‘Idol’ Winner Iam Tongi Hits Another Milestone

Heavy/ABC

The start to Iam Tongi’s music career continues its positive trajectory as his latest achievement involves his first Billbord No. 1. The season 21 “American Idol” winner took the top spot on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart with his single, “I’ll Be Seeing You.”

Fans of ‘Idol’ will recognize that song as the original he performed on finale night on May 21. Tongi won over America as he earned the most votes as he finished ahead of runner-up Megan Danielle and third place finisher, Colin Stough.

‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ is an Early Success for Iam Tongi

In addition to sitting atop the Rock Digital Song Sales chart on June 3, he has another work of his debuting at No. 19 on the same chart. His cover of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All,” which he performed in the Top 20 episode, had 2,000 sales, according to Billboard.

The success for “I’ll Be Seeing You” also carried over to another chart, the all-format Digital Song Sales. The track debuted at No. 2. Two other Billboard charts, Hot Rock Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, see the single debut at Nos. 19 and 23, respectively.

In total, the song has picked up 911,000 official U.S. streams, according to Billboard.

Iam Tongi Dedicates ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ to His Late Father

Ahead of his first performance of “I’ll Be Seeing You” at the finale, Tongi shared a video on Instagram explaining the meaning of the song.

He said that while he didn’t write the song – it was done so by Francisco Martin VI – the track’s lyrics speak to his late father, who passed away from kidney failure in December 2021.

“The meaning of this song to me is when you lose someone you love, everything that you should do with them reminds you of them,” he said in the video. “My dad had kidney failure and he used to go to dialysis, and every single time we pass a dialysis place, ‘Oh look, it’s dad.'”

He continued, “I just want people to understand where I’m coming from and to hopefully love the music.”

The impact of his father’s loss on him is something he shared throughout his “American Idol” journey. He shared in an interview with American Song Writer that he was ready to give up his pursuit of music, “After my dad passed away, I didn’t want to do music anymore.”

Tongi, who soon will be linking up with Luke Bryan at the Beach It! Festival, credits his mother for pushing him to continue on his path. That path took him to the finale where he was able to sing his original track, one that he told American Song Writer really hits him emotionally.

“It hit me, it really got me in the mindset of being sad and I was trying to get out of that, but when I sang it on the stage, I was trying to close my eyes, feel it, and not cry because I know if I cry, I’m going to mess up,” he said in the interview. “On the stage, it felt really good to perform it.”