With One Performance, John Foster Transported American Idol Straight Back to the Golden Age of ’90s Country. ML
Country fans keep saying “they don’t make them like they used to.”
John Foster just proved that maybe they still do.
On American Idol Season 23, the young singer from Addis, Louisiana stepped onto a bright, modern stage with a very simple plan: bring back the feeling of 1990s country. No tricks. No big band flips. Just heart, hurt, and a story.
His choice? “Neon Moon” by Brooks & Dunn.
From the first line, it did not feel like a cover. It felt like a memory. That slow, sad walk under bar lights. The kind of song you heard from the passenger seat while your parents drove at night, when country music still sounded like real life.
Foster’s Louisiana drawl wrapped around every word. Lionel Richie stood. Luke Bryan grinned like a proud uncle. Carrie Underwood quietly sang along, like any 90s kid who grew up on that track.
For older viewers, it was a gut punch of nostalgia.
For younger viewers, it was a first taste of why classic country still matters.
John Foster Covers “Neon Moon” by Brooks & Dunn | American Idol
This was not just another Idol pick; it was John’s own goodbye letter to two close friends, including Maggie Dunn, gone far too soon. Standing on that stage, voice shaking but steady, he sounded less like a contestant and more like someone praying out loud. After that, “Neon Moon” was no longer nostalgia; it was the next chapter of a story people already felt part of. That night too.
John Foster Performs His New Single “Tell That Angel I Love Her” – American Idol 2025 Grand Finale
And if “Tell That Angel I Love Her” was the heart and “Neon Moon” was the soul, the finale proved John Foster also had the fire. On the last night of Season 23, he stepped into Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” like a man singing for every small town that ever believed in him.
John Foster’s American Idol Finale Performance Earns Carrie Underwood’s STANDING OVATION!
