Maddie Poppe turned heads with her unique personality and special talents during the 2018 season of American Idol. Bobby liked her as an artist since their first meeting, during his first mentoring session of the Top 24 contestants.
Bones then returned to mentor the Top 3 contestants, which consisted of Maddie Poppe, Caleb Lee Hutchinson, and Gabby Barrett. Maddie Poppe ultimately became the winner of the season.
Poppe shared on Instagram an emotional post about Bones as her mentor. Bones admitted that the post made him feel something and even tear up. Poppe's post read,
"Bobby Bones was without a doubt my favorite mentor on #AmericanIdol. He’s one person who has definitely believed in me since the first day he met me. When we first met during top 24 I didn’t have much confidence, and he could tell. I couldn’t even make proper eye contact while talking to him. But somehow he still saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself. After meeting for the first time, he pulled me aside and said “you’re my favorite” and I was just like wait what..I mean seriously just that one comment made me believe that I might just be good enough. So yeah, I definitely credit Bobby Bones as a big part of the reason I won this show. Thanks for giving me confidence & always being so relatable and down to earth @mrbobbybones. Hope to hang with you again soon."
Check out the full post and photos below.