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Samantha “Just Sam” Diaz was crowned the winner of ABC’s “American Idol” in 2020, at the end of the show’s 18th season.
Since then, Just Sam has made headlines for a number of reasons. In 2022, she opened up about going “broke” after winning “American Idol.”
On now-expired Instagram Stories, as transcribed by Just Jared, Just Sam revealed that “American Idol” did not directly lead to her having a career in the music industry.
“I thought it was gonna be easy,” she said at the time. “Just go to the studio, record, put out music. And that’s not how the world works. That’s not how the industry works. It takes time, it takes money that I don’t have. It takes patience.”
Just Sam Signed a Record Deal But Left Before Releasing Music
As is the case for most recent “American Idol” winners, Just Sam signed a record deal with Hollywood Records after winning the show. She said she left the label before releasing music, however, and she had to pay them back.
“I’m not even going to tell you guys the amount of money I had to pay after leaving the label to claim songs that I had already recorded,” she shared, adding that she is still working on music but does not have the money to release it.
She added, “Mixing and mastering music costs a lot of money. And I invested in myself and ended up broke. That’s the truth. Not broke, broke – like, I’m living. I have my own place.”
She also said she does have people who will help her and she does put out music when she can.
“It’s just hard because it’s coming out of pocket and I have bills to pay,” she said. “And ‘American Idol’ is not going to pay my bills. Lionel Richie’s not going to pay my bills. Katy Perry’s not going to pay my bills. Luke Bryan is not going to pay my bills. I have to pay my rent. I have to make sure that I’m eating every day.”
In the stories, Just Jared reported, Diax also talked about the fact that Hollywood Records took her performance of “Rise Up” by Andra Day off streaming platforms.
“I don’t know the logistics behind it,” she said. “I don’t know the legal side of things. But I believe that when we parted ways, in order for them to keep 100% of the money that was made from ‘Rise Up,’ I think they had to pull it from streams so that I wouldn’t get a cut, which is smart. Smart move Hollywood.”
Ultimately, she was not able to pay off all of her music and keep it.
Just Sam Released a Song Dedicated to Murdered Friends & Family
The “American Idol” champion released “Change” on September 28, 2021, and she announced the song on a now-deleted Instagram post.
“The message of Change is that we must turn the other cheek, forgive and rise above these circumstances to finally break these cycles of violence,” she wrote in the post announcing the song’s release. “It’s our responsibility to become better, to say yes to healing and no to violence.”
The words were credited to Just Sam’s co-songwriter on the new track, Cat Clark.
The song is available to listen to online here.
Just Sam has now turned her Instagram profile to private, and she has taken out the name “Just Sam.” She has 152,000 followers at the time of writing on February 27, 2022.
“American Idol” airs on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time on ABC. Later in the season, the show will likely move to a two-nights-a-week format.
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