Four years ago, American Idol viewers crowned Chayce Beckham the winner of season 19 over runner-up Willie Spence. Ahead of his victory, the California native released “23,” a country song he’d penned a year earlier detailing his own battle with alcohol. Reaching the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, “23” later served as the lead single from Beckham’s 2024 debut album, Bad For Me. As he continues to further his career, the 29-year-old singer-songwriter recently reached another major milestone when he married fiancée Ashley Britt in Las Vegas.
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‘American Idol’ Alum Announces Nuptials
Taking to social media Wednesday (Sept. 24), American Idol champ Chayce Beckham and now-wife Ashley Britt announced in a joint post that they had tied the knot. The caption reads simply, “Mr. and Mrs. Beckham,” beneath a black-and-white video of the newlyweds holding hands as they cruise down the Vegas strip. Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” plays in the background.
Beckham popped the question to his longtime girlfriend onstage during an October 2024 show at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The country crooner later told ABC News that he and Britt were planning “a little white chapel-type deal” complete with an Elvis Presley impersonator.
“We don’t want to do the big wedding, and we’ll have a big celebration,” said the “Everything I Need” singer. “We’ve always wanted to get married by Elvis. So that’s what we’re going to do.”
On the social media announcement, well wishes poured in from country star Dustin Lynch (“This is epic”) and the Grand Ole Opry.
[RELATED: ‘American Idol’ Winner Chayce Beckham Breaks Social Media Silence With Huge News]
They Told Him His First Hit Would Never Work
Chayce Beckham made American Idol history with his debut single “23,” becoming the first-ever winner to hit #1 on iTunes with an original song. On the intensely personal tune, which Beckham penned a year ahead of his audition, the California singer-songwriter drew from his own experiences battling substance use. But if he had had listened to others, we may never have heard “23” at all.
“When I got to Nashville a lot of people told me that they wouldn’t play ’23’ on the radio and that it would never work. I felt like I had this hit record and I had to start from scratch, even though I felt like I had a big song on my hands,” Beckham said in March 2025. “I made the Doin It Right EP, released a few singles after that and then ’23’ was doing so well on digitals that it ended up being something that they couldn’t ignore. We took it to radio, and it took about a year, but we got it to number one in the States and a few other places.”
Featured image by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images
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