Jessica Simpson is again. The singer-turned-fashion mogul took the “American Idol” stage Sunday evening to carry out with one of many present’s eradicated contestants on an evening when the Season 23 winner was topped.

The “With You” singer passionately sang the brand new track “Blame Me” from her latest album “Nashville Canyon: Part 1.” The work is Simpson’s first new music in nearly 17 years. She had carried out publicly for the primary time in nearly as a few years at SXSW in mid-March.

Then Simpson and eradicated contestant Josh King partnered on “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” a tune she coated 20 years in the past on the “Dukes of Hazzard” film soundtrack. Simpson performed Daisy Duke within the 2005 film reboot of the TV present, which ran from 1979 to 1985 and starred Tom Wopat and John Schneider, with Catherine Bach because the short-shorts-clad Daisy.

Along with singing with Simpson, King performed harmonica throughout the duet.

King made it to the present’s Prime 8 after being saved by the judges when the Prime 20 competed. When the general public lastly chosen a winner, the alternatives had been narrowed to a few: John Foster, Breanna Nix and Jamal Roberts. The crown went to Roberts in what host Ryan Seacrest known as “the biggest vote in show history: about 26 million votes total, according to USA Today. Foster took second and Nix finished third on the long-running competition show, which ran on Fox from 2002 to 2016 before being picked up and revamped by ABC in 2018.

Roberts, a PE teacher who hails from Mississippi, rode to the top spot on the strength of performances including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me).” The judges this season had been Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood and Lionel Richie.

Throughout auditions, Bryan advised Roberts (through Folks), “What I love about it is it was really like Southern soulfulness. Was it perfect? Was it flawless? No. But you’re not trying to sing it perfectly and flawless. You’re just singing it from the heart. And that’s what I felt.”

Underwood received Season 4 of the singing competitors 20 years in the past, then grew to become a rustic celebrity. Simpson, who grew to become pop-star well-known within the period of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, began making the crossover to nation music in 2008 with the album “Do You Know.”

Then she stepped away from the highlight, targeted on her billion-dollar namesake way of life and clothes line, received sober and revealed a tell-all memoir, 2020’s “Open Book.”

Simpson launched her first album since 2008 whereas she goes by a divorce from Eric Johnson, the previous NFL participant she married in 2014. The primary single off “Nashville Canyon: Vol. 1” was “Use My Heart Against Me,” launched in February. The complete album dropped in March.

The singer, who shares three kids with Johnson, was beforehand married to Nick Lachey of the boy band 98 Levels. These two had their very own married-couple actuality present, “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” that ran from 2003 to 2005 with a few spinoff specials alongside the best way.

Simpson and Lachey divorced in 2005 after three years of marriage. Lachey married Vanessa Minnillo in 2011.