About seven months after the end of the last season of American Idol, and with under two weeks to go until Season 7 gets going, the question remains...
Where is Season 6' breakout star?
Granted, Jordin Sparks has had radio success with her single "Tattoo" (still in the Top 10 on the pop chart), and both she and Blake Lewis had respectable debut sales weeks for their respective albums. And, yes, LaKisha Jones is now on Broadway in The Color Purple, Chris Richardson and Phil Stacey are both supposedly working on albums, and Sanjaya Malakar remains a household name. While there is still plenty of time for any of these contestants to really enter into the next level of superstardom, none of them has (yet) come close to rivaling the success of the show's most famous alumni.
So...where's the Clarkson? The Underwood? The Daughtry?
You don't have to be a superstar to be successful -- Elliott Yamin, Kellie Pickler, Kimberley Locke and Bucky Covington have made very nice careers for themselves, without selling millions of albums. And, not every season's winner was an instant mega-star -- Fantasia, for example, was well-received out-of-the-gate, but it wasn't until her tour de force performance in The Color Purple that people started really taking her seriously.
Additionally, it doesn't have to be the show's winner who breaks out -- while both Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee still have a presence on the music (and movie) scene, Daughtry made it clear right from the get-go that he was a force to be reckoned with, while Jennifer Hudson took two years after her elimination from the show before she became a household name. However, none of this past season's contestants can claim they have done the same -- or that they even have the real potential to do so.
Will Melinda Doolittle release an album and become the next Norah Jones? Will Jordin's follow-up singles significantly boost her album sales? Will Chris Richardson become the next Justin Timberalke? I'm just not sure.
With Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson under their belt, there's no doubt the show has already produced huge stars, but the bigger question for the show is: is it still capable of doing so?
I believe it is, and if you buy into the hype for the upcoming season, we may find our "biggest star yet!" While that remains to be seen, I'm hoping some of this year's performers tap into whatever that intangible thing is that makes someone not just successful, but special. It's happened before -- I believe it can happen again.
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5 comments:
You didn't mention Chris Sligh. He has an amazing album coming out. He's going to become a household name.
I believe that too many are ready to push Season 6 Idols to the curve to early. Jordin is going to be around for a very long time. This girl is doing things just like she did on the show. She came out of nowhere to win it. No one would have picked her from the start. She's catches on slowly but once she's started you can't stop her. She just eighteen so give her a chance. I think you'd better watch out for others from Season 6 too.
I think it's a little too early out of the gate for any of these kids. Don't forget, Daughtry's album didn't really take off until nearly a year after he was voted off Idol. Jennifer Hudson's success took 3 years, as mentioned.
The non-winner finalists remain contractually obligated to AI until the end of Auguest, effectively preventing them from finalizing or publicizing deals in the works, then they still have another month of touring, then they must wait until both the winner and runner-up have released CD's. Most are only just now being able to truly get things in motion with their post-Idol projects and careers. You have to keep in mind that both Clarkson and Underwood were Idol winners who were able to have debut CD's in place as early as November. The other finalists do not have that luxury. So expecting them to be "breakout" stars less than 4 months after their wheels have been set in motion is a little premature and ludicrous.
People assume that the people are going to either shoot like a rocket or fizzle like a fallen star. This is near impossible to do so now that they have to stay under contract for the first year. I don't know about you but if it was me I wouldn't show all I had when I was bound by a contract that wasn't going to be going anywhere. I would wait until I could make my own rules and on my own terms. That might be what our season six finalists are doing. Waiting until they have the rights to shine.
Thanks for post!
Great article!
Much Love
Team Sanjaya
myspace.com/teamsanjaya
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