Former American Idol winner Samantha ‘Just Sam’ Diaz revealed they are back to singing on subways, three years after earning a $250,000 cash prize and recording contract from Hollywood Records.

Despite their victory on ABC’s hit singing competition series, the 24-year-old singer, from Harlem, informed their more than 167,000 Instagram followers that they are currently struggling to make ends meet. 

Despite initially feeling ‘super embarrassed’ to announce that they was back to performing for New York City’s  public transit commuters, the performer, who uses ‘they’ pronouns, said letting people know that they ‘legit needed the money’ was no longer ‘optional.’

Still, it has been challenging for them to navigate their feelings that they have ‘fallen so low’ since finding fame on reality television. 

Last year, they unexpectedly left the label without releasing any albums under them.

‘I thought it was gonna be easy,’ Sam said on their Instagram Story, at the time. ‘Just go to the studio, record, put out music, and that’s not how the world works. That’s not how the industry works. It takes time, it takes money that I don’t have. It takes patience.’ 

 Reality fame: Former American Idol winner Samantha ‘Just Sam’ Diaz revealed they are back to singing on subways, three years after earning a $250,000 cash prize and recording contract from Hollywood Records

Trying to get by: Despite her victory on ABC’s hit singing competition series, the 24-year-old singer, from Harlem, informed her more than 167,000 Instagram followers that they are currently struggling to make ends meet; seen in 2020

The musician continued: ‘I’m not even going to tell you guys the amount of money that I had to pay after leaving the label to claim songs that I already recorded…And I invested in myself and ended up broke. That’s the truth.’

Sam went on to assure fans that they had people ‘helping’ them and that they were going to put ‘out music when’ they can and is ‘ready.’ 

‘It’s just hard because I’m coming out of pocket and have bills to pay. And American Idol is not going to pay my bills’ they said, before noting, ‘I have to pay my rent. I have to make sure that I’m eating everyday, which is hard to do.’