This top five entry is submitted to us by
poor prince.
TOP FIVE MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN IDOL WINNER
TOP 5 MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN IDOL WINNER
"DAVID COOK"David Cook is the seventh season winner of American Idol. His post-
Idol self-titled album, produced by Rob Cavallo, was released on November 18, 2008 and has since been certified Platinum by the RIAA. Cook's interest in music began at a young age. He began singing in second grade, when his elementary school music teacher gave him a part in a school Christmas performance. Cook won the seventh season of
American Idol on May 21, 2008, receiving 56 percent of the votes, with 12 million votes over David Archuleta, the runner-up. Cook then sang "The Time of My Life", the winning song of the 2008
American Idol Songwriter's Competition.For the
Billboard chart week ending May 25, 2008, a week following Cook's
American Idol victory, Cook broke several
Billboard chart records. Most notable was his record shattering feat of having eleven songs debut on the Hot 100 that week, beating the previous record set by Miley Cyrus (
Hannah Montana) in 2006 when she had six songs debut on the chart.
TOP 4 MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN IDOL WINNER
"FANTASIA BARRINO"Fantasia is the third season winner of American Idol. She has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. After playing the part of Celie in the Broadway musical
The Color Purple, she has been cast to be in the film adaptation of the musical. In 2004, she released her debut single, "I Believe", which debuted at the top spot of the
Billboard Hot 100. Subsequently, she released her debut album,
Free Yourself, which went on to be certified Platinum by the
RIAA and garnered Barrino four Grammy nominations in 2006. In 2006, she released her second album,
Fantasia, which featured the number-one R&B hit "When I See U". The album was certified Gold by the RIAA and received three Grammy nominations in 2008. She then played the part of Celie in the Broadway musical
The Color Purple. Her third studio album,
Back to Me, was released worldwide on August 24, 2010 and features the top-ten R&B hit "Bittersweet".
TOP 3 MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN IDOL WINNER
"JORDIN SPARKS"Jordin Spaeks rose to fame as the winner of the sixth season of
American Idol. he followed her
American Idol victory with the release of her self-titled debut album in 2007, which has gone platinum and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Sparks' second single, "No Air", which features Chris Brown, is the song with the most paid downloads by any
American Idol contestant, selling about 4 million digital copies worldwide. Due to the success of her debut album and its four top 20 singles, she has won an American Music Award in 2008 and received her first Grammy nomination in 2009. Sparks' second album
Battlefield was released in July 2009 worldwide and debuted at #7 in the US, three spots higher than her first album. The album's lead single, also titled "Battlefield", peaked in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has sold more than a million copies thus far. Sparks has sold about 9 million singles worldwide to date. Sparks' first five singles all peaked in the top 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100, three of them peaking in the top 10.
Battlefield's second single, "S.O.S. (Let the Music Play)", was her first song to top the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play making it her first U.S. number one single.
TOP 2 MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN IDOL WINNER
"CARRIE UNDERWOOD" Carrie Underwood rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of
American Idol. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a multiple Grammy Award winner, a Grand Ole Opry inductee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and the current ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/2010). Her debut album,
Some Hearts, was certified seven times platinum, and as of February 2006, was the fastest selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. It was also the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, as of February 2008.
Some Hearts yielded three number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and a #1 hit on the
Billboard Hot 100 Songs. Her second album,
Carnival Ride, was released on October 23, 2007. It has sold over 3 million copies as of January 2010, and produced four number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. Underwood released her third album,
Play On, on November 3, 2009. It has been certified Platinum by the RIAA and has produced three number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs so far.
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN IDOL WINNER
"KELLY CLARKSON"Clarkson rose to fame after winning the first season of the television series
American Idol in 2002 and would later represent the United States in the World Idol competition in 2003. Clarkson has released four albums to date under RCA Records: her double-platinum debut album
Thankful (2003), her multi-platinum second album
Breakaway (2004) (which has won two
Grammy Awards),
My December (2007), and her latest album
All I Ever Wanted (2009). Her albums have sold over 10.5 million copies in the United States. Clarkson is the only
American Idol contestant to have reached number one in the UK. She claimed number one on March 1, 2009, when "My Life Would Suck Without You" debuted number one on downloads alone. Clarkson is also ranked on the top 200 album sellers of the Nielsen SoundScan era at number 187. Eleven of Clarkson's singles became Top Twenty hits on the
Billboard Hot 100. Her single, "My Life Would Suck Without You", advanced from No. 97 to No. 1 on the
Hot 100 in its first week of release, breaking the record for the largest leap to the top position in chart history. Clarkson has toured extensively worldwide as a solo act. Performing in other versions of
American Idol such as
Pop Idol,
Swedish Idol,
Canadian Idol and
Australian Idol. After Clarkson's appearance on the
CMT Crossroads and her duet version of "Because of You" (2007) with Reba McEntire, they co-headlined the 2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour (2008).
Billboard named Clarkson the "most successful 'American Idol' of all time", factoring in album sales, singles sales, and radio plays.