American Idol will crown a new winner on Sunday, May 22. The five remaining Season 20 contestants are certainly feeling the pressure, while also feeling like victory is within reach. These are emotions last season's winner Chayce Beckham certainly felt before hearing his name called in the finale.

The Season 19 champion talked with Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul about what he believes the finalists should be doing ahead of the big night. "For them, I would just be trying to connect with my audience and getting them to vote," Beckham shares.

It's a strategy that not only helped push him over across the finish line, it also gave him a self-esteem boost heading into the finale.

"That gave me confidence. I was just looking at my audience," he adds, "But I was engaged with my audience and my social media, and I kind of wear my heart on my sleeve a lot. I think I was just able to connect with people."

The "Doin' It Right" singer also sheds light on the research he did throughout the season to gauge where he stood among his competitors.

"If I was one of them, I'd be looking at my social media. I would be looking at my streams. I would be looking at who released a record. I'd look at how that record's doing on the chart," Beckham reveals. "If that correlates into the voting, in any type of way, you can kind of get a good idea of how many people are actually gonna pick up the phone and vote for you."

"It's kind of double-sided because you might check and be like 'oh ... I'm not winning,'" he adds.

This year — a switch-up from last year — contestants are allowed to release multiple original songs. Beckham and his fellow Season 19 hopefuls were only allowed to release one track while on the show. The reigning champ used that as a rubric to determine where everyone stood in the final weeks.

"We could all go and look and see where our one song was on all genres. So, if mine was No. 1 and I go look at everybody else's and they're way down the line or wherever they're at, then that's kind of how I was like 'Oh Chayce, you might have a shot at winning this little thing,'" he confesses. "But that was the only time I thought in my head I was like I might have a chance at actually taking this home to Apple Valley."

Beckham also reveals which previous Idol winner he would be scared to go against in a finale.

"Any of them," he says, without hesitating. "I think, and I'm very hard on myself, but I hands down think I may be the worst singer that has won American Idol, just based off of singing. If you're going off of vocal capability, they'd all beat me."

Beckham recently returned to the Idol stage to perform his latest single, "Doin' It Right."

After his performance, he joked with host Ryan Seacrest and judge Luke Bryan about how much time he spends on Bryan's property. Like Bryan, Beckham is an avid fisherman and he has spent plenty of time using Bryan's private fishing spot. Recently, he raved about Bryan's continued mentorship and friendship since his season of Idol concluded.

Country 'American Idol' Stars Who Disappeared

We cheered for them. We voted for them. We followed them. Then, these seven American Idol stars vanished. Or, at least it seems like it.

What happened to some of country music's best American Idol contestants over the last 20 years? This list of country American Idol stars who disappeared includes a winner, a runner-up and a third place finisher, plus several early cuts who enjoyed radio success before losing touch with fans.

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