Hannah Harper Reveals Carrie Underwood 'Gave Me Her Phone Number' After Winning 'American Idol' Season 24: 'We've Been in Communication'

Hannah Harper may have won American Idol Season 24, but she walked away from the competition with more than a title. The country singer also formed a close connection with Carrie Underwood, who gave her her personal phone number after the finale.

Harper is now taking her music on the road for her first tour and recently partnered with Sargento for a year-long sponsorship inspired by her viral original song “String Cheese.”

When it came to the judges, there was one person Harper especially wanted to impress.

“Obviously Carrie. Obviously Carrie,” Harper exclusively tells OK!. “I think especially because she's the only, like, since her, there hasn't been another female country artist to ever win the show until me, which is bizarre.”

Harper said she felt an especially strong connection with Underwood because the country superstar had also gone through the American Idol experience herself — and because they are both mothers.

“But also like she's a mom. She knows the life. She's walked in the same shoes that I have throughout the competition,” Harper explains. “So every week, like, I wanted to show up for her as much as anyone else. I wanted to impress her.”

The two also had opportunities to check in throughout the competition, with Underwood regularly asking Harper how she was doing.

“She'd be like, how you doing? Because she's been there,” Harper recalls. “She did all the same process, which it looks different probably. I guess that was like 20 years ago. I'm sure it looks different than it did then, but I'm sure it was still like challenging. It's still a competition. It was hard.”

That connection continued after Harper was crowned the Season 24 winner. According to the singer, Underwood gave her her personal phone number and told her to reach out if she ever needed anything.

“And then after the show, like, gave me her phone number and was like, ‘You let me know if you need anything,’” Harper reveals. “So we've been in communication since then.”

“She’s amazing, huge influence on me and my music career as well as like motherhood,” she adds.

Harper's current tour is also bringing her viral “String Cheese” song full circle.

The original track, which she performed during her American Idol run, resonated with parents for its honest take on motherhood, including postpartum struggles and the complicated emotions that come with watching children grow up.

After the audition featuring the song aired, Sargento reached out to Harper and sent her a box filled with cheese and a handwritten letter from a member of its team about what the song meant to her.

“They were like, ‘We love that you wrote a song about cheese. Here's some cheese,’” Harper recalls.

The company continued sending her cheese throughout her time in Los Angeles and eventually became the official sponsor of her first tour. Sargento helped Harper get a custom-wrapped tour bus, complete with a giant cheese stick, so she could travel with her three young sons.

“I can't travel in a 15 passenger van with three little boys. Like it's just not feasible whatsoever,” Harper says. “I'm like, we're going to have to get a bus, but I don't know if you know what buses cost. Busses cost so much. It's like 3 houses, basically.”

The bus is stocked with Sargento natural cheese snacks for Harper, her band, crew and family on the road. The partnership will also include ticket giveaways throughout the summer and fall at select tour stops, along with surprises for fans attending her shows. Additional collaborations are planned for the holidays and into 2027.

For Harper, the relationship has become about more than a business deal.

“Before it was just, I would post some things here and there and they would send me cheese and it was great. But now like, this is a family now,” she says.

The partnership is also helping Harper maintain the family-centered lifestyle that's important to her as she navigates her post-Idol career.

Rather than spend months on the road, Harper plans to follow a “Weekend Warriors” schedule, traveling Thursday through Sunday before returning home for the rest of the week.

“My kids are still little and they need routine,” she points out. “So having those few days of being home is very important to me.”

Harper's parents and siblings also travel with her, allowing her children to spend time with their cousins and grandparents while she's performing.

“We're still very much a family dynamic,” she continues.

Harper has been amazed by the support she's received from fans since winning the show, particularly the women who rallied behind her throughout the competition.

“I think from the very first audition, it was a massive army of women that like locked arms,” she reflects. “No matter how good or bad that I sang, they were like, ‘We're gonna make this girl win because she's winning for us.’”

“You know what I mean? So like, I didn't win it on my own whatsoever,” Harper declares.

Now, Harper is getting to meet those supporters in person on tour — something she considers a way to give back to the people who helped make her American Idol dream a reality.

Looking ahead, Harper hopes to release a full album of original music and write a book next year.

“I have always been really bad about living for the next moment,” she admits. “And then I realized like, it's not all about like the what's next for me. It's just like being able to actually enjoy those experiences wholeheartedly.”

“I would love to write a book next year. I would love to write a book and I would love to release a full album of my original music,” she notes. “That's my goal for next year.”