The fifth season of American Idol began on January 17, 2006, and concluded on May 24, 2006. Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, and Randy Jackson returned as judges, while Ryan Seacrest returned as host. Taylor Hicks was named the winner, while Katharine McPhee was the runner-up. 18 contestants got record deals – nine of them with major labels.
Paris Ana'is Bennett is an American singer who finished in fifth place on the fifth season of the reality television talent show, American Idol.
Kellie Dawn Pickler is an American country music singer, actress and television personality. Pickler gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of American Idol and finished in sixth place. In 2006, she signed to 19 Recordings and BNA Records as a recording artist. Her debut album, Small Town Girl, was released later that year and has sold over 900,000 copies. The album, which was certified gold by the RIAA, produced three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts: "Red High Heels" at No. 15, "I Wonder" at No. 14, and "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind" at No. 16.
William Joel "Bucky" Covington III is an American country music singer. He placed eighth on the 5th season of the Fox Network's talent competition series American Idol. In December 2006, he signed a recording contract with Lyric Street Records. His self-titled debut album, produced by Dale Oliver and Mark Miller of the band Sawyer Brown, was released on April 17, 2007. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and produced three hit singles on the Hot Country Songs charts: "A Different World" at number six, "It's Good to Be Us" at number eleven, and "I'll Walk" at number ten. Three more singles: "I Want My Life Back", "Gotta Be Somebody", and "A Father's Love ", were released for an unreleased second album, titled I'm Alright, and later included on his 2012 album, Good Guys.
Katharine Hope McPhee is an American singer-songwriter and actress. In May 2006, she was the runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol.
Ephraim Elliott Yamin is an American singer known for his hit single "Wait for You" and for placing third on the fifth season of American Idol.
Mandisa Lynn Hundley, known mononymously as Mandisa, was an American gospel and contemporary Christian recording artist. She began her solo career as a contestant in the fifth season of American Idol finishing in ninth place. Her album Overcomer won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album; she was the fifth American Idol contestant to win a Grammy.
Taylor Reuben Hicks is an American singer who won the fifth season of American Idol in May 2006. Hicks got his start as a professional musician in his late teens and performed around the Southeastern United States for well over the span of a decade, during which he also released two independent albums. Upon winning Idol, he was signed to Arista Records, under which his self-titled major label debut was released on December 12, 2006.
"Together We Are One" is a song written by Guy Chambers, Delta Goodrem and Brian McFadden, produced by Guy Chambers and Richard Flack for the album Commonwealth Games: Melbourne 2006 Opening Ceremony (2006). Due to the positive response that Goodrem received when performing the song live for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, she was then asked to record the song as a commercial single. She states the song is "for the athletes and all of us to come together and reach for our dreams and goals." It was released as a CD single in Australia on 3 April 2006 and had success on the charts, peaking at number two.
American Idol Season 5: Encores is compilation album released on May 23, 2006 and contains one cover song from each of the top 12 finalists during season 5 of the television show American Idol. It is the only American Idol album that does not feature an ensemble track by all the contestants, and is the first year in which several individual finalists made the popular music charts. The album sold over 154,000 units in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, behind the Disney Channel Original Movie's High School Musical Soundtrack and the Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way, thus becoming the best-selling debut any American Idol compilation disk. It was also number two on Top Soundtracks, number four on Top Digital Albums and number six on Top Internet.
American Idol Extra is a television show that was shown on the Fox Reality Channel and Star! and billed as "the show that picks up right where American Idol leaves off". The program featured the first full-length interview with the most recent eliminated contestant and various behind-the-scenes material.
DialIdol is both the name of a computer program for Microsoft Windows and its associated website that tracks voting trends for American Idol contestants. The program allows users to automatically vote for the American Idol contestants of their choice using their PC's modem. The program then reports back to the main website, which keeps track of the results based on the percentage of calls for each contestant that result in a busy signal. DialIdol assumes that more busy signals means more callers are attempting to vote for that contestant. DialIdol was created during the fourth season of American Idol and was released to the public at the start of the fifth season.
Little Memphis Blues Orchestra is the band formerly known as the Taylor Hicks Band, assembled by Taylor Hicks about two years before he won American Idol in 2006. The band was initially formed in Alabama, but has since based themselves throughout the Southern United States and, later, nationwide. The band features Brian Less on keyboard/piano/vocals, Sam Gunderson on lead guitar/vocals, Mitch Jones on bass guitar, Zippy Dietrich on drums/vocals, and Jeff Lopez on saxophone/backing vocals.
This is a comprehensive listing of official post-Idol releases by various contestants of the television show American Idol.
American Idols Live! Tour 2005 was a summer concert tour in the United States featuring the top 10 contestants of the fourth season of American Idol, which aired in 2005. It was sponsored by Kellogg Pop-Tarts. It followed in the tradition of other American Idol summer tours following the completion of each season in May. After the poor attendance of the tour the previous year, the tour was scaled down somewhat. Forty dates were initially planned, four more dates were however later added. An extra show was further added at the end of the tour as a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina which struck Mississippi two weeks earlier.
"Best Days of Your Life" is a song performed by American country music artist Kellie Pickler. It was written by Pickler and American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift who also provides background vocals on the song. It was released on December 1, 2008, as the second single from Kellie Pickler's self-titled second album. The song is about a narrator explaining how her former boyfriend cheated on her and moved on to a new girlfriend to start a family with, wishing them well on their new life but says that the new girl won't top what they previously once had before.
This page lists only acting roles and other projects undertaken in film, television and theater in the post-Idol career of American Idol contestants. It does not include guest musical performances or interviews on TV shows, or any pre-Idol work. It is also not intended to be a comprehensive list of all acting roles, appearances, awards nominated or won by any particular alum. Where there are multiple entries, only the more significant may be listed. Please see the appropriate links and references for individual alum for such more complete lists.
