American Idol’s fifth season is what many fans consider as the season that discovered and produced the best crop of contestants ever on the show. The top five contestants had a lot going for each and everyone of them as they appealed to different genres and demographics. The final five featured a young and vibrant Paris Bennet who had soul music intertwined with her genes, the bald hard-rocking Chris Daughtry, the soulful crooner Elliot Yamin, the sultry Katharine McPhee and the energetic gray-headed firecracker, Taylor Hicks. Last year, everyone was saying that these five were going to have great careers. With all of them having released their debut albums, let’s check out how they’ve been doing in the sales department, shall we?

Paris Bennet released her debut album Princess P April 24 and she has proven that she definitely belongs to Season Five. The season has had seven former contestants who have entered the Billboard Charts (the top five along with Kellie Pickler and Bucky Covington) and Bennet is the latest one to do so. Her album peaked at#133 in the Bilboard 200 – Billboard’s list of the 200 current best selling albums.

Needless to say, Chris Daughtry’s untimely elimination last year was one of the most shocking events in American Idol history. That bitter moment has surely been eased by Chris Daughtry’s present success as a frontman for a band that bears his last name. Daughtry’s eponymous album was released November 2006 and since then it has been topping the charts both for albums and tracks. The album sold over 304,000 copies in its first week beating out Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee’s albums’ opening sales. To date, the album has sold close to 3 million units worldwide. This makes him the most successful contestant to have never made it to the finale. As of this writing, Daughtry is still at #10 – 26 weeks after its release.

Elliot Yamin’s eponymous album released March 20, 2007 debuted at #3 in the Billboard 200 chart. Two months after its release, the season’s third placer seems to be holding up well with sales that continue to hold his album at a robust #20 in the Billboard charts. This makes Yamin the second best selling Season Five contestant as of the moment and the third best over all behind eventual winner Hicks and breakout success Daughtry.

The season’s runner up Katharine McPhee started out strong with sales of over 116,000 units in the first week but follow-up sales were weak for the California native. Her album – released January 20 of this year — is nowhere to be found on the Billboard charts. Though a lot of magazines and tv shows have given her accolades for her drop dead gorgeous looks, her records haven’t been exactly flying off the racks. Maybe they wanted a different type of rack.

He will always be maligned for not being the best-selling artist from his season, but Taylor Hicks has done a decent job so far. Aside from going platinum in his self-titled album, the gray-haird Southerner has also had a string of sold out concerts under his belt.  Many observers agree that Hicks’ album didn’t exactly showcase what he could do as artist and was probably the result of meddlesome producers from the American Idol franchise. Fortunately, Hicks still brings it to the stage everytime he performs in front of a live audience. At the end of the day, it is definitely a soul thing that is better conveyed through the electricity of a charged live performance

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7 Responses

  1. ZigZag

    30|May|2007

    I don’t remember anyone saying these five were going to have great careers so why are you implying it. I heard many say Kellie Pickler would have a great career being as multitalented as she is but as for the others I only heard praise from their own fan bases.

    Looking at the albums the contestant’s put out I can clearly see who came through with an album the people really like. All I have to do is look at all the reviews their fans left over at Amazon and one can clearly see that many of them did not like how their favorite’s album came out. Chris, Taylor, Kat, and Elliott all have many bad reviews left by their own fans. Paris and Bucky’s album just came out so there aren’t that many reviews to go by.

    The only contestant I see that gave their fans an album they truly like is Kellie Pickler because when I look at all of her reviews I can’t find one where her fan said they weren’t happy with the music she produced. That probably explains why she became the best selling new country solo artist for 2006. If that isn’t a good start to a great career then I don’t know what is.

    Having Kellie co-write many of her songs was a brilliant move. Letting her choose the remainder of the songs was a good move as well because it made the whole album more personal unlike the cheesy cookie cutter albums Idol is sometimes known for.

    As for the final four, if their fans reviews over at Amazon are any indication of their future careers I don’t see much hope for any having much success less well a long one.

    As for Kellie, her music career has already proven to be a success, and with the comedic personality she has I’m sure that will prove just as successful as well. She has already been promised work in her own TV series so it looks like she is off to a good start there. Playing both fields will only increase her popularity in both.

    You want to talk about the final five, be my guest, I don’t see much to talk about. You want to talk about who is looking forward to a great future career you need to look no further than Kellie Dawn Pickler. Because seeing how she is giving her fans what they want a great career is already in her destiny.

  2. Amanda

    30|May|2007

    Let’s review this article in 5 years from now. the only successful person here will be Grammy and Oscar winner Katharine McPhee

  3. ZigZag

    30|May|2007

    Oh, and for the record, Kellie is right now the third best selling Season Five contestant and at the rate she is going will probably be the second best selling very shortly. Those are the stats when you include all 12 Idol finalist. Unlike the post above.

  4. Benj Espina

    31|May|2007

    Interestingly, Pickler is probably the most vilified character from AI Season 5.

  5. ganns

    01|Jun|2007

    Hicks’ album has not been certified platinum, Sir. To date, it has sold a little under 700,000 copies. The RIAA may have shipped a m million, but to date, Hicks is still the first Idol winner to not have sold a million copies of his debut album.

  6. Benj Espina

    01|Jun|2007

    From Arista Records

    NEW YORK, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ — American Idol’s current reigning
    champion Taylor Hicks is now a platinum recording artist. His self-titled
    debut album TAYLOR HICKS (Arista Records/19 Recordings) was certified
    platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America selling over one
    million copies since its release on December 12, 2006.
    Hicks has reached this coveted platinum milestone prior to the release
    of an official single. The first single, “Just To Feel That Way,” goes to
    radio this week.

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