her death.