Maddie Zahm

A songwriter equipped with a powerful, soulful timbre and an intensely committed performance style, Maddie Zahm turned an American Idol appearance together with rapid social-media traction into streaming-chart momentum while championing marginalized perspectives through tracks such as the 2022 single “Fat Funny Friend” and the sincere lesbian anthem “You Might Not Like Her.” In the same year she issued her first EP, likewise titled You Might Not Like Her. She continued to display her confessional, diary-like approach on the 2023 long-player Now That I’ve Been Honest.

Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, the singer and guitarist later relocated first to Nashville and subsequently to Los Angeles in search of songwriting opportunities. At age twenty she tried out for season sixteen of American Idol in 2018, offering Dua Lipa’s “New Rules.” All three judges selected her to proceed, yet she was cut during the Showcase Round that trimmed the Top 50 contestants down to twenty-four. Zahm later wrote “Fat Funny Friend” alongside Catie Turner, a Top Seven finalist and Atlantic Records artist from the identical Idol season; she previewed the song on social platforms near the end of 2021. When it appeared in full in February 2022 the track quickly spread online and marked her first major recording success. She returned to the upper reaches of the streaming rankings a few months later with the June single “You Might Not Like Her,” which served as the title track for her August 2022 debut EP.

The following year Zahm unveiled the breakup single “Step on Me,” the opening release from her first full-length album, Now That I’ve Been Honest. The project reached listeners in October 2023 and was supported by additional singles, among them the poignant coming-of-age ballad “Where Do All the Good Kids Go?” and the breakup anthem “Bedroom.”