The Showbiz Insider

American Idol Finalists Who Still Made it Big

Yes, though the first place winners of each American Idol season get all the glory, there are a select number of finalists who still managed to make it big in the music industry.

Gone were the days when only the winner takes it all, as even the finalists have found their place in the spotlight and launched singles that made it to the charts, and then some. Here are just a few examples:

Clay Aiken, the ever-familiar runner-up in AI season 2, has already garnered awards for hit singles he released in 2003.

It was in that year when Billboard awarded the now 30-year old pop rock artist the best selling single for “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

After that, in 2004 and 2005, Clay received a Billboard award for best selling Christmas and Christian album, respectively, for his cover, “Merry Christmas with Love,” which sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.

Moving on to American Idol Season 3, who could forget Jennifer Hudson? More »

Tags: Bo Bice album, Clay Aiken career, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson songs

American Idol Scandals : Controversial and Shocking!!!

In the realm of American Idol, when they say, “Nobody’s perfect,” they probably are right. Even the most impressive and talented finalists have had their share of controversies over the past seasons.

Sure, they did wow the most discerning of judges or became crowd favorites because of their talent at some point in time, but their shocking controversies are perhaps their most talked about aspects. Mentioned here are some that you might have already heard of:

It was in Season 2 when the very first disqualified finalist emerged. Corey Clark, an R&B vocalist from California, was taken out of the contest because of an uncovered criminal record.

The previous year, in 2002, Clark was arrested and charged with misdemeanor during a reported commotion in their Kansas home.

Because American Idol rules stipulate that criminal records are a no-no, Clark was out. In addition to that, Clark shocked the public even more claiming that he and judge Paula Abdul were having an intimate relationship, while he was still in the contest.

Later on, Abdul was cleared off these allegations. More »

Tags: American Idol controversy, American Idol Scandals, Corey Clark american idol, David Hernandez american idol, Frenchie Davis controversy, Paula Abdul sex corey clark

Idol Ratings, Plummeting?

With season 7’s ratings dipping 10% all across the board, American Idol producers are all for getting the audience interested this early in the season? So how did they do this year you might ask.. well if they lost 10% last year, they lost 15% this year despite of the obvious effort in making the show more interesting. Kinda’ makes you think that Walter here makes a good point: “American Idol has been on 8 or 9 years. It’s tiresome. I used to watch it.

The hey day is long over. Why folks expect shows with such a long run to come out of the box as if it was a new concept that people still wanted to see in droves is beyond me.”

So if 2007 ratings are lower by 10% compared to 2006, and 2008 is lower by 15% compared to 2007, does this mean that American Idol has reached it’s peak and is slowly but surely making it’s way down the graph? Not quite because the producers are doing something about it.

This year American Idol producers take the angle of human interest stories and gives it a twirl for America to see. In this way the contestants are much easier for viewers to remember and thus follow, giving them a reason to actually watch American idol. Just check out the guys they’ve had American Idol camera focus on:

Scott MacIntyre -Scott can sing and play the piano very well, but his tunnel vision makes him virtually blind. More »

Tags: american idol, idol ratings

Syesha Mercado Updates

Syesha Mercado before getting voted off American Idol found herself among the bottom of the vote getters for a total of five times but even this hasn’t crushed her spirit or tainted her enthusiasm.

Mercado told people that her drive is to constantly do better than her last performance and she wants to perfectly combine hard work with her drive all throughout the American Idol singing competition. She also adds that she simply enjoys herself more each and every week.

She further adds that she has been able to separate the fine line that exists between overworking and doing so much that a person becomes unfocused and doesn’t enjoy his or her performance. Her goal every week thus was to be purely satisfied after the completion of every show.

She says that she primarily focuses on her own performance after each show and gives the enjoyment factor the main priority. She feels that unless a performer is fully enjoying his/her performance, he or she would never be able to give out the best. More »

Tags: Syesha Mercado album, Syesha Mercado concerts, Syesha Mercado news, Syesha Mercado shows, Syesha Mercado songs

Joanna Pacitti : American Idol controversy

Last year it was the Carly Smithson and Kristy Lee Cook American Idol Controversy and it looks like the same story is brewing this year with a new contestant Joanna Pacitti.

Pacitti starred in 106 performances with the National Tour but 2 weeks before the show was to land on Broadway, she became ill with bronchitis.

She returned to find she had been replaced as Annie by her understudy. Her parents ended up suing for 50M but decided to settle out of court later on.

Pacitti was signed to a contract by A&M Records by the same man who discovered Christinal Aguilera and Vanessa Carlton at the age of 16 in 2000.

Her songs were used on a couple of sound tracks namely Legally Blonde in 2001 and the motion picture soundtrack for Bratz in 2007.

On May 2006 Picitti released her first single “Let It Slide” under Geffen Records and the song hit the radio waves by end of June.

She is no longer signed Geffen Records to date. More »

Tags: Joanna Pacitti american idol, Joanna Pacitti controversy, Joanna Pacitti songs

Favorite American Idol Contestants from Season 1 to 3

Season 1

Kelly Clarkson was the winner of the first season of American Idol and she went on to make deals with RCA records and then to a more independently chosen production contract. Justin Guarini was the runner up of this season.

They went on to star in a movie directed by Simon Fuller but it fared badly at the box office. Kelly Clarkson’s “breakaway” became a hit song post season win. The album breakaway featured on many nomination lists of award shows like the grammys and MTV music awards. Nikki Mcgibbin and Tamyra gray featured in the final rounds but did not win.

The Kelly Clarkson hit song “a moment like this” opened at number 52 of the billboard music countdown. Justin Guarini who became the first runner up in the first season finale went on to release the album Justin Guarini and then Stranger Things Have Happened. The more jazzy version of his albums was stranger things have happened. Unchained melody was a cover song for this album while “be a heartbreaker” and “one heart too many” were the other songs which became hits. More »

Tags: american idol contestantsa, Carmen Rasmusen updates, Corey Clark updates, Diana DeGarmo songs, Fantasia Garrino updates, Jasmine Trias concert, Josh Gracin songs, Justin Guarini updates, Ruben Studdard updates