American Idol Winner Jamal Roberts Breaks Silence: Did Not Donate Winnings to Elementary School—Rumors Explode as Truth Emerges! Fans Stunned by Social Media Hoax; What Really Happened to Idol’s Prize Money? Inside the Shocking Twist That Has America Talking—Roberts Speaks Out on Viral Controversy and Public Backlash!

“American Idol” winner Jamal Roberts gave his winnings to the elementary school at which he was employed.

Rumors of “American Idol” season 23 winner Jamal Roberts’ purported philanthropic celebration spread across the internet in the wake of his victorious performance that aired on May 18, 2025.

According to some users on social media platforms such as Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), X (archived) and Threads (archived), Roberts “fulfilled his promise by donating his entire $500,000 prize to renovate the school and provide free education for students from low-income households.” The prevalence of the rumor led many Snopes readers to reach out to ask if there was truth behind it.

Prior to his stint on “American Idol,” Roberts worked as a physical education teacher at Crestwood Elementary School in Meridian, Mississippi, the school named in the rumors circulating online.

While a feel-good story, there’s no evidence Roberts ever made such a promise or that any prize money was donated to the Crestwood Elementary. No credible outlet reported on this claim. Therefore, the claim is false.

The claim also suggested the alleged donation would provide “free education to low-income households,” but Crestwood Elementary is a public school in the Meridian Public School District, which means it is taxpayer-funded and has no tuition.

In a video interview with Us Weekly, posted on May 28, 2025, and available to view on YouTube, Roberts explained he had not yet received his prize money but that his plan was to “put it in the bank.” Further, $500,000 appears to be far more than what the winner actually receives.

Singer Maddie Poppe, who won “American Idol” in 2018, told Business Insider in a 2022 interview that “You do get $250,000, but not really because of taxes. … And you get half of it before you complete your record, and then the second half you get after you complete the record. So it’s just like an advance from the record deal, but I’m pretty sure I have to recoup it.”

Snopes reached out to Roberts and the Meridian Public School District for comment on this claim and will update this article if we hear back.

The rumor that Roberts donated his winnings to his former employer appeared to originate from a YouTube video on a channel called “Digital Media” that was posted on May 24, 2025.

The video appeared to take a real clip of Roberts lifted from the singer’s social media, but the clip is interrupted by a clip of a different man around the 6:47 mark. It is the second man who makes the false claim.

The description of this video read in part: “The 23-year-old singer and schoolteacher from Mississippi stunned fans during the season by vowing to donate his entire $500,000 prize to help the children of Crestwood Elementary School, where he currently teaches. Now, just weeks after being crowned the winner, Roberts has delivered on that promise-and then some.”

The claims circulating on social media share language similar to that of this video and were posted afterward. The video in question had more than 16,000 views as of this writing.

Adding to the unreliability of the claim presented in this video is that Roberts is 27, not 23, and the official description of “Digital Media” claiming it’s a “news channel with a special recognition of people who have passed on and are, as of today being celebrated.” The channel further claims its content “features some caskets, graves and sometimes tombs of famous and infamous people and associated events (Last Moments, funerals, reactions, expert analysis, lessons etc) whilst moving on from story after story without breaking any sweat.”

While it appears to be false that Roberts is donating his “American Idol” winnings to Crestwood Elementary, the former teacher still checks in on the students, and the school district posted a congratulations to Roberts on its website.