The fifth season of reality television singing competition American Idol began on January 17, 2006, and concluded on May 24, 2006. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell returned to judge, and Ryan Seacrest returned to host. It is the most successful season to date ratings-wise, and resulted in 18 contestants getting record deals – nine of them with major labels. Taylor Hicks was named the winner over runner-up Katharine McPhee, making him the first male to win against a female in the finals.
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, songwriter, 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.
Brett"Ace"Young is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He gained national recognition while appearing on the fifth season of American Idol. Young is married to American Idol season-three runner-up Diana DeGarmo.
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 rose to fame as the runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol.
Efraym 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 professionally as Mandisa, is an American gospel and contemporary Christian recording artist. Her career began as a contestant in the fifth season of American Idol, in which she finished in ninth place. She is the fifth American Idol alumna to win a Grammy Award, for her album Overcomer in the Best Contemporary Christian Music Album category.
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.
Lisa Gabrielle Tucker is an American singer, musical theater actress, and television actress who was the tenth-place finalist on the fifth season of American Idol. At the age of 10, she landed the role as Young Nala in the Los Angeles production of The Lion King.
"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. Taylor Hicks assembled the band 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.
The Fearless Tour was the first headlining concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, launched in support of her second studio album, Fearless (2008). Big Machine Records announced the first 52-date North American leg in January 2009, and before the tour began on April 23, 2009, in Evansville, U.S., Swift had headlined many music festivals through North America. Through 2009, Swift announced additional dates for the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan, and the Fearless Tour concluded on July 10, 2010, in Cavendish, Canada. Kellie Pickler, Gloriana, and Justin Bieber were supporting acts.
The American Idols Live! Tour 2002 was a fall concert tour featuring the top ten contestants of the inaugural season of American Idol, which aired earlier that year. The tour visited 30 cities across the United States starting October 8, 2002 in San Diego, and became the template for concerts tours following each of the succeeding American Idol seasons. Select performances of Clarkson are also released in the Miss Independent DVD album in 2003.
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.
